Parkwest Projects

BACKGROUND

Parkwest Projects Ltd. (Parkwest) is a commercial contracting firm in Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario that specializes in industrial and commercial construction. The company’s guiding principle is to get the job done right—something that permeates every aspect of the organization, right down to processing vendor payments.

Cheryl Cheyne, accounts manager, oversees those vendor payments, as well as all of Parkwest’s accounting processes. She also manages office operations and supervises a staff of three. Before Edenred Pay, payments were a manual and time-consuming portion of her workload. She said, “Historically, we’d process payments, monthly, for all suppliers.”

Issuing paper checks and stuffing and mailing envelopes wasn’t just labor-intensive, it was difficult to organize. Still, Cheryl felt reluctant to try something new, even if it could automate Parkwest’s vendor payments. She said, “I was hesitant, mostly due to the time required to research Edenred Pay’s system—like the old saying goes, ‘If it seems too good to be true, it usually is.’ I also worried about the time investment to implement.”

SOLUTION

A turning point came when Cheryl realized just how simple it would be to use Edenred Pay’s Payment Automation Platform. Cheryl said, “I found Edenred Pay’s payments process to be well-integrated with our accounting software, so I felt that training would be minimal.”

Edenred Pay partners with Jonas Construction Software — a cloud-based service and construction management software employed by Parkwest—to support automated payments, and the process is seamless…

•  A payment file is uploaded directly to Edenred Pay’s Payment Automation Platform from within Jonas’s software interface.
• Invoices can be reviewed and approved.
• Once an invoice is approved, a single-use, virtual credit card number is generated and sent to the vendor for payment.
• Everything is tracked for easy reconciliation.

RESULTS

Now that they’ve switched to automated payments, not only is Cheryl’s workload lighter, Parkwest’s accounting processes are operating more smoothly. Cheryl said, “I feel like our payments are more organized. Previously, I would issue a cheque but hold onto it until owner payment was received, resulting in many outstanding cheques. Now, I process the payment only when payment can actually be sent.“

Not only that, Parkwest is saving money. Cheryl said, “We’ve seen cost savings in a few areas, mostly in staff time and postage, as well as fewer calls regarding snail mail.”

And, best of all, Parkwest’s payments are actually paying them back. “We’ve seen consistent returns where there were none before—who can complain about that?”