K L Masters builds its new company with the help of Oracle Textura

K L Masters Construction is a new general contractor providing ground-up construction in the Tri-State area of New Jersey, Connecticut, and New York.

Launched in 2021 and specializing in mixed-use multifamily structures including apartments and hotels, the dynamic, family-oriented builder quickly is making a name for itself with project teams working on multiple multimillion-dollar projects.

“It’s certainly exciting times around here,” says Steve Mallardi, controller at the Stamford, Connecticut-based company.

When K L Masters took over several jobs from a previous firm that failed during the pandemic, their payment management processes were entirely manual. Mallardi recalls the difficulties with manual AIA billings and knew the process needed an automated solution as the company was poised to grow quickly. He looked at several options, but Mallardi had worked with construction payment management application Oracle Textura from previous stops and sought out information that he could present to company President Kyle Masters.

“The manual processes were taking up too much of our time and we couldn’t use our expertise and knowledge to work in other areas of the business for future success,” Mallardi says. “I felt that with my prior experience using Oracle Textura at other firms, it was definitely the decision to make. The efficiency Oracle Textura would provide to run our business from a pay application and payment standpoint to our subcontractors was a good selling pitch to the company. It was an easy sell for me.”

Automation becomes a valuable time-saver

With eight projects currently underway and two new jobs potentially on the horizon later in 2023, time is crucial for Mallardi and his accounting team of three. He estimates that they process 20 to 25 pay apps per job every month. When the process was still manual—checks to their subcontractors also were cut by hand—it was “challenging.”

The laborious manual processes ended with Oracle Textura’s implementation in early 2022. Not only is Mallardi’s team now saving time in accounting, but their project managers also get valuable time back in their day.

“Oracle Textura has cut off at least two to three days in the process,” Mallardi says. “By spearheading a better process to streamline our AR/AP flow using Oracle Textura for both processing and paying our subcontractors invoices (and also utilizing our time in other aspects), we can take on more work as a company.”

Owner billing in Oracle Textura

K L Masters also does its owner billing in Oracle Textura, linking the cost to budget lines. Using a customized waiver, owners review the reqs in the same manner as Mallardi’s team. Owners then send it to their lender with their costs as well, so they know the numbers are accurate. 

“The owners love it because when it’s a uniform process, they get the same documents for all projects,” he says. “It’s all in the same format. They know the numbers are accurate.”

Integrating Oracle Textura and Sage Intacct

Mallardi also uses cloud financial management software Sage Intacct as its system of record to which Oracle Textura integrates. The integration automates data exchange and eliminates the manual import/export of information between systems for contracts, change orders, compliance status, invoices, payments, and draw documents.

The implementation set up a three-way connector between Sage Intacct, Oracle Textura, and their construction management software. Any change order that is generated in the construction management software goes into Sage Intacct and then right into Oracle Textura. Similarly, for pay apps approved in, and payments disbursed from Oracle Textura, the bi-directional data transfer ensures that the information is always accurate and up to date in all systems.

“That’s helped building our ledger,” he says. “Our cost is coming down the ledger directly from Oracle Textura where with previous jobs and pay apps, that wasn’t the case. That was a manual process.”

Sage Intacct was a clear choice for K L Masters, as it included financial reports and financial statements already built in the software. Mallardi expects to be able to generate reports, P&L, balance sheets, etc., with the click of a button.

“The combination of Oracle Textura integrated with Sage Intacct is a winning solution for K L Masters. It’s efficient and a big time-saver for our people.”

Partnering with the subcontractors

While the region’s subcontractors may be familiar with K L Masters’ predecessors, Mallardi emphasized their commitment as a new company to act as partners doing everything in their power to provide the subs with top-notch services that allow them to be successful on their end. That includes implementing Oracle Textura so they are paid accurately and on time.

Most of their subcontractors previously have used Oracle Textura and appreciate its ease of use.

“We want our subcontractors to know that we're doing our due diligence to give them the best software and services because they're doing the same for us on our projects,” he says.

A smooth implementation of Oracle Textura

Mallardi recalls that the Oracle Textura implementation occurred first, followed by Sage Intacct. The most difficult part of the Oracle Textura implementation came with the active jobs, taking everything in Excel and uploading it into the system—not only for owner billing but for every subcontractor.

“It was a manual process and there was a lot of legwork to do, but I knew what the benefits would be once we were done,” Mallardi says. “The Oracle team provided Grade A service to me to help get this done. I can’t thank that team enough because it’s changed the landscape of our business.”

K L Masters President Kyle Masters echoed the simplicity and professionalism that accompanied the Oracle Textura implementation.

Masters says, “Very happy with Textura and the ability to streamline our payment requisition process for both our clients and our subcontractors. And the service that we get from Oracle is top of the line.”

See Oracle Textura in action and find out why contractors of all sizes choose this solution to increase productivity and mitigate risk.