GCS-SIGAL finds peace of mind and profits with Procore Pay

The Challenge

Outdated technology solutions were making it tough for GCS-SIGAL, a general contractor in Washington, DC, to manage invoices from specialty contractors. The process was overly complex, particularly for busy project management teams, and required a lot of manual labor that could fall through the cracks. The state of invoices was not always clear, creating tension with specialty contractors and slowing down projects.

The Solution

When GCS-SIGAL was given the chance to test out Procore Pay, they discovered how easy and stress-free invoice fulfillment could be. Procore Pay eliminated the manual work, reduced complexity and gave everyone – including specialty contractors – visibility into the process. As a result, they were able to ditch their legacy invoice fulfillment solution and focus on the integration between Procore and their ERP, streamlining the process and giving everyone peace of mind.

The Results

• 5 business days saved on invoice fulfillment with Procore Pay, streamlining invoicing and document tracking
• Less time spent tracking invoices, allowing teams to focus on completing work faster
• $85,000 saved annually in time, materials, and software, driving GCS-SIGAL toward its $250 million revenue goal by 2025

A family business gets a fresh start, with technology at the center

Formed in 2018 through the merger of SIGAL Construction Corporation and Georgetown Construction Services, GCS-SIGAL is a community-focused general contractor that specializes in government buildings, multi-family housing and commercial interiors throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. It’s also a family affair — President Mike Sigal grew up learning the business from his dad, founder Gerry Sigal.

Though GCS-SIGAL had taken early steps toward digitizing, it had been years since they had updated their technology stack, leading to gaps in essential processes and a lot of frustrated workers. When Mike Sigal took the reins in 2018, he along with newly minted Partners, Dan Waldo and Gabe Oliver, made it a priority to find new efficiencies by putting technology at the center of the firm. The first step was finding a management platform that would be intuitive enough for everyone on the team to use.

Once they demoed Procore, they knew they’d found their solution. “It felt like something that everyone on the team could get into and understand,” says Sabir Syed, Director of Finance. “You don’t have to ask questions, you don’t need a cheat sheet, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time. It’s clear where everything is and what you need to do.”

An ERP integration saves time and reduces stress

After seeing the benefits of using Procore for operations, the company decided to use it for their project budgets, change orders and invoice management as well. That meant a three-way integration between Procore, their ERP (Vista) and their legacy subcontractor invoicing platform (GCPay).

The ERP integration quickly paid off. Though the company was happy with Vista as an accounting platform, project managers had always found it cumbersome to use. “If they had to process a change order, they probably had a booklet somewhere that walked them through the process,” says Syed. “But the general attitude was, ‘Don’t make me go in there.’” Getting things done would often require the project managers to enlist the help of Accounting, creating extra work for already busy employees.

As a result, critical tasks had been falling through the cracks, leaving the company exposed to all kinds of risks. Once Procore was integrated with the ERP, project managers found themselves able to complete their tasks without assistance. “I think we've definitely saved a lot of time and energy and mental stress for our operations team,” says Syed. The integration also put vital, up-to-the-minute information in the hands of the field team, making it easier for them to make decisions and communicate with specialty contractors and owners.

But the complexity of the three-way integration, particularly with GCPay, was a headache. Three different platforms meant three different log-ins, and moving information from Procore down into GCPay required manual work that was easy to overlook. Plus, GCPay left too many potential compliance essentials to chance. “A subcontractor could upload a blank PDF, and as far as GCPay knows, that compliance item was taken care of,” says Syed. “There was a blind spot there, and unless we were checking that again on our end, it could get missed.”

Eventually, a specialty contractor started complaining that they hadn’t been paid. After some investigating, Syed discovered that they had submitted their invoice to GCPay, but the company wasn’t seeing it. “Somewhere in the process of exporting data out of GCPay and into Vista, that invoice didn’t make its way to where it needed to go,” says Syed. “It made us realize that there were just too many cooks in the kitchen.”

Procore Pay reduces complexity and helps everyone sleep at night

When GCS-SIGAL was given the opportunity to participate in an early test for Procore Pay, an extension of Procore Invoice Management that helps streamline payment readiness, compliance and digital payment processing, they jumped at the chance. Procore Pay eliminated the manual process of exporting and importing between platforms and allowed them to stop using GCPay, leaving the company with a simple two-way integration between Procore and Vista.

“Now invoices are getting created in Procore and pushed down into Vista with the click of a button,” says Syed. “It’s one source of truth as far as invoices go, and there’s no chance of them getting lost.”

With Procore Pay, project managers have the visibility to manage invoices without help from Accounting and the ability to download any documents they need to communicate with speciality contractors, like lien waivers or COIs. It also gives the specialty contractors increased visibility, helping reduce the amount of time wasted on back-and-forth conversations about “missing” payments. “It's helping the bottom line for the project, because things are getting done quicker,” says Syed.

Procore Pay is also helping save on labor costs. “Without it, we probably would have had to hire another person in our Accounting department,” says Syed. Instead, he estimates that everyone in the department is saving about an hour a week, and the time it takes them to pay subs has been reduced by at least five business days.

“It’s definitely helping me sleep better at night,” he says.

The same is true for Olivia Hemme, GCS-SIGAL’s Controller. “Now I have the confidence that the processes are being followed as outlined so it takes significantly less time and effort to approve and export,” she says.

A greater focus on the bottom line

Overall, GCS-SIGAL estimates that they’ve realized $25,000 of annual time and material savings and $60,000 in annual software savings by using Procore. The old inefficiencies are gone, relationships with specialty contractors are improved, and Syed’s team is spending less time putting out fires and more time on strategic initiatives that move the company forward.

It’s also helped them achieve long-term financial goals. In 2020, the company set a goal to reach $250 million in revenue by the end of 2025. As of today, they are on pace to get there. “Procore is a big part of that, because we wouldn't be on this path without the efficiencies we’ve gained,” says Syed.

The lesson that Syed takes from the experience? Be brave when it comes to transformation.“Don't be afraid to break things,” he says. “It was that mindset that helped us discover which technologies were going to push us forward.”

“Not only are we going to reach $250 million in revenue, we’re going to improve our net income percentages,” he adds. “At the end of the day, there’s no point to doubling revenues if your profit is staying the same. That’s why efficiency matters.”