Gardner Builders Streamlines Compliance Management

Gardner Builders is a leading hospitality-focused commercial construction firm with locations in Minneapolis, Duluth, and Milwaukee. Gardner Builders began in 2010 as a small boutique firm in downtown Minneapolis with a handful of people who shared the dream of changing the construction industry. Now expanded to multiple locations, the team specializes in commercial construction, from workplace to healthcare. 

As a prominent player in the construction industry, Gardner Builders has a team dedicated to  managing risk and ensuring regulatory compliance across their range of projects. This process involves daily tasks such as requesting COIs, verifying policy details and coverage, and diligently tracking down any missing documents to maintain comprehensive compliance and risk management. Often taking hours to complete every week, Gardner Builders sought out a solution to streamline the COI compliance process.

Leveraging Construction Compliance Management Software to Reduce Risk

Billy offers a one-stop shop for all compliance needs, including automated collection and verification of certificates of insurance (COIs), W-9 forms, business licenses, and other compliance documents. Relying on outdated, manual business processes can cause inefficiencies and lead to costly errors, including lawsuits, payment delays, and complications with insurance claims. By automating construction compliance, companies can mitigate these risks and significantly enhance overall efficiency.

With Billy, construction firms can simplify the vendor compliance process, save time and money, and protect their business. By integrating with Procore and Autodesk, Billy streamlines project execution, ensuring that compliance gaps are addressed and operational risks are minimized.

How Billy’s Customization Features Enhance the User Experience

With Billy, the Gardner Builders team can now send COI requests to all subcontractors on a project with the simple click of a button. As an added bonus, the team was able to craft customized language and layout within the request that fits within their branding and messaging to make the full experience for users feel authentic to their brand. This customization is a unique Billy feature that many competitors lack. The Billy onboarding team worked hand-in-hand with the Gardner Builders team to adjust every detail to ensure it looks and feels like them. 

The request for a certificate of insurance is also sent from an internal email from the company itself, rather than an automated email. This further enhances the personal, authentic experience for users. They are seeing a familiar brand reaching out, making it much more likely for them to respond and provide all the requested information in a timely manner.

Intuitive Design and Ease of Use to Improve Vendor Response Rate

Further improvements Billy offers for the construction COI request process includes the removal of any password, sign-up, or login required of subcontractors and vendors to submit documents. For competitors, one of the main roadblocks for users submitting information quickly, is the requirement of any login or account creation. Billy alleviates this by simplifying the process and allowing users to click one button within the request email and uploading the required files directly. With this feature, Gardner Builders has seen a drastic increase in the response rate from vendors. 

By enhancing the user experience through Billy, Gardner Builders was able to consequently improve and speed up the construction compliance process across the board. 

All the requirements and limits are listed out in the initial request email, allowing subcontractors to easily share all details with their brokers. Further enhancing the user experience and allowing Gardner Builders to receive more accurate COIs from the start.

Once a COI has been submitted by a subcontractor on a construction project, the Gardner Builders team gets an instant notification that it is ready for review. Within the Billy platform, the team is able to quickly review all data (automatically integrated through the Billy system) and either approve or send back a notice to provide additional information. Prior to the Billy system, this process was done manually, spending hours inputting data, a tedious and often error-prone task. 

Monitoring compliance in construction is essential for spotting and resolving issues before they become major problems. However, doing this manually can be time-consuming. With Billy’s automated compliance monitoring and reporting, Gardner Builders can efficiently manage their compliance requirements without spending excessive time and resources.

Billy automates all insurance renewal request dates and times within the platform, which alleviates the need to manually track these dates for all vendors across all projects. As a renewal date approaches, Billy will send reminder alerts to request a certificate of insurance at three months, 1 month, and the day of insurance coverage expires. This streamlined approach helps managers efficiently collect certificates, ensure compliance, and maintain full control over their COI management process. 

With Billy, Gardner Builders is able to save countless hours per week just on automating their construction compliance tracking with Billy. 

Aside from general compliance, Billy is also a dedicated partner. The team worked closely with Gardner Builders to create a pre-qualification data submission form to help ensure an efficient and effective set up process for all subcontractors looking to work with Gardner. 

At Gardner Builders, the integration of Billy Insurance has not only enhanced efficiency and saved time but also provided exceptional support throughout the entire onboarding process. Billy has proven to be a crucial asset, significantly improving the risk and compliance management processes for the team.

Curious to know how Billy can help your company streamline construction compliance processes? Reach out to schedule a demo today!

Frequently Asked Questions

What project management software is used in construction?

Commonly used project management software in construction includes Procore and Autodesk, as well as compliance tracking software such as Billy. These tools help manage projects efficiently, track progress, and streamline communication.

How to choose the best construction project management software?

To select the best construction project management software, consider the following factors including, ensuring the software is user-friendly, the software integrates well with your tech stack, and the customer support is helpful.

How to request a COI?

A contractor will send a request for a certificate of insurance to every vendor on a project. Billy’s automated system simplifies the COI request process, making it efficient and organized. Try us out today!