AVIDITY INNOVATIONS
Janitorial Services
How Avidity helped a $7M commercial cleaning company build an automated finance department. From the first sales call to the final invoice - they knew where every dollar was going
Finance
About
Company: Green Shield Facility Services
Location: San Diego, CA
Revenue at Start: $7M
Starting Zone: Zone 4 - Finance
Services: Strategy, Implementation, and Maintenance
Baseline
31%
increase in net profit
Same revenue
18 hrs
saved per week in manual tasks
936 hours saved per year = 1/2 FTE
$214k
First 90 Days
hidden costs identified & cut
16 days
WAS 38 Days
Average days sales outstanding
-57.8%
"We weren't losing money — we just had such a delay in knowing exactly where things were. Avidity found the gaps and fixed them without touching the QuickBooks setup I'd spent years getting right. That was the non-negotiable for me."
​
- Diana R., Green Shield
THE SITUATION BEFORE AVIDITY
Green Shield was doing solid work across 40+ commercial accounts — janitorial and special cleaning contracts — but the back office was running on manual everything. Invoices went out late. Follow-up on overdue accounts happened whenever someone remembered. The owner, Diana, had a part-time bookkeeper spending two full days a week chasing payments, reconciling QuickBooks manually, and re-entering data that already existed somewhere else in the system. Cash flow was unpredictable enough that Diana kept a personal credit line open as a buffer — a buffer she'd drawn on three times in the past 18 months.
1
Automated invoice generation tied to service completion
Previously, invoices were created manually after a job was marked complete — sometimes days later. We connected Green Shield's field scheduling tool to QuickBooks so that when a service event is logged as complete, a corresponding invoice drafts automatically using pre-built templates by service type.
-
Invoice drafts generate within 15 minutes of service completion log
-
Customers can request add-on services through portal, by text, or at time of service
-
Templates built per contract type: recurring monthly, per-visit, and project-based
-
Owner or bookkeeper reviews and approves in one click — no data entry required
-
Average invoice turnaround went from 6.2 days to same day
2
Tiered collections sequence — automated but never robotic
QuickBooks already tracks aging receivables. We built a collections workflow on top of it that triggers the right communication at the right time — without the bookkeeper having to initiate anything. Each touch is professional, personalized to the client, and escalates only if the previous contact goes unanswered.
-
Day 1 of due: auto-send receipt confirmation and payment link via email
-
Day 3 past due: polite email reminder with invoice attached and one-click pay
-
Day 10 past due: second email + text to accounts payable contact on file
-
Day 21 past due: escalation flagged in QuickBooks dashboard for Diana to call directly
-
All sequences pause immediately upon payment — no awkward messages after the fact
3
Diana and her team can now see more than just the financial metrics that drive the business. She can tell if the business is actually making money on each account or just staying busy. Real time metrics in all areas of the business tells her they are on the right track for growth.
Financial
-
Gross margin by contract
-
Revenue per labor hour
-
Days sales outstanding
-
Customer acquisition cost vs. lifetime value
-
Contract renewal rate
Operations
-
Labor utilization rate - billable hours vs. total paid hours
-
Supply cost as a percentage of revenue
-
Callback rate
-
Inspection pass rate
People
-
Employee / Contractor turnover rate
-
Absenteeism rate
-
Training completion rate
Client​
-
Net Promotoer Score (NPS) or satisfaction survey results
-
Contract retention by account size
-
Upsell rate
​
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) tied together
4
Cash flow forecasting dashboard
Diana was drawing on a personal credit line because she couldn't see what was coming. We built a 30/60/90-day cash flow view using live QuickBooks data — receivables aging, recurring contract schedules, and vendor payment obligations — so she could see a real cash position at any point, not just month-end.
-
Dashboard refreshes daily from QuickBooks data — no manual input
-
Shows confirmed receivables, expected receivables, and overdue by aging bucket
-
Flags weeks where cash position dips below Diana's defined comfort threshold
-
Personal credit line has not been drawn on since month 3 of the engagement
WHAT WE BUILT
AVIDITY designed a billing and collections system built around QuickBooks Online as the hub — not a replacement for it. Every automation either lives inside QuickBooks or connects to it via a verified, tested integration before we touched a single live account.