How construction companies can end the expenses nightmare

It’s an inevitable fact of big construction projects: Your workers make essential purchases on your behalf. Over a quarter (26%) do so every day and over half (51%) incur construction expenses weekly.

It’s part of the job. Two issues, however, emerge downstream from employee spend. Issue number one is time. Time spent submitting and reconciling expenses. In a Soldo commissioned survey, construction professionals sketched a frustrating picture of hours (and in some cases days) lost to processing expenses.

Hours and days wasted

A substantial portion (8.8%) spend more than a day each month processing their expenses.

Another chunk (12.8%) say it takes a full workday. A quarter (25%) said half a day. On a big construction project, time is money – and these results reveal an Achilles heel for large construction firms.

Employee out of pocket spend

The other key issue is employees spending out-of-pocket. Whether it’s on credit cards or personal expense claims. Workers are fronting up personal cash at a time when money is tight. For the company, too, a lack of oversight might lead to unexpected expenses. These amounts can be high, especially in complex projects.

It’s a source of undue pressure on your employees. Especially when a ready-made solution exists that benefits you and them: A pre-paid expenses card like Soldo’s. Let’s look at some practical examples of Soldo in action.

How Soldo helps construction firms

Picture the scene: someone from your team is heading out to one of your sites for the day.

He stops for fuel on the way and he grabs something to eat, too. A few hours later he procures essentials for an ongoing development transforming a brownfield site into a housing estate. In just one morning, this worker tallies up a myriad of expenses – big and small. Over the month, it adds up to a complex expense profile.

Pre-paid expense card

With Soldo, you give the employee a prepaid company card. This can be a physical card or a virtual one. You can make sure he has enough money to get the job done and keep track of where, when and how much he’s spending.

When the balance is low, your finance team will get a notification to top up. He never has to swipe his personal card for a business purchase. And on big projects, these amounts can be substantial, especially when it’s related to procurement or materials. So it’s vital that these spends don’t fall to the employee.

“With Soldo, I know I’ve always got my [employees’] backs and the best bit is that I don’t need to do loads of work” – Karen Green, operations manager at Titans Group.

No more paper receipts

With a Soldo card, the worker can will also have the Soldo app on his phone. Instead of maintaining a stack of paper receipts, he snaps a photo, links it to the relevant purchase in seconds and can add a note about the client or project it relates to.

Month-end reconciliation takes half the time, and neither of you has to worry about chasing bits of paper. This makes it easier to reclaim every bit of VAT you can.

‘Soldo has enabled us to close our old corporate credit card scheme, remove petty cash from our business and reduce the number of expense claims we process.’ – Lee Jaques, finance project manager at Bruntwood.

Easier month end reconciliation

Soldo seamlessly integrates with your pre-existing accounting software. Here’s an example of what it may look like:

• The worker taps his Soldo card to pay for fuel.
• He uses the app to mark it as procurement, snaps a photo of the receipt and adds a note of the site he was travelling to.
• Soldo automatically flows that transaction, receipt and note to your accounting suite.

‘Processes that previously would have taken our finance team a week a month is now taking them half a day thanks to Soldo’ – Gillian Murtagh, Owner, Shay Murtagh.

Put these construction expenses solutions into action

A big construction project is made up of a constellation of spending. Some smaller spends, and lots of big ones. It’s a complex picture – for both you and your employees.

Soldo is a win-win for everyone concerned. The pre-paid cards solve problems for workers on-site and the finance function.

Sign up to save time on reconciliation, stress less about chasing receipts and simplify spending for your people.