How G.J. Gardner Homes Adelaide Hills went paperless with ApprovalMax

G.J. Gardner Homes head office runs a monthly call for its franchise owners. On one call, a franchisee asked about going paperless, and the head office team recommended ApprovalMax.

"We have a lot of faith in what the head office shares with us. They have a vested interest in how well we do, and the fact that they gave you a good rap was enough for us to try it."

Kellie set up ApprovalMax alongside Xero after one onboarding session with the ApprovalMax team. The session covered the approval matrix, which is the set of rules that decides who approves each invoice.

The team ran the last paper invoices through the old process while new invoices went into ApprovalMax. Once that cycle finished, there was no more paper in the office.

"It literally took one cycle. From day one we've not had any issues. That doesn't normally happen."

Today every invoice goes through ApprovalMax, whether it’s for printing, the office rent or materials on site. This has given the business these benefits:

The team member entering an invoice only has to add the job it belongs to. ApprovalMax then sends it to the right approvers.

"Now it's simple. Whoever is entering it only has to enter what job it is, and off it goes. There's no lost paperwork. We know where everything is."

Kellie no longer spends time printing, stamping or deciding whose desk an invoice should land on.

South Australia has few building regulations to protect home buyers. G.J. Gardner Homes holds its franchises to the standards of Queensland, where the company is based, and those are higher.

ApprovalMax records who approved each invoice and when, and keeps notes against each one. This gives Kellie and her team a clear record of every approval.

"ApprovalMax gives us accountability with our staff and our team. We can see when things are signed off, the audit trails, even notes on each account that's coming through."

Kellie expected some resistance to the change. In practice, the team was keen from the start, partly because they liked the idea of going paperless.

"Everyone's a bit nervous until they can see it. It's easy to understand because it is so similar to Xero in the way it looks and feels."

Kellie first looked at ApprovalMax to cut down on paper. She found that it also saved time for her and the supervisors, and made the business more accountable and more accurate.

The business is now recruiting and plans to build twice as many homes next year. Kellie expects the approval process to handle this without extra work, because new staff only need to be added to the approval matrix.

"ApprovalMax is going to allow us to scale up really easily. It's just a matter of putting the names into that matrix and it runs seamlessly."

Kellie and her husband also plan to spend less time in the business day to day. ApprovalMax lets them see every invoice and approval from anywhere, including from another state.

"As a business owner, a business should run without you. Otherwise you've bought yourself a job. Having ApprovalMax running for us in the background gives us peace of mind when we're not in here every day."