Launching an Automated Claim-Settlement Platform for SquareDash

Helping an ambitious fintech startup build up its MVP to a full-fledged production platform — in 14 months

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Background

SquareDash, a veteran-owned startup based in Fort Worth, Texas, wanted to help roofers and restoration contractors fix a nagging cash flow problem.

Whenever a contractor finishes a roofing or restoration job, they often have to wait for up to two months before getting paid by an insurance company. Because all job expenses are front-loaded, delays in payment often create cash flow difficulties for contractors that interfere in operating their businesses.

SquareDash wanted to build a fintech solution that would enable contractors to get paid for completed insurance jobs much faster — typically, within a few business days — via short-term cash advances secured by insurance scopes.

Customer

SquareDash

Challenge

From the outset, SquareDash knew they needed to validate their idea and evaluate potential demand. SquareDash started with a basic open source expense and payments solution to create a minimal viable product (MVP), which was then used to measure product-market fit and validate their ideas.

While the MVP results were promising, it became obvious that the underlying solution came with limitations and constraints. In the future, these constraints could hamper product development and limit customizations that would be necessary to create a great product and customer experience for contractors and property owners.

SquareDash realized they needed a long-term technology partner to re-architect and rebuild their MVP, without any inherent tech limitations that would prevent future development of their product.

When deciding to build the next version of their payments and cash advance platform, SquareDash was looking for a collaborative software development partner with experience in delivering Web applications across multiple industries. Fielding a complete team of Business Analysts, Engineers, and Designers was also very important. Emerline met all the important criteria for SquareDash.

Solution

Built by Emerline from the ground up, SquareDash now operates a proprietary fintech platform that supports key business processes within the roofing and restoration industry.

The solution enables contractors to quickly receive payments for completed jobs, while also offering managed billing services. Using the capabilities of the SquareDash platform and billing services, contractors’ interactions with property owners, mortgage companies, and insurance carriers are automated and greatly simplified, allowing contractors to focus on scaling their core business.

Scope of services and delivery

Emerline assembled an expert cross-functional team that provided full-cycle custom product development services — from requirements identification and analysis to system design development, programming, testing, and deployment.

The team delivered the product using agile methods based on short sprints and iterative delivery cycles to ensure stakeholder feedback was integrated at all times. When building the platform, a major focus was placed on simplicity and ease-of-use simplifying job management, cash advance, and payment services to contractors and their customers.

After the product went live, the team continued to provide support and develop enhancements to maintain evolving user needs and SquareDash service capabilities.

Timeline and outcomes

The development process took 14 months, and a production-ready version was completed by the end of April 2024. The platform successfully went live and is now actively gaining new clients across the U.S.

The platform is a vertically integrated payments and cash advance platform for the roofing and restoration industry. It has allowed SquareDash to scale its business with digital capabilities for managing jobs, payments, and cash advances within one simplified system for roofers and property owners.

Advanced document recognition and post-processing

The SquareDash system uses a custom-built algorithm for uploading and processing insurance scope documents from carriers, converting them into line item details with section and summary totals for easy-to-manage jobs. The algorithm uses custom post-processing to maintain accuracy of the data.

Because insurance scope documents usually differ by company, the SquareDash system also equips operators with powerful time-saving features to quickly validate line item data and ensure its consistency.

Features and capabilities

Easy sign-up process:

Intuitive contractor sign-up process that includes KYB (Know Your Business) checks

Document management:

Upload and automated processing of insurance scope documents with line-item-level online editing capabilities

Full-cycle jobs management:

Full-cycle contracting job management (creating jobs, confirming job completion, generating Certificates of Completion, etc.)

Fast payment processing:

Accepting online payments from property owners and transferring funds to a contractor's account avoiding travel time and processing delays to pick up and deposit traditional checks

ACH and wire transfers:

Digital funds transfer via ACH or wire to the contractor's bank account

Contractor credit management:

Managing cash advance credit limits for contractors and calculating job-specific credit limits

Faster contractor payouts:

Getting contractors paid faster on insurance jobs by issuing short-term cash advances directly to a contractor’s account on the SquareDash platform

Cash advance processing:

Online processing of cash advance repayments

Credit or ACH payments:

Options for accepting homeowner payments via credit card or ACH

Financial analytics

Financial reporting and analytics

Technology Stack

Frontend

React

TypeScript

Apollo Client

GraphQL

Tailwind CSS

Backend

TypeScript

Prisma

PostgreSQL

SendGrid

Sentry

DevOps

GitHub Actions

Terraform

AWS cloud

Lambda

API Gateway

Route 53

RDS

ECS

ElastiCache

SQS

CloudWatch

EC2

ECR

S3

CloudFront

EventBridge

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