For 20 years, Hiwassee's website had been little more than a digital billboard—a place to show customers who they were and what they did, but not a place to actually do business.

"We're in an industry that's just not embracing anything technological. And that's sad, because we're probably one of the industries that could benefit most from using and embracing technology." — Porter Clark, Owner

The problem was multifaceted. Contractors work long hours. They're on job sites during the day and catching up on paperwork at night. If they wanted to check their balance or make a payment outside of business hours, they simply couldn't.

"We used to open people up on credit and they didn't want credit accounts. But it was just hard to do cash business over the phone. You would write up a sales order, write it up as some kind of credit, and say, 'Hey, we'll just send you a bill.' Because that's easy for us. But if somebody wanted to pay us cash, credit card, or ACH, it was very complicated. We didn't make it easy for the customer." — Porter Clark, Owner

Then there was the question of their existing technology. Hiwassee had recently signed up for their ERP's customer portal, assuming it would handle online payments. But after going live, Porter felt it wasn't meeting their needs.

"If people are going to log in to pay larger sums of money, they want to feel comfortable. And if it just doesn't feel right, you back out of it. You forget you ever tried." — Porter Clark, Owner

When Hiwassee first met with the Toolbx team, they weren't yet live with their ERP implementation. What caught their attention was the e-commerce platform.

"We have to be convenient to Pros when they want to shop. Without opening a second shift or being open on weekends, we had to create a space for customers to do business with us on their terms." — Porter Clark, Owner

The team signed up for Toolbx but deliberately built in a six-month delay before implementation. They wanted to be fully stabilized on their new ERP first. Once stable, they moved forward with Toolbx as their e-commerce and customer portal platform of choice.

What They Launched

• Customer Payment Portal: A modern, secure interface where customers can log in to view their account balance, review invoices and statements, and make payments by credit card or ACH
• Self-Serve Payments: Customers can pay on their own schedule, whether that's 6 AM before heading to a job site or 10 PM after finishing paperwork
• Payment Links: The ability to send customers direct links to pay specific invoices, eliminating the friction of phone payments
• E-Commerce Platform: Online ordering for stocking items with real-time pricing
• Online Quoting: Quote requests for custom and special-order items

"We focus a lot on culture here at Hiwassee, and I can tell just from dealing with the team, that Toolbx has a good culture of like-minded people with a common goal." — Porter Clark, Owner

"Lord knows I'm not the easiest person to deal with. But having people that were highly skilled at what they do definitely makes it easy. It gave me a lot of confidence in what Toolbx can do and the future products they launch." — Porter Clark, Owner

Cash Sales Transformed

The most dramatic change Porter has observed is in cash sales. Before Toolbx, the friction of accepting non-credit payments was so high that the team would default to opening credit accounts even for customers who didn't want them. That's completely changed.

"I'm still amazed at how much cash business we're able to do now versus what we were doing. That drives your days outstanding, your AR, and those numbers get better when you make it easy for your customer." — Porter Clark, Owner

Hiwassee is now capturing payments from customers who previously would have been harder to collect from or who might have taken their business elsewhere.

Customers Paying on Their Terms

The self-serve payment portal has changed how customers interact with their accounts. Over 750 pros have made bill payments through the platform, with the majority being true self-serve transactions where customers log in and pay without any staff involvement.

"If somebody wants to give you money, you need to make that as convenient as possible. We don't need to make it complicated to take somebody's money." — Porter Clark, Owner

Porter notes that customer adoption has been surprising in some cases:

"I'm always surprised with which customers are more interested in these technologies. I've got some that walk in and I think they'll never embrace something like this. And they're the first ones to be on board." — Porter Clark, Owner

AR Performance at a 15-Year High

The combination of easier payments and real-time account visibility has had a measurable impact on collections. Customers no longer get surprised by their bills because they can check their balance anytime.

"We don't like surprises. We want to be fully transparent with our customers about what they owe, as real time as possible. Our days outstanding is better than it's been in 15 years." — Porter Clark, Owner

Reduced Administrative Burden

They've noticed a decrease in routine phone calls. When customers can look up pricing and check their balances online, they don't need to call the office.

"We're definitely seeing a decrease in those phone calls. 'Hey, how much is this?' We refer people to our website for accurate and up-to-date pricing." — Porter Clark, Owner