In order for Penn Line to comply with the project requirements, the company had to rethink the way it captured, transferred, and stored its site data.

Having heard of GoCanvas earlier in 2017, Dave reached out to our team with a plan to use the guardrail project as an opportunity to pilot the GoCanvas platform. The initial build was fairly simple, consisting only of the GoCanvas Form Builder, PDF Designer, and Reference Data tools.

Dave built a customized GoCanvas form to capture all the necessary data for Penn Line’s material certifications and used the pre-negotiated contract items to create four reference data files for tracking all materials used on site.

Moreover, using GoCanvas allowed the company to easily capture additional site data—like site conditions and unforeseen delays—to then be compiled into a simple PDF report within minutes.

Using GoCanvas, Penn Line revolutionized the way it worked, implementing:

Where Are They Now?

Since the initial project in 2017, Penn Line has grown its usage of GoCanvas to 80+ forms, 67 users, and 16,000 form submissions annually. The company now uses GoCanvas across all of its projects to capture daily site sheets, safety inspections, machinery operator checklists, damage records, and accident site logs.

After GoCanvas’s digital platform helped Penn Line move away from manually entering important information, the company began saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in erroneous invoicing and poor data management, improving efficiency by 80% with devices that employees already knew how to use.

Penn Line also increased the complexity of its GoCanvas build by incorporating extensions like Integrations and Analytics.

Improving Accident Site Logs with GoCanvas Integrations

A core aspect of Penn Line’s roadside, reclamation, and landscape division is repairing roadside damage caused by accidents. Prior to using GoCanvas Integrations, Penn Line supervisors would visit accident sites to manually record the damage and determine what materials, equipment, and traffic control measures would be needed for repairs.

Compiling these accident site logs would often take up a supervisor’s entire day. In most cases, logs were handwritten on site and rewritten at the office before being handed over to a foreman the following day.

Dave’s migration of the accident site logs to GoCanvas allowed supervisors to capture the GPS locations of sites, take photos, and record all necessary details without leaving the safety of their trucks. This alone saved countless hours of time by eliminating the need for handwritten site logs.

Next, the information was mapped through Zapier to Smartsheet, meaning accident site logs were now being sent to crews and state coordinators in real time and could be used as checklists to plan routes and avoid dual deployments. This enabled supervisors to track progress and manage their crews’ workloads.

“It’s imperative that we get our crews to these sites as efficiently as possible for the sake of productivity and safety,” said Dave. “Integrating GoCanvas with Smartsheet gives us everything we need. The power is in self-serve visibility at every level of work. The supervisor confirms damage, [then] captures the GPS position and the details that he needs without leaving the safety of his truck. The information is immediately routed, organized, and available for all stakeholders in real time on their mobile devices.”

“Conservatively speaking, this integration alone is saving us at least one to two hours of night work for each supervisor,” Dave went on. “With five supervisors, this equates to roughly 25 hours saved each week. It’s really hard to quantify the impact it’s had on crew organization, planning, routing, and execution, but it’s significant.”

Using GoCanvas Analytics to Improve Project Oversight and Invoicing

Up to this point, Penn Line had undergone a complete process revolution and was now operating more efficiently than ever before. However, maintaining oversight and managing the submission data of over 80 GoCanvas forms could be incredibly challenging, especially when invoicing customers.

Prior to implementing GoCanvas Analytics, Penn Line was manually pulling all projects’ submission data and compiling invoices on a weekly basis. Not only was this a very time-consuming process, it also allowed a lot of room for human error.

Using GoCanvas Analytics, Penn Line created a fully customized live view of all submission data, which included:

To top it all off, Penn Line’s finance team now receives a weekly summary report containing all the information needed to invoice customers. The report automatically pulls data across all existing projects and allows the team to save over six hours on invoicing every week.

According to Dave, “Analytics is giving our AP team back six hours every single week. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s almost a full day for one team member. Thanks to Analytics and a couple of other adjustments in tools and process, we are now able to reallocate one full-time employee to other under-resourced areas of the business.”

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their jobsites and rethink their project management, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.