Everyday, women in the construction industry are excelling at their jobs and helping their companies succeed. In celebration of Women in Construction week, we want to highlight some incredible women professionals who have become “payment heroes” where they work.
What is a payment hero? In short, someone who gets their company paid. A payment hero recognizes challenges their company is having when it comes to getting paid and then takes steps to change the way payments are collected — bringing in more money, faster. These heroes go above and beyond their daily tasks to create better relationships with their customers.
Hundreds of our Levelset customers are hard-working and innovative women who fall into the category of a payment hero — it would take us months to highlight them all! They work in accounting, credit management, administration, contracts, and other departments that are vital to construction business operations and cash flow.
In the spirit of Women in Construction week, we wanted to offer a glimpse at a few of these payment heroes. We hope this serves as an inspiration because, with the right mindset, anyone can become their company’s payment hero!
Wendy Hilton | Contracts Administrator | Concrete Related Products
How she became a payment hero: Wendy wears multiple hats in her role at a rebar supply company. After dealing with slow payments month after month, Wendy took charge. She took steps to educate herself on best practices for sending notices and filing mechanics liens so she could protect the company’s payments.
After partnering with Levelset to send out Texas monthly notices each month, Wendy lowered their average payment collection time from 127 days to 50 days.
Heroic words of wisdom: “In our weekly meetings when I report to my boss and our investors, I have confidence in sharing our total accounts receivable and the steps I have in place to collect past due payments. I look like a hero every week because Levelset does all the work, but I get to take all of the credit.”
Joan Elmore | Accounts Receivable Specialist | US Glass & Glazing
How she became a payment hero: When Joan started out at her company, there were several outstanding payments and it took hours each week for her to handle receivables. Joan knew that she could both make it easier for customers to make payments AND manage accounts receivable more efficiently.
Joan started sending preliminary notices on every job to make it easy for customers to know to make payments, and she started sending out a friendly email as part of her AR process to explain these notices to their customers and keep those relationships positive.
Now, Joan only spends one hour per week on receivables, and she has cut down on stressful conversations with customers.
Heroic words of wisdom: “I don’t have any stress because I know that I’m on top of payments and that we’re going to stay within our lien rights. I send the preliminary notices, and I set my reminders. I can be cheerful on the phone with the customers because I just know that we’re going to be fine, and I’ll file everything on time. My boss even told me how much better receivables has gotten!”
Janelle Morrow | Administrative Assistant | Brewer Crane & Rigging
How she became a payment hero: Janelle works for a company located in California where they are required to send a preliminary notice to the owner, general contractor, and lender within 20 days of first providing materials or labor to protect their lien rights.
With the high volume of projects each month, Janelle set her sights on creating an easy process for her team to track the status of their notices and payment paperwork.
Janelle decided to use software to automate the notice process and, as a result, she made it much easier for her team to see what actions she has taken to collect payment and when. Plus, by streamlining the notice process, Janelle is no longer dealing with “problem customers” as often.
Heroic words of wisdom: “Now I can more easily help customers understand what they’re getting on the preliminary notice… Those clients that we would have difficulty collecting payment from aren’t popping up as much. I think our collection time on those particular customers has gone down about 30 percent.”
Ellie Holman | Office Administrator | Holman Inc.
How she became a payment hero: As a working mom, Ellie works hard to balance her job and her life outside of work. At the top of her priorities is keeping up with lien rights paperwork so that her company gets paid on time. Because Ellie is proactive in tracking lien and notice deadlines to protect lien rights, in an instance where the company was owed $9,000 and hadn’t been paid, Ellie was able to file a lien and collect payments.
Heroic words of wisdom: “If we hadn’t filed the lien, this guy would’ve never paid us. So, because we had our lien filed, it held up the whole project and held up everyone getting paid. I had their banks calling me, and we got it worked out. We got our money.”
Amy Williams | Assistant Credit Manager | Pacific Plumbing & Supply
How she became a payment hero: As the assistant credit manager at a regional plumbing wholesaler, Amy has a ton of responsibilities revolving around creating job accounts, making collection calls, setting up credit applications, and managing customer relationships. Amy and her team know all about the benefits of sending notices on all jobs, even when they aren’t required.
She uses software to quickly and easily send out these notices, and in turn, she has helped the credit and AR department become more organized and efficient when it comes to getting paid and sending payment paperwork.
Heroic words of wisdom: “I attended a seminar on job accounts, liens, and preliminary notices, and I learned that it doesn’t hurt to send notices to everybody. So now I always send those notices because even if the laws are different, it might get our customers’ attention to pay us.”
Ready to become the payment hero at your company?
Whether you are a woman working at a construction business or just want to empower the women on your team, Levelset is here to create more payment heroes in this industry. Schedule a call with us today to learn how you can use lien rights management software to collect payments faster and protect your business.
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