How Hoem & Associates Turned $336K of Floor Prep Chaos into Paid Change Orders Using Clearstory

✅ $336,000 in no-hassle COR approvals on a single job

✅ 24-hour average turn from T&M Tag to COR

✅ 1,600+ labor hours and 108 photos tracked effortlessly on one job

"We’re a relationship-first business in a relationship-first industry,” says John Rally, CFO and Principal at San Francisco, CA-based Hoem & Associates. “When it comes to Change Orders, Clearstory takes the friction out of those relationships." 

For over 50 years, Hoem & Associates has been a cornerstone of the Bay Area's commercial flooring scene. Known for high-end work on corporate offices, hospitals, and higher education, Hoem built its reputation on long-standing GC relationships. But even the strongest partnerships were strained by the industry’s clunky, manual Change Order process.

"Before Clearstory, paper T&M tickets could take weeks to process. Sometimes they got lost or showed up damaged. We were sending coffee-stained paper to GCs on million-dollar jobs," says Rally.

Like most Specialty Contractors, Hoem struggled with the classic jobsite-to-office shuffle: handwritten tags dropped off at desks, delayed pricing, missed billing windows, and limited visibility into what was pending. Change Orders were manually tracked in Excel and email chains —a fall-back that created risk and slowed down cash flow. “We were back in the old age, scanning copies before they were signed, sending them out, handing off physical copies—then trying to track them down after they got lost,” Rally says. “A lot of times, we’d get tickets rejected on merit, and we’d have to go back and compile the documentation to justify that yes, this was extra work.”

Getting Paid for Work Already Done

When Hoem heard about Clearstory through industry word of mouth, the value prop clicked immediately. "You're not changing what work you do. You're just finally getting paid for all of it," Rally explains. "That was the benefit  that resonated." 

Purpose-built to help Specialty Contractors reduce risk and get paid faster on out of contract work, Clearstory’s core product is a shareable, cloud-based Change Order Log that creates instant alignment between stakeholders with powerful tools like a mobile app for digital T&M Tags, built-in Change Order templates, instant pricing, and more.

Within weeks, Hoem went all-in. Paper T&M pads disappeared. Field teams started using the Clearstory mobile app to submit digital T&M Tags with photos and notes attached. The office team could instantly review, price, and convert them to Change Order Requests—no more waiting for paperwork to trickle in.

"We ripped the Band-Aid off. No workarounds, no paper backups,” Rally says. “The first week there were grumbles. The second week, everyone saw how much easier it was."

"Try getting six figures of floor prep approved without bulletproof documentation. You won't. With Clearstory, we made our case before it could even be questioned."

John Rally

CFO and Principal, Hoem & Associates

Faster Turnarounds, Stronger GC Relationships

With Clearstory, Hoem slashed its tag-to-submittal time from weeks to 24 hours. Project managers could price tags the same day they came in. GCs saw clean, timely documentation with photos and man-hours already broken out—making approvals easier and disputes rarer.

One particularly technical project put Clearstory to the test. Floor prep issues across four stories meant 26 separate CORs totaling $336,000. Every single one was approved.

"Try getting six figures of floor prep approved without bulletproof documentation,” Rally says. “You won't. With Clearstory, we had 108 photos, 1,600 hours tracked, and every COR tied to a signed T&M Tag. We made our case before it could be questioned."

From Rally's CFO seat, that kind of visibility is a game changer. "Before, you’d walk by a PM's desk and see a pile of paper tags. Is that $5K of work? $50K? You had no idea,” he says.

“Now I can log in and see what’s been submitted, what’s pending, and what needs pricing. It’s night and day." That transparency extends to GCs, too. Sharing a live, cloud-based COR log builds trust and eliminates the end-of-job scramble. No more hunting down tickets or approval signatures. Just clean, trackable documentation the GC can forward upstream.

"We've had GCs say they wished every sub used Clearstory,” Rally says. “When they see how organized we are, they remember it. It gives us a leg up."

Built for the Jobsite, Designed for Results

For Hoem & Associates, the return on investment with Clearstory goes beyond speed. Yes, the Change Order process is faster—but it's also smarter. Project managers no longer spend hours tracking things down. Instead, they manage projects with clean, real-time visibility into what’s been submitted, priced, and approved. 

“It’s not just faster—it’s better,” Rally says. “Our documentation is cleaner. Our Change Orders are more defensible. And we get paid faster.”

What used to be a chaotic paper trail is now a seamless, cloud-based system. Foremen create easy digital T&M Tags that the office can see instantly to price and convert to a Change Order Request, often all in the same day. Every change is accounted for. Every hour is documented. And every stakeholder, including the GC, can see exactly where things stand.

Rally doesn’t mince words about the impact. “If you're still using paper T&M tickets, you're already behind. Clearstory makes you look like the pro you are. It protects your relationships, your revenue, and your time.”