Canvas is a construction robotics startup that is reinventing drywall finishing. Founded in 2017, Canvas harnesses machine learning to put robots in the hands of skilled workers, improving work quality and speed. Since raising their Series B in 2021, Canvas has continued to grow and empower workers to build in bold new ways.
The Challenge
As Canvas grew, managing invoicing and receivables was becoming a burden. Alan Federman, VP of Finance, knew that reducing time spent managing invoices and accelerating revenue collection would be crucial as the company scaled.
“Our deals can be complex. What I love about Tabs is it picks up the nuances within our contracts and makes my life a lot easier.”
Like many B2B companies, Canvas deals with complex contracts. Each contract contains multiple details that impact both invoicing amounts and scheduling. Sometimes these details are spread across multiple contracts or documents.
Finance was spending hours each week on manual tasks related to billing and receivables. Alan had to check each contract for when robots would be released to customers and how that aligned to the invoicing schedule. He then had to ensure that the relevant details were entered into spreadsheets and other systems, and that invoices were correctly calculated.
Reducing the time spent on these manual tasks would enable him to devote more time to strategic work - but he needed to be confident that the invoices were accurate. Ensuring invoice accuracy was crucial, as mistakes in invoices could delay payments and impact cash flow.
The faster that the Finance team could collect money, the quicker the company could build more products. Alan was looking for a solution that could help.
The Solution
Alan selected Tabs because of the platform’s ability to streamline the full receivables process and get cash in the door faster. Tabs is able to automatically extract nuances from contracts - such as product delivery dates, scheduled price increases, and cancellation clauses - that other solutions missed or would require Alan to manually enter. Compared to the other solutions on the market, Tabs was also easier to use with quicker onboarding.
“There are a million platforms that help you manage spend, but Tabs is unique in that it actually helps me get the company’s money faster.”
Now instead of manually processing and calculating each invoice in spreadsheets, Alan simply uploads or forwards a contract to Tabs. Tabs extracts all the nuances of each contract and calculates the invoices and scheduling. As a result, average time spent on each invoice has dropped from 2 hours to 30 minutes.
At the same time, the potential for human error dropped significantly with less time spent in spreadsheets. Now, the Finance team has increased confidence that every invoice is accurate and going out on time.
Before Tabs, there wasn’t a single source of truth for all of Canvas’s contracts and billing. Now, Finance is able to see the status and details of each contract and customer record in the same platform. Collaboration with other teams has become easier as well, since Alan can share access to Tabs to give stakeholders the same visibility.
Impact
- 75% decrease in time to process invoices
- More accurate and on-time billing
- A single source of truth for all contracts and invoicing
Looking Forward
As Canvas continues to scale, Alan sees the Tabs platform becoming even more critical for the Finance team. The Tabs integration with Avalara will streamline the calculation and inclusion of sales tax in the receivables process, saving the Finance team hours every week.
Alan is also excited about the potential of revenue recognition and reporting within Tabs. Being able to view insights and trends across contracts will provide new data that Finance can analyze to make strategic decisions about how to grow the business.