DiPrete Engineering

Reduced WIP from 30 to 17 Days

Company Overview

Dennis DiPrete founded DiPrete Engineering in 1988 with the goal to create a different kind of engineering firm. The focus then and was to minimize risk, minimize cost, and maximize the return for our clients.

Challenges

When Chris Ready joined DiPrete Engineering (DiPrete) as the CFO, they had a 100% paper-based invoicing process. Draft invoices and accompanying documents were printed, put in red folders, and placed in the project manager’s mailboxes at the beginning of the week, with the expectation that they would be reviewed and returned early the following week. This manual process resulted in difficulty tracking and no accountability. Often the invoices would get lost in the shuffle and the billing team would have to reprint the documents, which would delay invoices being processed in a timely manner. Chris knew it was time for an electronic system to improve their manual process. DiPrete implemented EleVia Electronic Invoicing (EleVia EI) and quickly benefitted from going paperless and being able to easily track invoice status.

Why EleVia Software

Improve WIP

Before EleVia EI, Diprete's WIP days hovered around 30 days, intending to get it closer to 20 days. With EleVia EI, Diprete's WIP decreased from 30 days to 17 days. "We would not have been able to drive the improvement without implementing EleVia EI," says Chris Ready.

Easy Tracking

DiPrete has seen significant process improvement since implementation. Jennifer Sweet, Billing & Accounts Payable Supervisor, Electronic Invoicing allowed the team to be more efficient with their process of tracking invoices.

Accountability and Increased Budget Visibility

The complete visibility of the EleVia EI dashboard allows the team to get an overall picture of what the Project Managers have completed thus far, which assists with with project performance. Chris Ready details, "Electronic Invoicing helps drive appropriate behaviors and an efficient process. It doesn't matter what size business you operate, these factors are important." The ease of visibility into billable value versus billed, and how much WIP is waiting to be billed holds the Project Managers accountable. "While reviewing draft invoices, Project Managers have the ability to view the project's budget at a phase level directly in EleVia EI. This helps Project Managers determine what to bill without having to spend time viewing this information in Deltek Vision."

"What I like most about the software is the ability to customize the markup tools and stage flows for document routing/approvals, without having to contact EleVia support. The Project Managers have found the system easy to use and appreciate being able to electronically make comments, instead of having to write them, resulting in less confusion for the billers."
Jennifer Sweet, Billing & Account Payable Supervisor