Overview
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Becker Studios Construction has a quick QuickBooks transformation
About Becker Studios Construction
Becker Studios Construction specializes in interior design, construction, estate management, and real estate consulting services. And as new Accounting Manager Jeremy Patterson discovers, they might as well also have specialized in invoice volume — more than 1,200 a month, and all of it processed manually.
The Challenge & Solution
Challenge
Paper, paper everywhere
Residential construction means lots of contractors, and percentage billing means lots of invoices. Becker Studios was processing a staggering 250-300 invoices a week, and they were doing it the old-fashioned way — with reams of paper, endless hunts for approver signatures, and filing cabinets full of paperwork going back beyond a decade.
When Jeremy Patterson joined Becker Studios in August, 2022, he knew it was time to embrace AP automation. Jeremy had automated AP at a previous company, and he knew that to keep pace with the company’s growth and to streamline their operations, automation would have to come to Becker Studios as well.
At his previous company, implementation had been complicated, especially since it was on top of Netsuite. Becker Studios uses Quickbooks Desktop to manage its 13 entities, which implied a simpler integration process. However, he did not have experience with Stampli. Would it be disruptive to transition the entire company to a new way of processing invoices? Would there be a learning curve for everyone involved, including himself?
Solution
One week later, no more paper
“It was less than a week,” Jeremy happily told us. “Really, the whole setup process and the integration process was probably just a couple of days, and that included having to go out and buy a dedicated Quickbooks server (which we should have had to begin with) and the time it took to get my entire staff and the owners on board and comfortable with Stampli.”
The integration with QuickBooks Desktop was as easy as Jeremy could have hoped. “Everything was pretty straightforward, including the one field that I needed to customize on the dashboard.”
Training was just as easy. Coders found the Stampli interface to be very intuitive, reducing the learning curve significantly. For approvers, many of whom were in the field and varied in tech-savviness, the training was equally straightforward. A brief 20 to 30-minute session was all it took for them to grasp the new system.
But what truly set Stampli apart was the knowledge its team had — both about AP in general and about Quickbooks in particular. Jeremy frequently highlighted the invaluable assistance of Adrian and his team, who made the implementation process feel more like a partnership than a transactional software deployment.
In less than a week, Becker Studios Construction had not only transitioned to an automated AP system but had also enhanced its operational efficiency, all thanks to Stampli’s commitment to rapid and seamless implementation.
“It was practically plug and play,” says Jeremy. “We didn’t really have to do a whole lot of work on our end.”
Hear it from the customer
Before Stampli, I was just running AP and putting out fires left and right. Now I’m able to actually manage the department to help the business.
Bottom Line
Keeping the ERP as the source of truth
When a company becomes a customer, Stampli imports all essential data, including general ledgers (GLs), classes, customer lists, and bank account listings. Going forward, this data is continuously synchronized and updated throughout the day, every day. This dynamic synchronization ensures that users, when coding or inputting data, can easily navigate through Stampli’s interface and select the required fields. “It’s the same exact thing as entering it into QuickBooks,” said Jeremy. Users still maintain data integrity and accuracy, without having to access the ERP directly for AP tasks.
Better visibility means greater trust
“Before Stampli, nobody actually viewed invoices until they got to the billing side — which was already too late in many cases, because they may have already been paid,” says Jeremy. This lack of early visibility posed challenges in managing contracts and understanding the services being paid for. With Stampli, owners now have a clear, upfront view of all invoices, services, and subcontractor costs. This transparency ensures that when it’s time for billing, there are no surprises. Clients are informed in advance about impending charges, streamlining the process and reducing delays in accounts receivables. This proactive approach is crucial for Becker Studios, ensuring timely billing and fostering trust with their clients.
3.5x ROI in labor + more value strategically
Jeremy’s assessment of Stampli’s ROI for Becker Studios is twofold, encompassing both direct cost savings and strategic value. Firstly, the direct cost savings are evident: by investing in Stampli to automate invoice capture, expense allocation, payment approval workflows, fraud detection, and other sensitive tasks, Becker Studios avoids the cost of hiring a full-time AP clerk — which Jeremy calculates as a 4X ROI on labor costs alone. Beyond these tangible savings, the strategic value of Stampli is measured in the time reclaimed for Jeremy and his team for more strategic projects. “Before Stampli, I was just running AP and putting out fires left and right,” he says. “Now I’m able to actually manage the department to help the business.”
Closing the books made easy
In the past, preparing bills for clients has involved sifting through stacks of invoices, often stored in physical filing cabinets, to identify and collate all relevant charges for specific customers. This process can be time-consuming and prone to errors. However, with Stampli’s advanced search capabilities, Jeremy can effortlessly locate all invoices related to a particular customer, streamlining the billing process. This not only ensures accuracy but also expedites the entire billing cycle. “This is an example of how the cost savings multiplies, in addition to the direct employee savings!”
How Becker Studios Stepped It Up
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