Mark D Williams Custom Homes Automates 100% of the Lien Waiver Process with Adaptive

For Joel Route, office manager at Mark D Williams Custom Homes, managing lien waivers was once an arduous, manual process. With over ten years of experience in construction management, Joel knew the importance of accuracy and organization. Yet, his team’s lien waiver process—handled through email, DocuSign, and file tracking—was eating up hours each month. “Creating each lien waiver, sending it through email or DocuSign, tracking approvals—it was a lot of busy work,” Joel recalls.

The Old Workflow: Multiple Platforms, Manual Tasks, and Countless Follow-Ups

Handling lien waivers manually meant juggling various platforms to keep track of each subcontractor’s waiver status. Each month, Joel set aside hours just to create, send, and track lien waivers, often relying on a patchwork of email folders and Google Drive, and DocuSign to send out and manage documents. For each draw, he’d go through every invoice, ensuring each lien waiver was accounted for, which is a process that could take 4-5 hours every month across jobs.

“We used to do everything by hand, sending it out through email or DocuSign depending on vendor. For each draw, I have to go through every single invoice and make sure you have a lien waiver attached to it. Some of the subs would send them back paper copy versus email. So you just gotta make sure that everything gets in there, checking off for each invoice, making sure you have it. So it's probably two hours of setup time because you have to do it once you have the template with customer's address in there. But then you have to create a lien waiver for each sub with all their information on it, save it for each sub. So it's probably:
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- Two hours of setup time.
- Each month then sending them out took about an hour.
- Follow up after is probably a couple hours of making sure that you get them all in, putting them all in the job file."

Discovering Adaptive’s Lien Waivers Feature

When Adaptive first introduced its new Lien Waivers feature, as an Adaptive power user Joel was eager to try it. This was precisely the solution he needed: lien waiver automation built directly into the platform he already relied on. The lien waiver feature allowed Joel to create and apply lien waiver templates, select the lien waiver type (final or conditional), choose a subcontractor and the job, and send it out—all within seconds. “It’s a five or ten-second thing now instead of an hours-long process,” Joel shares. On the receiving end, subs are signing electronically without needing an Adaptive account and get their invoices paid faster, streamlining the process and keeping everything in one place.

Real-Time Visibility and Reduced Errors

With Adaptive, Joel gained a new level of visibility into lien waiver status right from the Bills page in the platform. Adaptive tracks everything automatically (required, sent, signed, etc.) removing the need for tedious follow-ups. “Now I can see where each lien waiver stands, and it’s all in one system,” he says. Adaptive’s automated reminders and tracking eliminated Joel’s previous reliance on email folders and allowed him to catch any waivers that might have fallen through the cracks in his old system.

Immediate Efficiency Gains

The impact was immediate. After spending a couple of minutes getting set up with templates, Joel was ready to kick things off. Today, Joel estimates that Adaptive’s Lien Waivers feature has saved him several hours each month, allowing him to shift focus from time-consuming administrative tasks to more valuable work. “Anything that frees up my time to focus on other parts of the project or office management is a win,” Joel explains. It’s really that simple with Adaptive!

A Simple Recommendation for Time-Strapped Back-End Teams

For anyone considering a switch or a brand new solution, Joel’s advice is clear: “Adaptive’s lien waivers feature is going to save you time and make your life much easier. The whole process just works better.”

Learn more about how you can streamline and automate your lien waiver process with Adaptive.

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