Before Wingspan:
- Multiple instances of previous vendor made for a complicated and semi-manual payment process that missed key elements of contractor management
- No option to process 1099s via third-party vendor, making it a manual and time-consuming race every January for their finance team
- Stream of support tickets from contractors confused about pay transparency and process
After Wingspan:
- Scalable, transparent, automated payroll suited for contractors
- Integration with NetSuite gives finance team everything they need in one place
- A 1099 process that is automated and easy for their finance team to manage
- Positive provider feedback
- 41% growth in provider base
Overview
Octave Therapy, a modern therapy practice, seeks to provide agency to both clients and the providers in every interaction. For VP of Finance Tammy Fuqua, this mission means finding a technology partner that can handle the complex healthcare landscape for their ~2,000 providers across the country. “We view contracted clinicians as our customers because they’re the ones providing life-changing care to our clients,” she explains. “Our goal is to give providers the best possible experience so that they can sustain a valuable career doing what they love, which is helping patients get better.”
Challenge
With only two finance teammates focused on the provider network, Tammy’s team had her work cut out for her. They were using multiple instances for different legal entities within the business, which created a confusing accounting landscape to manage. The existing technology also didn’t offer itemized invoices, which created a lot of questions from their providers every pay cycle.
On top of that, the existing technology didn’t offer 1099 processing. This meant their team manually had to download relevant information out of the platform, reformat it, and upload it into another system to manage all of the 1099s. This slow, time-consuming process was difficult for the accounting team and confusing for contracted providers. “We would just get plummeted with email requests about 1099s,” she sighs. “It was a nightmare, constantly in our support platform helping people get it right.”
Ultimately, they wanted a better experience for their team and for their providers. “It was impossible for us to manage contractors at a large scale,” she explains. “We knew we needed to find a better way.”
That meant a technology partner that could automate much of this manual process while giving contractors more transparency and benefits. “Why move to Wingspan? We needed a better experience for our contractors, and Wingspan is a scalable solution that allowed us to have a consistent payment schedule, in a system that was really built with contractors in mind,” says Tammy.
Solution
Wingspan gives Octave’s finance team the ability to automate payments in a system that’s easy to use. “It’s fantastic to work with,” says Tammy. “Wingspan is so user-friendly. It’s modern, it’s fresh, and it’s focused on the contractor experience. Not only is it something I like to use, but it’s something our providers love, too. It checks all the boxes of what we needed, which was scalability, solid integration capabilities, and being able to do it all from one platform.”
Octave onboarded over 1,300 providers to Wingspan in one day, and have been able to steadily add and pay more providers each month. 96% of these providers are repeat payees.
As VP of Finance, Tammy is heads-down in Wingspan every single day. “It’s been a great transition to the platform, and for my small team, it saves so much time. Being able to be in one space to pay our providers and to deliver a seamless 1099 process gives me such peace of mind.”
Wingspan also integrates with Octave’s NetSuite instance, so there’s less context-switching for the team when running accounting reports. This customization allows the team to provide the financial information they care about in the way that makes sense to how the team works.
Impact
Since launching on Wingspan, Octave has grown its provider base by 41% and processed over $73M in payments. Octave successfully completed its first tax season on Wingspan this past year. Over 3,000 Form 1099-NEC were filed and accepted by the IRS, with a 100% acceptance rate. This automated 1099 process saved Octave over 100 hours on provider support questions.
This year, “working with Wingspan is such a breath of fresh air,” says Tammy. “It’s easy. It’s all in one system. It drastically cut down the amount of time that my team spends on payroll and having to deal with 1099 errors and questions. It’s just so much better than what we had before.”
More importantly, switching to Wingspan gives Octave the foundation to grow as a platform. Since launching on Wingspan, Octave’s provider base is growing and staying engaged. 63% of providers have received over 20 payments - signaling both repeat engagements and ease of payments. “We would not have been able to grow this year the same way under our old systems. Octave is able to do a lot of innovative things, and Wingspan has been a great partner in addressing the complexities and challenges that come up as we scale,” says Tammy.
Final Thoughts
But for Tammy and her team, it’s not just about the technology. It’s about the people. Says Tammy, “The Wingspan team has been so key to the success of the partnership. They’ve been wonderful to work with, holding my hand through the implementation, customizing the platform to our needs, and helping us navigate this new system. For me, personally, having a team that’s there to support us and support the business has been the biggest win.”
Want to learn more about why the contractor experience matters more than you think? Download our new report – The Future of Flexible Work: Contractor Management & Hiring Trends.
