Published June 9, 2023 . 2 mins read

Those higher capital costs are straining some contractors’ current lines of credit and driving up their financing needs, noted the veteran construction accountant.

“You may have bid for a project 12 months ago thinking your line of credit was only going to be at three or three-and-a-half percent interest, but now we’re seeing rates of up to six-and-a-half percent,” Baalman told the audience of general and specialty contractors. “We’re encouraging our construction clients to keep their overhead rates in sight and top of mind as they bid on projects.”

Head of Pinion’s construction and real estate group, Baalman boasts more than 22 years of experience in the industry. The Salina, Kansas-based firm (formerly KCoe Isom) maintains 22 U.S. offices, with a construction and real estate group serving contractors in California, Colorado, Washington D.C., Iowa, Indianapolis, Kansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee and Wyoming.

During the webinar, Baalman and ProNovos CEO and Founder Bruce Orr discussed the pitfalls of inefficient AR collections and the impact this can have on bonding in jobs; how analytic workflows can streamline the collection process and improve contractors’ cash positions; best practices for integrating analytics into AR collection workflows; and future trends and developments in analytics that can reap benefits in AR.

The webinar highlights:

• Some of the common pain points associated with AR collections
• How higher capital costs are affecting  contractors
• The importance of office-field communication and timely billing
• The impact of efficient change-order management and timely retainage-collection
• A brief overview of collections-related functionalities in ProNovos
• Understanding overbillings, “job borrow” and the benefits of an automated WIP
• Metrics that can help illustrate how underbillings affect the WIP
• How automation can streamline collections/AR aging
• New tools and techniques for cash-flow management