The Electrical Association and Project 2 Payment have joined forces to help make the lives of electrical contractors better. The Electrical Association has been around for more than 90 years, working with electrical contractors and their teams to develop educational programs, provide effective government advocacy, and create opportunities to connect with peers. Recently, the Electrical Association featured Ryan Beck, VP of Sales for Project 2 Payment, on their podcast, Spark’N Conversations, to introduce Project 2 Payment to their members. The purpose of the podcast is to keep electricians in the know about the latest developments in the industry. The podcast is hosted by Mike Miller, a 39-year veteran of the electrical contractor industry and the Curriculum & Training Director for the Electrical Association.
Mike started off the conversation by asking Ryan to let their listeners know a few things about Project 2 Payment’s mission statement, how our team works to accomplish our mission, and what our typical customer would be.
Project 2 Payment’s Mission: To give time and flexibility back to hardworking business owners through simple software tools.
Project 2 Payment accomplishes its mission by providing a simple software application that gives the necessary tools small businesses need to estimate, invoice, and take payments for their services without a lot of additional complexity or overpriced software modules that waste their time and money.
Typical Project 2 Payment customers are trades contractors and small service business owners that provide their customers with an estimate for services, then invoice for those services and take in-person or online payment. Project 2 Payment is built and priced for electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians, painters, landscaping and snow removal businesses, masonry, and cleaning professionals that have 10 or fewer employees. It’s all about keeping it simple. When it comes to sending out estimates and invoices, tracking customer and project details, and then collecting payment at the end, business owners use Project 2 Payment because it’s simple, easy, and fast.
Mike Miller: One of the things you mentioned in your product is that it does produce an estimate. Could you just share with our listeners a little bit about what kind of information is in that estimate and how I, as perhaps a customer, would use that estimate?
Ryan Beck: To give customers the ability to easily create line-itemized estimates, we have what we call an Item Library within the software. It’s fully customizable. You can create line items you need for each estimate and then track and store those items for future projects. The estimate also includes branding with your business name, logo, contact details, project name, and pricing, of course. If you send an estimate to your customer and they acknowledge everything looks good, with the click of a button, your customer can accept the proposal and, if you’re requiring any percentage of the money upfront, they can also pay for that either via credit card or an ACH payment method.
Mike Miller: Oh great. Ryan, if I were a contractor considering using your software products, do I have to be concerned with buying a new computer or would it work on my own Windows 10 or 12?
Ryan Beck: Project 2 Payment is fully web-based and will work with any computer as long as you have an internet or mobile service connection. If you’re out in the field or in the truck, you can use it from your mobile device, so there are no hardware or operating system worries from that standpoint.
When you utilize Project 2 Payment, one of the things contractors appreciate most is all of your work is saved as you go. So if you’re switching devices, you’re on your computer, then you run out and jump on your mobile device, it’s saved throughout the project and you can still have the latest project information at your fingertips.
Mike Miller: You started talking about how you can have a guy up and running in a day. That sounds almost impossible. So, you’re really thinking that you could have a guy up and running using Project 2 Payment in a day or less?
Ryan Beck: In order to process payments, we do require an online activation document to be completed and it asks some basic questions about the business tax ID, address, those types of things. Once we receive the submission, it’s within 24 hours. We’ve really fine-tuned the process over the years as a company. We’ve been in this business a little over 20 years or so. Software is what we do, and we’ve really dialed in the processes for activation, feedback, and simplicity when it comes to not only utilizing the software but getting up and running with it as well.
Mike Miller: Wow! Interesting. I’ve got one more question. As with any software product in the industry, there’s always that learning curve we must deal with. How does Project 2 Payment handle educating users on products or support after they’ve started?
Ryan Beck: With how busy and overworked a lot of this group is, we’ve put together a lot of self-learning materials to offer the most flexibility. We have many self-service support articles and documentation on how to get started, customizing the software, using features, and best practices. It’s an ever-evolving library. We’re always updating our customers on new software releases and what some of the best practices are for using the projects module, so you never have to check the software to learn about new features.
Our Support Team is available for questions via phone, email, or our ticketing system. If you’re out on the job and you’re on your mobile device and you have a question, right from within the app you can contact support and they can see exactly where you are in the system and what question you have. Within minutes, they’re usually able to address any questions that you have regarding the software or payments.
The interview above has been edited and shortened quite a bit to make it a quick read. We invite you to listen to the full podcast to hear all of the wonderful insight that both Mike Miller and Ryan Beck brought to the conversation. For questions about the Electrical Association, please contact them directly by going to their website, www.electricalassociation.com. For more information about Project 2 Payment and how we can help your business, please chat with one of our specialists.
