EKMH Innovators Interview Series
A new interview series spotlighting global tech influencers, disruptors, visionaries, and of course, innovators.
Since launching in 1997, Caliber Collision, has reportedly become the largest collision repair company in the United States. The company aims to stay current by setting new standards in customer service and by implementing cutting edge tech such as IoT, fintech, AI robotics and APIs. Treasury Services Vice President Julie Weaver and her team have led the charge in Caliber’s campaign, by starting a formal Treasury department and initiating changes that not only saved time but also millions of dollars in the company’s bank fees, interest and rebates earned. Caliber Collision now counts more than 1100 locations across 37 states and is continuing to grown.
Several years ago, Weaver made the decision to partner with AI-driven integrated receivables solution provider HighRadius, and watched as her team went from spending 80-90% of their time doing manual cash application to spending just 5% managing exceptions. To date, HighRadius has processed over a trillion dollars globally over its platform.
I recently caught up with Weaver via email to discuss a variety of topics including plans for growth, her innovative role at Caliber Collision, the decision incorporate more tech into Treasury, the importance of community involvement, her career in finance, her experience with automation. Our interview follows:
EKMH: What opportunities do you see in cash management? How does Caliber Collision utilize or plan to utilize fintech to accelerate the cash cycle, reduce fees, simplify field operations and improve cash reconciliations? Which platforms would be ideal partners and why?
Julie Weaver: I see several technology advances in cash management. While there is an awareness of the internet of things, AI and robotics, APIs and faster payment channels, these technologies haven’t been implemented on a broad basis in most Treasury departments. In Caliber’s case, we are interested in exploring external APIs for importing check images and embedding them in our ERP. We have discussed the feasibility of implementing robotics for some of our manual bank statement, bank report, credit card statement report pulling/saving. Although not a new concept, we are also talking about supply chain finance and how that can benefit our cash flow and vendors. If we move forward with this, we will engage both banks and fintechs for this since technology and credit availability are priorities. We continue our move away from checks for both receivables and payables. With our growth come opportunities to review Treasury services for volume discounts and negotiation.
Caliber Collision
EKMH: How has Calliber Collision’s Treasury Services changed and grown under your leadership? What problems have you addressed and solved in the department’s strategies, operations and policies?
Julie Weaver: Caliber has seen tremendous change over the past 5 years due to the growth of the company and increased focus on the Treasury department and A/R centralization and automation. I was hired by Caliber to start a formal Treasury department. In 2014, the Treasury function was handled in the Accounting department and managing cash was a necessity, not a focus. The primary goal at that time was to manage cash enough to maintain good standing at the banks and provide information to Accounting to book transactions accurately. A/R was posted at each shop location by the office manager. Then there were about 178 stores, but the company was starting to grow quickly. It was increasingly difficult for the Accounting team to reconcile because there was no consistency with cash posting.
When I came onboard at Caliber, the problems that I identified and addressed were inefficient, expensive processes, control deficiencies, reconciliation difficulties and complicated, error-prone processes. These issues needed to be changed in order for the company to grow as planned. The obvious low hanging fruit was the bank structure and Treasury services.
For Caliber’s business model, it was overly complicated. We were banking at multiple banks and had accounts that were not even being used. I centralized bank accounts at one bank and closed accounts that were no longer in use. I also reviewed Treasury services and changed or closed services that were not being used. The cash forecast was revamped to simplify the preparation as well and daily cash management was implemented. We started borrowing/paying down or investing on a daily basis vs the weekly or “as needed” frequency that was in place. We also submitted RFPs for merchant services and Pcard providers, implementing a robust card program which has grown to include vendor payables and gas cards. These changes saved millions in bank fees, interest and rebates earned, and simplified cash position and cash forecasting, saving time.
On the A/R side, we started centralizing receipt posting. EFT or ACH payments were the desired payment method of many of our insurance partners. We set up a master EFT bank account and subaccounts for each major insurance company. The receipts were directed to these bank accounts and the remittances were retrieved either by portal or email by a centralized. The centralized A/R team posted these payments using uploads, instead of manual entry into the system.
Another key advantage was that the daily A/R system postings were balanced to the cash received each day, greatly improving reconciliation. With ACH payments under control, we centralized check and credit card receipts. A new process was implemented in which shops key in the invoice number when processing a check or credit card. This invoice information comes over in our funding report so the centralized A/R team is able to post the receipt with the funds.
The next improvement was implementing the HighRadius tool to automate the process. This automation changed the department and refocused the team. This transition of the department has taken time and patience, keeping an eye on the goal and working toward it. Working cooperatively and gaining trust from the field management was also key. We finalized our last bit of centralization last year so that our team is now posting 100% of A/R, including distributions, adjustments and write offs. Centralization has allowed us to control the A/R subledger by limiting system access to the A/R team. We are able to provide the internal customer excellent service by managing their A/R timely, consistently and efficiently. We are continuously reviewing our processes and they are constantly changing as our business changes.
EKMH: What problems do you anticipate as Caliber Collision grows beyond its 1100+ locations across 37 states? How have you planned for these potential disruptions?
Julie Weaver: When we were defining the processes, we never lost sight of the future and made sure that what we built worked now and with much higher volumes. For that reason, the same process works as well for our current number of Centers as it would for double or triple the volume. While the HighRadius Cash Application tool covers us on the front end, there are more automation opportunities in sight for research and support opportunities as the number of customers that we support increases.
EKMH: Please tell us more about your decision to partner with AI-driven integrated receivables solution provider HighRadius.
Julie Weaver: My first introduction to HighRadius was at a Treasury conference. The speaker from HighRadius was talking about the role of robotics and showed a demo of how the “bot” can log in to various portals and retrieve information. At the time, the Caliber A/R team had a daily process that required us to manually log in separately for each shop for one of our insurance carriers. You can imagine how onerous this task was given there were 400 shops each with a different login. We had the work divided among 3 teammates who spent the first 1-2 hours a day logging in and copy/pasting remittance information into a spreadsheet. Having a “bot” complete that information retrieval process was an easy decision. For the one carrier alone, the team saved 3-6 hours a day by automating that process.
We invited HighRadius to visit and review our processes. Prior to contracting with HighRadius for their Cash Application product, we researched the company and other competitors in this space and received customer references. We started the automation with just two carriers (customers) and integrated the activity into the HighRadius system. The process required some IT support, but it was minimal. We directed our bank BAI file from the bank and our open A/R file to HighRadius as well as the login criteria and any email remittances. This trial helped with change management because we were able to become comfortable with the system and new process before changing everything. HighRadius encouraged us to work with the carriers before the project started to ensure we were receiving the most efficient remittances. HighRadius consultants took time to understand our business and current process before blueprinting the change. In 2017, we rolled out phase 2 which incorporated the remaining insurance carriers. In total, we saved 2 headcounts. From 2016 to 2019, we were able to keep our headcount steady. Caliber achieved a high hit rate (matched A/R) of 95% using the HighRadius tool.
It is important to mention that maintenance is required to keep the match rate. As changes occur in the business, they must be communicated to HighRadius. We are always raising tickets to add a new login or identifying when there is an error. This attention keeps the system operating most efficiently. HighRadius is always enhancing the system as well. It is important to keep up with the enhancements so you can improve your work experience in the system. Some enhancements require the customer to “opt in” so continuing education is critical.
Some additional benefits that the system provided is that it offers a consistent platform to work with instead of a separate process for each carrier and employee development. With the HighRadius system, the type of work the A/R team was doing changed from being manual, repetitive, tedious processes primarily based in Excel to value-added system work. The team has gained a higher-level skill and is prepared for the future.
EKMH: What’s your vision for Caliber Collision in the next year? in the next three years?
Julie Weaver: Caliber is still very much in growth mode. Not only did Caliber merge with ABRA Collision earlier this year, the company is continuing smaller acquisitions and new builds. The plan is to add at least 100 new shops per year over the next three years.
For my department, we continue to implement best practices and controls in all areas. Fraud is a topic of concern for all Treasury departments. We protect our accounts with bank fraud prevention products like positive pay and ACH filters and educate all departments involved in payments (Treasury, A/P, Vendor Management, Payroll) about fraud with annual awareness education. We’ve also identified that there is still more automation to do. In addition to the HighRadius system for receipts, we also use a homegrown middleware system for receipts. We currently only use the middleware for 4 carrier payments, but the goal is to load all payments into this tool. The middleware houses the payment history and is a repository for unapplied payments. The system continuously tries to match payments and is visible for all of Caliber’s shops. It is also used to request refunds, which are prevalent in our business. The middleware provides a self-service tool for them so they can perform their own research to assist with collections.
EKMH: What are your thoughts about AI automation and its future?
Julie Weaver: AI automation has significantly changed Caliber’s A/R function so I’m a firm believer in its usefulness. AI can be applied in many other areas outside of A/R and Collections. Any manual process can benefit from AI. I believe we’ve only skimmed the surface of the practical applications for AI.
EKMH: Do you spend as much time forecasting cash flow as on the income statement?
Julie Weaver: The income statement process is managed in the Accounting department, but I would estimate that it takes much longer to prepare than the cash flow forecast. Some businesses would say the opposite, but our cash forecast is fairly straightforward because we work primarily with one bank and don’t deal with foreign currencies.
For the income statement, inputs are consolidated from multiple sources from our 1,100+ locations to create. Creating the income statement is more complex and various checklists and allocations are required. The main challenge of the cash flow forecast is accuracy. Our cash forecast has an algorithm that calculates check clearings which is one of the more complicated numbers to forecast. Other cash flows such as payroll and taxes are more predictable. Then there are always manual entry items such as acquisition cash flows.
EKMH: How have your past treasury roles at Galderma and Raytheon prepared you for your current role? What personal qualities have enabled you to lead and collaborate well? What advice do you have to build strong relationships and manage people well?
Julie Weaver: My past roles have provided me with important experience that I have applied at Caliber. I am fortunate that my experience has been well rounded not only in Treasury but also in Accounting and Finance. At Raytheon, I started in Treasury but then moved to Accounting and then back to Treasury. I gained the basics of cash management in this position. Cash position calculation, spreadsheet skills, Treasury services, wire transfers, letters of credit, bank relationship management and the importance of working capital. The Accounting experience was useful in understanding journal entries and financial reporting. I also saw the dynamics of how a merger affects a business as Raytheon acquired my original employer, E-Systems.
At Galderma, I was employed at a point in time where there was significant growth on the horizon for the company. I was hired as a financial analyst and held various Finance and Accounting positions during my tenure. I was able to see a company from a broader perspective, not just Treasury or Accounting. I gained management experience here as well and more analytical and operational skills. When the company became large enough that a Treasury Manager position was created, I decided to get back to my roots. This was my first opportunity to create a Treasury department from the ground up. We expanded our operational Treasury duties to include an increased focus on working capital analytics and impact. My role at Caliber was similar in that I was hired to start a Treasury department. A major difference was that Caliber was a multi-location, almost retail environment. It was more operational, and customer focused, to which I quickly adapted.
While all of these technical skills and experiences are extremely valuable and necessary in my current role, the soft skills prepared me most for success in my current role. Communication, leadership, persistence and attitude made it possible for me to hit the ground running. I asked a lot of questions and used available resources. I gained the trust of my immediate team and cross functionally began being invited to strategic meetings. I built relationships with our outside vendors and bankers and listened to their advice. My personal strengths of strategic thinking, ideation and project management allowed me to define a future vision for the department and take steps to get there. It was the Caliber teammates that put the steps into action so people management and change management is key.
Again, trust plays a role. My teammates know that I am here for them and truly want them to be successful. I ask a lot of questions, communicate and involve them in decisions. I encourage an entrepreneurial spirit so teammates take ownership of their jobs and make suggestions and decisions as if it were their own company. I recognize that there is always room for improvement and continually work to make improvements, which is especially critical in this quickly changing field.
EKMH: When was the last time you had car repairs at Caliber? What did you learn from your experience?
Julie Weaver: I was able to take advantage of my company’s services. My experience was as our purpose states: Caliber “restored me to the rhythm of my life.” The shop communicated throughout the process through texts, as I requested, and went above and beyond by giving me a ride to work when I dropped off my car. When the Center manager learned that I was a Caliber employee, he gave me a tour of the facility. Caliber supports its customers and how they incorporate the company’s core values and commitment to safety.
EKMH: Please tell us about your pro bono consulting and volunteer work.
Julie Weaver: I am very involved with professional development in the Treasury field. I am on the board of the Fort Worth Association for Financial professionals and am the co-chair of TEXPO 2021, a Treasury and Finance conference with over 1,000 in attendance. I also participate on a bank and a fintech advisory council. I have spoken at several events including the TEXPO, bank sponsored and HighRadius conferences on subjects such as Managing Change, AI and Robotics, Fraud, Leadership and Credit card program management.
I support Caliber’s charities, the American Heart Association, local food banks, Recycled Rides and other veteran programs (Carry the Load) by volunteering, participating and managing funds for the fundraising events.
EKMH: How would you encourage more business leaders to become involved in their own communities?
Julie Weaver: Community involvement provides a sense of purpose and also presents great opportunities for networking. It is a platform for improving and practicing leadership skills such as speaking, organizing, motivating, brainstorming and building confidence. It is gratifying to work on a project from inception to success for a good cause. Caliber’s commitment to community involvement pulls teammates from all departments together with the same goal. When all employees who participate have “something in common”, employee engagement and overall work satisfaction increases.
EKMH: Which books would you recommend reading and to which podcasts do you listen?
Julie Weaver: I occasionally listen to TED talks and Scott Stratten’s “un”podcasts because they are entertaining and provide a diverse view of the world while hitting home with subjects such as customer service, communication and leadership. Scott spoke at one of the Treasury conferences I attended and I have been a fan ever since. Outside of online news, I mostly read for pleasure and enjoy adventure, mystery with a historical twist such as Clive Cussler.