Company: $5.6M residential and commercial lawn service provider

Value Problem: Poor Cash Flow Procedures.

What Wasn’t Working

• Paper work orders were received in the office 2-3 days after the service was performed (sent to office out of state).  
• Billing clerks typed in work orders and then ran invoices for the customer.  Sent invoices via US Mail to customers.  
• Customers sent checks to a PO BOX, which was picked up everyday and then sent to the office (out of state) to be posted to their account. 
• Checks were deposited into the company account. A/R average days were 57 days.

New Procedure:  

• Instituted tablet work orders so once work was completed and signed off by technicians, the customer was immediately invoiced electronically.  
• Accepted credit card payments electronically which posted to the customers account and was deposited into the company account. 

Result:  

• No more wasted time doing work order input or pulling of invoices or mailing of invoices. 
• No more manual posting of invoices and payment to customer accounts (all done electronically).  
• Deposit completed electronically.  
• A/R average days were 57 and with these new procedures reduced to 28.  
• Customers were immediately electronically notified when work was done at their home creating an invoice and improved customer service.  
• Eliminated the need for billing clerks who became inside sales representatives increasing the number of new accounts.

Value Driver: By increasing cash flow and reducing expense the value of the company was increased, and the company was positioned to scale.