When Matt Andersen finished 20 years in public accounting and joined then-client Superior Masonry Unlimited as CFO in 2022, his first task was to modernize the specialty contractor’s accounting systems. This effort would use cloud-based Sage Intacct combined with Stampli, an artificial intelligence accounts payable processor,
“We had an accounting system hosted on premises, on a server,” says Andersen. Like many specialty contractors, the Fort Mill, SC-based company’s on-premises software lacked an application program interface (API) connection, and field management software was out of the question. Andersen saw a software corruption problem in 2022 as a perfect opportunity to update this system. “We look at technology and build something that helps us become the company we want to be,” he says.
Andersen wanted accounting software with an open API that would allow Superior to join its estimating and preconstruction departments with project management so that bids and budgets could flow between the two. Also common in specialist companies, paper invoices accumulate in Superior. “A big problem with this company, and I know with others, is accounts payable processing,” he says. “It was a heavy paper load.”
Accounts payable automation connected to an API that was connected to Superior’s construction and accounting management platform was “low-hanging fruit,” Andersen says.
Rethink the process
Procore was Superior’s construction management platform that its accounting team used, along with cloud-based Sage Intacct, to provide field employees with access to purchase orders, plans and communication tools. But they still needed an accounts payable-enabled tool to automate many paper invoices, Andersen explains.
“We started evaluating AP automation platforms, and probably after about three months of research, we came across Stampli,” he says, noting discussions with that company’s experts “about how they’re leveraging AI to help speed up the process.”
Andersen says Stampli was about to use AI to run Superior’s entire accounts payable process, matching invoices to purchase orders. “It was a no-brainer for us,” he says, noting that a task that used to be “about a 40-hour-a-week effort” is now down to about four hours with Stampli’s AI.
Stampli software digitally captures invoice data using optical character recognition and a large language model that allows customers like Superior to include project data such as invoice and purchase order numbers, allowing the It will match them automatically.
Andersen says Superior no longer considers its accounts payable system separate from its construction management or accounting systems. Connecting more systems is the future of the company, he explains. “We are building the company, not as we are today, but as we will be in the future,” he says. “We’re probably ahead of where we need to be, but that’s the mindset we have: Let’s fix problems before they’re problems.”
Using cloud-based Sage Intacct provides superior flexibility for your project managers to request information and view relevant submissions and change orders in the Procore platform.
The skilled contractor has all the tools he needs in the field to operate from smartphones. The next step is to tie into a customer relationship management system, says Andersen.
“The last step we’re starting to take now is to look at our preconstruction processes,” he explains. “How are we going to do our takeoffs and estimates, and how are we going to get them integrated into Procore, because [it] Is it the hub for us that returns all the information to Intacct?
Andersen says the goal is to have “a source of truth within this system that gives us the data we need.”
