Iowa-Based electrical contractor reduces payment processing time.
Based in Sioux Center, Iowa, Interstates is an electrical solutions provider in thirteen locations across America’s breadbasket. Its project portfolio includes hundreds of industrial and manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and beyond. They design, build, automate, maintain, and protect these facilities.
A season of growth.
In the past decade alone, Interstates more than doubled its revenue and employee base, according to Mitch Eisma, the company’s director of finance. While scaling up its business, the specialty contractor realized it was also time to review its banking relationships. To keep pace with its own growth, Interstates was also interested in a banking partner that offered AI solutions for optimizing its back-office processes.
Interstates’ search led them to Commerce Bank, which had been calling on the firm since 2018. After closing a multi-million-dollar real estate loan with Commerce for an Omaha office in 2021, followed by computer leasing and IT equipment financing contracts a year later, Interstates was ready to make the switch.
“We wrote down the criteria we wanted in a banking partner, and Commerce checked every box,” said Eisma. Commerce offered automation and financial capabilities that matched Interstates’ ambitions. “In addition, Interstates valued the relationship they were building with Commerce and the core values they shared,” Eisma said.
By June 2023, the firm was relying on Commerce for everything from a working capital line of credit, to equipment financing, to lockbox services and more.
Automating its back office.
Following a year of transition, Interstates was ready to discuss ways to optimize their back office. Commerce recommended integrated receivables as a good place to start. The bank’s order-to-cash platform contains multiple modules designed to streamline various phases of the accounts receivable process.
“Integrated receivables wasn’t on our radar,” said Eisma. “But Commerce looked at our current processes and identified their Integrated Receivables Cash Application Cloud as something that would streamline payment processing.” In Spring 2024, Interstates made the decision to move forward.
Time-saving results.
“We were drawn to Commerce’s Cash Application Cloud because we were spending three to five hours each day manually processing payments,” explained Stacy Reinke. Interstates’ Senior Accounting Specialist.
Two months after going live, payment processing time had dropped to about an hour a day, according to Reinke. “And that was with only about half of our payments flowing through the new system.”
Reinke anticipates that manual processing time will continue to shrink, projecting that up to 90% of all payments will eventually be handled by the automated system.
“The Cash App Cloud captures our customer remittance information and bank transactions,” she explained. “Then it matches them to outstanding invoices before applying the payment in our accounting system — all without human intervention.”
“By automating the manual process, we can now spend our time looking at exceptions, rather than every payment,” said Reinke.
True relationship yields smooth implementation.
The addition of the Cash Application Cloud demonstrated not only AI’s ability to transform routine financial tasks but also the effectiveness of Commerce’s implementation process.
“Implementation went smoothly, with no significant issues at startup,” said Reinke. “If we had a question, Commerce addressed it quickly.”
“Communication was key,” added Eisma. “All sides prioritized our weekly phone calls throughout the process, and it made a difference.”
“The main thing we learned from the Cash App Cloud implementation,” said Eisma, “was that Commerce will dedicate the resources needed to get the job done. It showed we are in a true financial relationship.”
“No matter what the subject, Commerce always gives us something to think about,” Eisma added. “They are not transactional. We value their perspective. We are off to an excellent start.”