MW Builders cuts lien waiver management time with Oracle Textura Payment Management
September 13, 2021 | 5 minute readMW Builders is a nationally respected commercial construction company with its roots firmly planted in midwestern (MW) values. The team delivers preconstruction, design-build, general construction, and construction management services.
MW Builders leapt up the Engineering News-Record Top 400 Contractors List by 28 spots between 2019-2020—and jumped another 40 spots in 2021. As the organization grows, investing in the people and communities the construction company serves is their most important priority.
The construction company also wisely planned their information technology strategy to support their growing business—including rolling out an enterprise-wide ERP solution in 2018 and adopting Oracle Textura Payment Management in early 2019. MW Builders chose Oracle Textura to best serve their stakeholders, from owners and lenders, to subcontractors and suppliers. The outcome: a competitive edge, a boost in productivity, and continuing trust from up and down the supply chain.
Midwestern roots, national growth
Owner requirements regarding lien waivers, pay applications, and compliance documents have become more sophisticated as MW Builders tackles an increasing number of projects—many of which are larger. The increased project number and size impacts not just MW Builders, but also their subcontractors.
Recent diverse projects include: a new manufacturing facility for United Alloy in Seguin, TX; The Vue on University, a student housing complex in Charlotte, NC; and Haven at the Gulch, a multifamily project in Nashville, TN. MW Builders is currently working on a variety of projects in other regions of the U.S., often traveling for their clients wherever the construction company is needed.
Manual billing, payment lien waivers, and compliances processes can be intensely time-consuming to manage with demands from different owners, jobs, states, and subcontractors—including ensuring the subcontractors use the right forms and provide the correct information and documents month after month.
| Subcontractor invoice submission | From a week to under a day |
| Subcontractor invoices requiring resubmission | From 20% to under 1% |
| Subcontractor invoice approvals | Sped from over 5 days to under 1 day |
| Subcontractor payments | An average of 2 weeks faster |
| Payment application processing time | 75% faster |
| Payment cycle | 2 weeks faster |
Streamlining processes
MW Builders decided to use Oracle Textura Payment Management to simplify and automate billing. This construction payment management tool would streamline processes, ensuring subcontractors don’t have to worry about payments so they can focus on their work.
Oracle Textura Payment Management, a cloud-based solution, streamlines construction finance processes for accurate, efficient billing, fast payment, and effective compliance management throughout the supply chain. The Oracle solution ensures that delivery teams are paid on time and that general contractors and owners have full visibility into downstream payments to minimize disruption.
“Subcontractor markets are extremely competitive, and we strive to partner with the best. Oracle Textura gives us an advantage by providing additional levels of transparency, and we can get subcontractors and suppliers paid quicker,” says Sam Whetstone, senior project manager at MW Builders.
Faster subcontractor and supplier payments
Subcontractor and supplier payments have scaled down from 20-30 days to just three. And that’s not a one-time result, it’s every month, for each billing and payment cycle.
Increasing productivity, compounded monthly over the life of a project, helps MW Builders to grow rapidly without adding accounting headcount to handle payments. Because now with Oracle Textura, the whole process is streamlined: subcontractors create their invoice and sign their pay applications electronically.
The Oracle system collects unconditional lien waivers on the general contractor's behalf. Oracle Textura routes payment requests to the general contractor for review and approval, tracks compliance requirements such as insurance forms, safety reports, certified payroll, etc., and exchanges unconditional lien waivers for an automated clearing house (ACH) payment.
“Subcontractor markets are extremely competitive, and we strive to partner with the best. Oracle Textura gives us an advantage by providing additional levels of transparency, and we can get subcontractors and suppliers paid quicker.”
-Sam Whetstone, Senior Project Manager, MW Builders
Everyone in the supply chain benefits
Subcontractors appreciate knowing they’ll receive their payment on time. Owners also benefit from Oracle Textura because they have lien waivers within three days of payment and the sworn statements submitted within five days. All this information will be ready for the next payment cycle.
Plus, owners never have to worry about material delays from delayed payments. Lenders also benefit because they can trust that all lien waivers on the projects they are funding are collected in a timely manner.
MW Builders’ project teams are no longer wasting time chasing down documents. Instead, project teams are increasing productivity by 24 hours per project, per month. Turnaround on lien waiver collection decreased from 20-30 days to three. The internal process to enter pay applications has also dropped from a weeklong process to a day or less by integrating the ERP system and eliminating manual data entry.
Strategic business partnership
In fact, integrating to the ERP system, along with collecting signed unconditional current period lien waivers in exchange for electronic payment, were why MW Builders chose Oracle Textura as a strategic technology partner. The construction company can now focus on their business strategy and accelerated growth.
Oracle Construction and Engineering, the global leader in construction management software and project portfolio management solutions, helps you connect your teams, processes, and data across the project and asset lifecycle. Drive efficiency and control in project delivery with proven solutions for project controls, construction scheduling, portfolio management, BIM/CDE, construction payment management, and more.
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Lucie Trepanier
Product Marketing Director
Lucie is an experienced technology marketing professional with a current focus on payment and cost-related products in Oracle's construction and engineering global business unit. At Oracle, her work in product marketing is centered on customer engagement and creating the right content to support our customers.
She has over 20 years experience in engineering, product management, marketing, project management, and sales. She holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and an MBA, from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and can be found most nights at the dance studio, prepping for her next ballroom competition.
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