Xeal achieves cash flow positivity ahead of schedule with Tabs

As Xeal rapidly scaled its business in the evolving electric vehicle (EV) charging industry, it faced increasing pressure to streamline its financial operations and billing processes. The manual, time-consuming approach to invoicing and accounts receivable was no longer sustainable as the company expanded into more complex invoicing models, including recurring payments for their "charging as a service" product. 

To address these growing pains and achieve faster cash flow, Xeal partnered with Tabs, leveraging their AI-driven automation platform to enhance efficiency, eliminate backlogs, and ultimately achieve cash flow positivity ahead of schedule.

About Xeal

Xeal is a leading provider of smart, self-reliant EV charging infrastructure, primarily serving multifamily housing such as apartment and condo complexes, as well as select healthcare and business settings. Their innovative platform ensures 100% uptime without relying on external IT or internet connections, offering reliable and scalable EV charging. 

Xeal’s technology not only enables dynamic load management and secure payments but also supports flexible invoicing models, helping businesses and residents seamlessly integrate EV charging into their daily routines. This approach allows Xeal to achieve positive cash flow while efficiently scaling operations.

Life Before Tabs

Before implementing Tabs, Xeal faced several challenges with their accounts receivable and invoicing processes, which were heavily manual and time-consuming. As a fast-growing company, relying on manually inputting data into QuickBooks created inefficiencies, resulting in backlogs and delays during their billing cycles—especially during peak times. The lack of automation meant that invoicing could be inconsistent, slowing down cash collection. 

Xeal's diverse invoicing requirements, such as linking charger shipments to deposits and managing contracts with recurring payments, further compounded their billing challenges. Maintaining timely and accurate billing became an ongoing struggle, bottlenecking their cash flow and exposing them to an increased risk of human error. This inefficiency significantly impacted their ability to scale as their business grew.

“Tabs has been a game-changer for us. With their automation, we’ve completely eliminated our invoicing backlog, allowing us to speed up cash collection and stay on top of our billing cycles, even during peak periods. The platform has not only made us more efficient, but it also helped us hit cash flow positivity earlier than expected, which has been a huge milestone for us.” — Carl Rojas, VP of Finance, Xeal.

The increasing complexity of managing multiple invoicing schedules, collecting payments, and recognizing revenue became unsustainable for Xeal's finance team. Moreover, Xeal’s billing cycles required flexibility to handle different types of contracts, including traditional job-based invoices and newer charging-as-a-service models that required regular invoicing over longer terms. Without the right tools, they were spending too much time on manual administrative work, diverting resources from more strategic initiatives that could fuel further growth.

Life After Tabs

After adopting Tabs, Xeal experienced a transformative shift in their billing and invoicing processes. The company achieved cash flow positivity by the second quarter of 2024—earlier than expected. Tabs' automation streamlined previously manual tasks, significantly reducing backlogs and accelerating cash collection. Xeal could now issue invoices quickly, particularly for instances where charging stations needed to be shipped and deposits collected. This swift action helped smooth revenue cycles, providing faster access to cash.

Tabs' ability to handle Xeal’s increasingly complex billing models, such as their new charging-as-a-service offering, was instrumental. With automated invoicing for both lump sum and recurring payments, Xeal seamlessly managed their growing business while maintaining accuracy and timeliness. 

This newfound efficiency not only stabilized their cash flow but also gave them the agility to support rapid sales growth—tripling year over year—without being slowed down by operational bottlenecks. Tabs became an integral part of their financial operations, ensuring Xeal could confidently scale its business while maintaining cash flow positivity.

The Tabs Partnership

Xeal’s experience with the Tabs customer success team has been marked by responsiveness and close collaboration. Carl Rojas, VP of Finance at Xeal, praised the team’s willingness to adapt to their unique needs, especially as the company ventured into new invoicing models like charging-as-a-service. Whether for custom configurations or addressing real-time challenges, the Tabs team was readily available for meetings—sometimes even in person—providing hands-on support. 

This direct, personal relationship enabled Tabs to evolve in tandem with Xeal’s rapidly growing and changing business, ensuring a seamless partnership that would sustain Xeal’s continued growth.