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M.L. McDonald Sales Co.
The Challenge
As it is with most commercial subcontractors, billing at M.L. McDonald was a hands-on process. Accounting printed billing reports for PMs, who marked up what they wanted to bill and sent them back for processing. Lien waivers were handled separately, and completed pay apps had to make it through the right submission channel—whether that was Textura, GCPay, Procore, email, or something else.
Across 150–200 active jobs, there were many moving pieces to keep straight. A pay app submitted through the wrong channel could go unprocessed until someone followed up. Or if a GC reduced a billing amount, the change didn't always make its way back to the PM, limiting their opportunity to question it or push back.
Retainage created a different visibility problem. Once the rest of the contract had been fully billed, the project could drop off the active billing list even with retainage still outstanding, leaving some balances unresolved for years.
At the same time, M.L. McDonald was replacing its legacy ERP, CFData, with Viewpoint Spectrum. Rather than implement the ERP first and rethink billing later, the team rolled out Spectrum and Siteline together, giving PMs and accounting one new process to learn instead of two.
The Solution
Instead of passing paper reports back and forth, all 23 of the company’s PMs now enter what they want to bill directly in Siteline. Accounting can see when their part is complete, prepare the required documents, and move each pay app through the appropriate submission process.
The transition was straightforward for most of the team, too. Hurd noted that the PMs mastered the system quickly and easily, explaining that completing an SOV was simply inputting percentages down a column. Siteline pulls historicals forward and handles the math.
The new workflow also brings together tasks that were previously handled separately. Lien waivers, for example, no longer have to be pulled from project folders, updated, and added to each billing package; they stay connected to the pay app in Siteline. And for more complicated portal jobs, SOV mapping lets the team set up how billing should flow into platforms like Textura once, rather than sorting it out again each month.
Behind it all, Spectrum remains M.L. McDonald’s financial system of record, while Siteline manages the billing workflow. Project information, SOVs, and change orders flow from Spectrum into Siteline, where the team prepares and submits pay apps and manages billing documentation. Once billing is complete, those amounts sync back to Spectrum, keeping both systems current without the team reentering the same information twice.
“We need live, up-to-date information being synced both ways,” Borzillo said. “We wouldn’t want to have duplicate entry or risk missing something.”
The Results
With its new billing process in place, M.L. McDonald can handle a higher work volume with less administrative lift. The team also has better visibility into what’s been billed, what’s still outstanding, and what needs attention.
200 Pay Apps a Month Managed by One Biller
At previous construction companies, Hurd had managed around 80 projects at a time, often with billing split among multiple accountants. At M.L. McDonald, she now manages 150–200 pay apps per month on her own. In July alone, she billed 140 projects without missing a single deadline.
Siteline has cut out many of the repetitive steps that used to add up across that workload. Once a pay app reaches accounting, a standard submission takes Hurd about five minutes to process, send to the client, and sync back to Spectrum. As Hurd put it, Siteline has “cut down a ton” of the work that used to go into getting each billing package out the door.
And pay apps are only part of the workload. Each month brings supporting documentation to prepare and manage, including lien waivers. Since implementing Siteline, M.L. McDonald has generated more than 1,700 upper-tier lien waivers through the system, keeping that additional paperwork within the same streamlined billing process.
$2.83M in Retainage Resurfaced
One of Siteline’s most immediate impacts came from work M.L. McDonald had already completed. When the team moved its historical projects into Siteline, it surfaced $2.83 million in pre-Siteline retainage across 172 contracts. Since then, more than $1.85 million of that retainage has been billed through Siteline and successfully collected.
And because retainage remains visible after the rest of a contract has been fully billed, the team has a clearer picture of what’s still outstanding across both current and older projects.
More Visibility, Fewer Billing Surprises
PMs also have greater visibility when a GC reduces what they’ve requested to bill. Instead of finding out after the adjustment is accepted, they can question the reduction and push back—visibility Borzillo called “invaluable” for maintaining the company’s billing position and supporting cash flow.
The team is also catching potential payment blockers earlier. Missing lien waivers, certificates of insurance, and other required documents are more likely to surface during billing rather than weeks or months later when someone follows up on an unpaid invoice. As a result, Borzillo said it’s now rare for a missing requirement to hold up payment.
A Billing Operation Built to Keep Up
M.L. McDonald set out to modernize its ERP and billing process at the same time. Today, those systems work together to support a much more connected operation—one where PMs and accounting can keep billing moving across a high volume of projects without losing sight of what still needs attention.
For Borzillo, that visibility is central to the bigger goal: running a more efficient operation, improving cash flow, and giving the team a clearer picture of how its projects are performing.
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