A CRM Lien Services Client Success Story
For a plumbing and fire supply company serving contractors across California and Arizona, managing lien rights is not an occasional task. It is part of the everyday process of doing business.
Liz S. helps manage that process as the Credit Manager for a company supplying plumbing and fire sprinkler materials to more than 50 construction projects each month.
With that kind of volume, keeping track of preliminary notices, project information, property owners, general contractors, lenders, deadlines, and unpaid balances could easily become a full-time job on its own.
That is why, for more than seven years, Liz and her company have partnered with CRM Lien Services.
Building lien protection into the process from the beginning
Liz’s company has developed a strong system for gathering project information before supplying materials to a job.
Their customers are asked to provide key information such as the job site address, general contractor, property owner, and construction lender. Their intake process helps make lien rights management part of the normal workflow instead of something the credit team has to think about only after a payment problem occurs.
But collecting the information is only the first step.
The information still needs to be reviewed and verified, notices need to be prepared correctly, and the proper parties need to be served.
That is where CRM comes in.
Every couple of weeks, Liz scans a batch of new project intake sheets and sends it to CRM. From there, the CRM team handles the administrative process.
CRM researches and verifies the project information, confirms property ownership, reviews available lender information, prepares the preliminary notices, and serves the required parties by certified mail.
For Liz, the process has become simple.
“You guys essentially are my backbone when it comes to all of this.”
She added:
“I feel like it’s just easy. I scan it, send it in, and you guys send it out.”
Protecting payment rights across a high volume of projects
For a supplier working on dozens of projects every month, preliminary notices are an important part of reducing payment risk.
Rather than trying to decide which customers might become a problem later, Liz’s company has built a proactive process for protecting its payment rights from the beginning of the job.
This gives the company additional options if an invoice eventually goes unpaid.
And when payment problems do occur, they already have a process in place.
Liz and her team monitor unpaid balances and important project dates. When a mechanics lien becomes necessary, they turn to CRM again to help manage the administrative work.
CRM researches and verifies the project information needed for the lien, prepares the document, obtains supporting property information such as the legal description when required, and coordinates the recording and service process.
Once the balance is resolved, CRM can also help prepare and process the lien release.
Instead of working with different providers at different stages, Liz has one team she can rely on throughout the process.
A system designed to help the credit team stay ahead
One of the biggest benefits of the partnership is that lien rights management does not have to consume Liz’s time.
With more than 50 projects moving through their system each month, trying to research every property, verify every party, prepare every notice, and manage every mailing internally would add a significant administrative burden.
CRM gives Liz a repeatable process.
She gathers the project information. She sends it to CRM. The CRM team takes it from there.
That allows Liz to stay focused on managing credit and accounts receivable while knowing there is a process behind the scenes designed to help protect the company’s right to payment.
After more than seven years of working together, CRM has become more than another service provider.
It has become part of how her company manages payment risk.
A proactive approach to getting paid
Construction payment problems cannot always be prevented.
But companies can put systems in place before those problems happen.
For this plumbing and fire supply company, that means gathering good project information, consistently sending preliminary notices, monitoring unpaid balances, and taking additional steps when necessary.
With CRM Lien Services managing much of the research, verification, preparation, service, and recording process, Liz and her team have a clear and repeatable system for protecting payment rights across dozens of projects every month.
And for a busy credit professional, sometimes the best system is the one that simply works.
