While transitioning to Acumatica as its new ERP system, the HallWay Plumbing team realized they still required a digital form solution that offered extensive customization and a robust workflow engine.
With Automated Workflows powered by GoFormz, HallWay Plumbing now has a robust workflow engine that seamlessly transfers data between Acumatica and their GoFormz forms.
Service Work Orders
Pre-Work Form
Post-Work Form
HallWay Plumbing, a family-owned and operated company, delivers high-quality plumbing services to residential and commercial builders across the Southeastern United States. With a team of over 200 professionals, they specialize in new construction plumbing installations for a variety of sectors, including single-family homes, multi-family developments, senior living communities, hospitality, and student housing.
When HallWay Plumbing's original ERP system no longer met the operation’s needs, Acumatica was introduced as its new ERP solution. “We used to use Viewpoint Spectrum as our ERP system, and there was a custom add-on that was developed by somebody who is no longer developing it called Command Center,” explained Sarat Vermuri, CFO and CIO for HallWay Plumbing. “It had a field module where you collected data from our field supervisors who went into houses and apartments to install plumbing. They would answer a bunch of questions on what they had or hadn’t done, and that information would feed into our file system.” This played a critical role for the business. “It served as quality control and created a basis for paying our subcontractors. We would calculate how much we owe the subcontractors based on what they would answer.”
With Acumatica in place, HallWay Plumbing still required a digital form solution. “We were in the process of moving over to Acumatica when we discovered they did not have a built-in custom form solution,” explained Vemuri. “So I went on the Acumatica Marketplace and found that GoFormz had an integration with Acumatica that we could use. That’s how we got started.”
There are three phases to plumbing called slab, rough, and trim slab. “The way we work is every house is scheduled for installation on one of these three phases. Then we create a project based on the builder and the plan,” explained Vemuri. “The forms we use are for each of these phases. We have a pre-form where an area manager or supervisor goes onto the site and fills out a bunch of questions on the prerequisites for the work to be done. Once all the questions are answered, the form is submitted, and the PDF is saved in our SharePoint. Meanwhile, form logic determines whether the site is ready or not.” Vemuri continued, “Once an appointment is scheduled, the same phase post form gets loaded.” SharePoint is used as a directory to access the completed PDF form within Acumatica. So, when a PDF is saved in its respective folder, the link is also generated in Acumatica, tying the data together.
The subcontractor then goes out and conducts the installation. “A couple of days later, after the installation, that form shows up on the area manager’s list of things to do,” explained Vemuri. Using Conditional Logic, only the relevant forms that pertain to each area manager appear. “Once the appointment is completed, the form appears again, but this time with an explanation of the work conducted, like how many faucets were installed, what kind of faucets, etc.,” explained Vemuri. “They then evaluate the form and submit it, which creates another PDF on SharePoint. But most importantly, this workflow engine completes the appointment, which creates an accounts payable (AP Bill) based on the number of fixtures and things that were completed automatically.”
This workflow engine is critical to how HallWay Plumbing collaborates across the organization. “The critical component to this whole workflow engine is that it pulls and pushes data back to Acumatica,” explained Vemuri. “Essentially, we’re collecting information from the field supervisors and then using that to push data back into Acumatica to make appointments and also create payables to subcontractors.”
“The critical component to this whole workflow engine is that it pulls and pushes data back to Acumatica."
– Sarat Vemuri, CFO and CIO, HallWay Plumbing
Another digital form HallWay Plumbing uses within its extensive workflow is a digital work order form. “If there are other issues with the work that was done, the supervisor also creates a work order form, highlighting work that needs more attention,” explained Vemuri. “This communicates back to our office personnel to attend to the matter and schedule another appointment. So once that form gets filled and the appointment is done, the PDF is saved with pictures, and then an AP bill gets created, following the same workflow we have.”
GoFormz has become an essential aspect of HallWay Plumbing’s streamlined business operations. “We would have been dead in the water if GoFormz didn’t exist,” explained Vemuri. “We can’t run this business without this workflow engine in place.”
“We would have been dead in the water if GoFormz didn’t exist.”
– Sarat Vemuri, CFO and CIO, HallWay Plumbing
HallWay Plumbing also uses the SQL Server integration with plans to start evaluating data through Power BI. “We just wrapped up implementing the SQL Server with GoFormz, and the goal is to eventually use the data that gets pushed to the Azure SQL database to do some business analytics and report through Power BI Dashboards,” explained Vemuri. In addition to analyzing data further, HallWay Plumbing is planning on bringing another one of its portfolio companies into GoFormz.