If there’s one thing that characterizes Billd, it’s exceptional customer support. From the moment you enroll, Billd is by your side, maintaining a solid flow of communication. We work tirelessly behind the scenes to support you — even when you don’t know it. At no point in your Billd journey are you left alone or confused. We’ll ensure you always know what’s going on with your account, your pay app or your purchase.
To better understand how Billd supports you, we’ll go over what the team does behind the curtain. We’ll also give you a better look at the approval process, and how to get the most out of Billd once you’re a customer.
How We Support You During the Approval Process
1. Enrollment: It all starts with you. Our relationship begins when you enroll on the Billd platform, where you’ll enter some basic details on your company and project. To keep things simple, we ask for very little info initially. If a Billd salesperson connected with you to this point, expect them to stay in touch throughout the process we’re about to dive into.
2. Getting Introduced: Next, the Billd team starts looking at your project. A member of our team reaches out to you by phone. We’ll chat about your project, get introduced, and confirm whether or not Billd is really a great fit for you. Rest assured, we’re never going to work with subcontractors who aren’t the right fit and wouldn’t genuinely benefit from what we do.
3. Meeting Your Account Executive: From there, you’ll meet your account executive. They’ll ask you for the nitty gritty info needed to keep the ball rolling. That info will be sent to one of our underwriters. This is your first touchpoint with your account executive, but you’ll work with them more later.
4. Underwriting: After that, one of our underwriters will run two personal credit reports on you. Not to worry: this is a soft credit pull that won’t affect your credit score — we’re mindful of that, on your behalf. So why do we pull two? Because we take the higher of the two. For due diligence, we’ll make sure there are no red flags like business fraud, bankruptcies, judgments or liens. If everything comes up roses, we move on to the next step. With no stumbling blocks, this process takes all of 30 minutes, believe it or not. In fact, most approvals happen in as little as one day. Regardless, the Billd team member you spoke to will follow up with the team on the timeline and keep you posted. If the underwriting team needs anything else, you’ll be informed promptly to keep things moving. We should also mention that your credit limit adjusts with every new project.
5. Income Verification: We double check your business income because it’ll determine your credit limit.
6. Project Research: One of the most important steps is checking out the project you want to utilize Pay App Advance or Material Financing for. We’ll make sure it is a commercial construction project, that your contract is in good standing, and that the funds we’ll be giving you will be used in the correct fashion as outlined by our products. And if that all looks okay, we’re all systems go.
7. Purchasing Materials from Your Supplier (Material Financing): If everything checked out, we’ll let you know your material purchase was approved. Then the Billd team will pick up the phone, call your supplier and pay for the purchase. From there, you’re free to go and pick up the materials or have them delivered.
8. Getting Your Pay Application Advanced (Pay App Advance): If everything continues moving smoothly, we’ll let you know that your Pay App Advance was approved, and you’ll be wired the value of the Pay App Advance.
There are very few projects we don’t approve, as long as they’re commercial. But if for any reason your account is approved and your project isn’t, Billd will reach out to explain why and work with you to find a more appropriate project to partner on. We won’t leave you hanging.
How We Support You As a Billd Client
Once you’re approved, the account executive who shepherded you through that approval process will say their goodbyes. From there, you’ll meet your permanent team, which consists of a Relationship Manager and Account Manager. Here at Billd, we call them your RM and AM, so you’ll hear those abbreviations tossed around a lot.
Relationship Manager: Your RM will keep a finger on the pulse on your business; they’re effectively just as invested in it as you. They’ll be checking in with you to see what new projects Billd can help out with.
Account Manager: This is the person who’ll be processing all of your material requests and Pay App Advances. If and when you need any help with your account on a logistical level, your AM is here to field those questions and right the ship.
Experience has shown us that some subs are naturally closer to their RMs, while some subs are closer to their AMs. But the common thread is the formation of great relationships. Subs and RMs/AMs often get on a first name basis, updating each other on life as well as business in between more pressing requests.
On the other hand, this relationship can be very process-driven if you need it to be. Some subs just want to submit their requests, get them fulfilled and keep things moving. That’s fine too! We’ll adapt to whatever you need us to be.
Examples of how RMs and AMs can help when you need it most:
- Let’s say you have a new project, need to submit to Billd for materials ASAP, but are driving and can’t get to your desk fast enough. Just reach out to your RM via phone and let them know. They can gladly handle the request on your behalf. Materials will be purchased from your supplier as soon as you need them.
- Maybe you need to supply your GC with a conditional or unconditional lien waiver. That’s something Billd can actually take off your plate.
- Got a maturity coming up and need to be reminded when that payment is due? We can tell you.
- If you need an extension because the GC hasn’t paid you yet, we can help. This is a moment when we truly go to bat for you as the sub. We’ll go so far as to file a lien on your behalf if that pay app is egregiously late.
How We Help You Grow the Longer You’re With Us
Beyond support, we also function as a full-fledged financial partner. Specifically, we focus on promoting the growth of your business. Using Billd is a bit like having a bright new hire in the accounting department who’s refreshingly growth-minded.
So how do we do it?
- Flexible credit limit – We adjust the credit limit of your material purchases based on your needs (something that helps you scale as you grow). Every new project will merit an individual evaluation, and provided you have good payment history, if you need to expand your credit limit from your last project for your new one, we can do that for you.
- Strategic use of Billd – We’ll help you find the times when Billd makes sense, and we’ll tell you when it doesn’t. We’ll never advocate for using Billd if it isn’t legitimately advantageous to you. Some companies are rarely judicious about the use of their product, and just want it used as much as possible. That’s not us. We only want to help if it’s truly going to help you.
- Useful Introductions – We’ll connect you with partners that offer services that also benefit your business. We’ve partnered with STACK, eSub, StructShare, PlanHub and many more construction-focused companies to help you get access to special discounts available only to Billd customers. Beyond the realm of Pay App Advance and Material Financing, it pays to be connected to Billd.
- New tools on the horizon – We’re constantly adapting our process and products to better serve your needs. For example, we used to offer only Material Financing, but after years of watching our subs struggle with the slow payment cycle, we decided to form a product that addresses a different issue in the payment chain, and Pay App Advance was born. Working with Billd means you’ll always have first access to whatever new subcontractor-supporting tools we’re dreaming up.
Ultimately, know that when you work with Billd, you’re taken care of unequivocally. The team is at your disposal. We hope to nurture your confidence in our ability to support you, and want you to know that there is a large team behind you along the way.
