4 Ways Center Helps Construction Businesses Outpace the Competition

Both commercial and residential construction firms are complicated businesses, with work being completed in offices as well as across multiple sites in the field. To succeed, these businesses must be able to keep track of and manage cash flow, accurately predict the costs of each job, meticulously track expenses, and maximize job profits. The companies that are most successful have learned how to leverage technology to drive efficiency and outpace the competition.

The Center team recently analyzed the top trends affecting construction businesses and how Center can help them stay ahead and stand out. Here’s what we’re seeing.

1. Automating backend processes allows more time for critical tasks

Successful construction firms embrace industry changes, including using automation to eliminate mistakes and improve accuracy so employees can spend time on more important tasks.

Center’s intelligent automation streamlines processes and saves teams significant time. Moving away from manual accounting tasks, speeding up your month-end process, and saving money are quick wins:

“Center is an amazing system that has made keeping track of expenses a breeze!…We no longer lose receipts. Accuracy of accounting for each card charge has increased and there has been a huge reduction in errors.”
Dusty P., Systems Manager

“Streamlined credit card approval processes…Approvals ensure correct coding before reaching accounts payable for uploading. Real-time coding of expenses…Improved transparency to employee spending. Closing and uploading of transaction details for streamlining month-end closing.”
Rex K., VP of Business Operations

“Great CC solution for time saving. Reconciling can be done at any point in time, you don’t have to wait until the end of the month. You can take photos of your receipts and the charges can be coded immediately. Before Center, we were downloading each users statements, manually formatting in excel, emailing out, user was manually coding, sending back and then each charge line (each month) was being hand entered. All receipts had to be individually scanned and emailed in.”
Felecia D., Accounting Supervisor

“Excellent fully integrated tool for rapid job costing and receipt capture. Constant reminders for our project managers in the field to capture their receipts and job cost each expense on the spot. Very flexible tool that can give great insight into your business and integrate seamlessly into not only accounting but also operations. Center Expense has cut our month ending closing process time down significantly. We no longer are chasing receipts and trying to figure out what jobs the expense is for.”
David C., CFO

2. Mobile technology is key

When most of your workforce is out in the field, mobile technology isn’t just nice to have, it’s a must-have. Mobile apps can eliminate the need for workers to hang onto paper receipts and turn them in at the end of the month—everything can be done on the go.

Finance teams and workers in the field both love Center’s user-friendly mobile app and web portal:

“Easy to use, makes credit card management simple and intuitive. The App makes it very simple to stay updated. Faster receipt and more useful reports save time at all steps of the process.”
Verified User in Construction, Mid-Market

“Great for the field! Center is great for the team in the field to enter expense information as they make the purchases. We use Procore project management software and can upload expenses for each project. Our project managers like that they can enter project information for expenses on the spot and don’t have to keep track of it until it is submitted. This helps our cash flow by making sure we are invoicing for these expenses each month.”
Linda L., Director of Finance

“Couldn’t be happier. Well first, it’s free. Second, it already has an iOS and Android native app, and a Web-Browser portal. The fact that transactions immediately populate into the system is such a time saver. It also has fields that learn what to select based on other fields…Simplifies getting real-time costs from field to accounting.”
Ethan W., VP Estimating & Design

“Coding out expenses is very easy for our team and many of them have never done anything like this before. The dynamic mobile option is key especially with our field team. Would highly recommend this expense software!”
Katrina O., Senior Accountant

3. Intuitive, easy-to-use tools can be a competitive advantage

Construction employees need to hold a lot of specialized and highly technical knowledge in their heads, so they particularly benefit from intuitive tools that don’t require a lot of training. And tools that give them the info they need when they need it, allowing them to take immediate action, are particularly valuable.

Center customers love being able to pull accurate, up-to-date reports any time they need them to help them analyze data and make decisions. And Center’s built-in policy rules and cost codes are easy to customize so construction firms can easily track expenses the way they need to:

“Ease of use, ability to submit/store receipts, simple for a wide range of employees (field/office/management), central location for review of expenses, ability to export to Sage 300 CRE, and excellent customer support and service both at implementation and ongoing support. Coordination, storage, & streamlining of receipts for credit card management.”
Verified User in Construction, Controller, Small Business

“Center provided the intricate expense management tools we needed where many others could not. They provide multiple accounting coding variables and a variety of approval workflows to meet the needs of construction. The mobile app is user friendly and maintenance is simple. Center provided a great, cost-beneficial solution for credit card expense management in the construction industry with job costing and administrative expense costing with multiple approval methods.”
Verified User in Construction, Mid-Market

“Total ease of use and many options for workflow approvals. The first product that we’ve found that allows for complicated cost center charging. All of the other products we have tried had so many limitations. Charges are coded and approved quicker because of the app. Receipts are getting attached to transactions. Having the app makes our users more likely to handle their transactions immediately rather than hoarding them up for the entire month. We may be able to reconcile weekly versus monthly!”
Verified User in Construction, Mid-Market

“Simple, real-time expensing. As an end-user, I like the simplicity of uploading receipts and auto saving of classifications…Real-time expensing has been a sticking point of our previous solution for a long time. There was no time to catch expense issues ‘in the moment’ until we moved to Center.”
Verified User in Construction, Mid-Market

4. Productivity fuels growth

Construction firms must constantly strive to deliver the fast, efficient service modern businesses demand. Not meeting these expectations can lead to loss of productivity, client churn, and ultimately loss of revenue.

Center gets teams up to speed quickly for quick time to value, and integrated workflows keep teams on the same page while improving key business metrics like cash flow.

“Best: ease of receipt submission and coding. Way easier and more efficient than Wells Fargo. A lot less time-consuming on reviewing and submitting expenses. More user-friendly. Showing a bigger and cleaner picture of total expenses. Increased productivity and performance.”
Verified User in Construction (Staff Accountant)

“I like how quickly the notification of transaction is logged, how easily customizable the cost codes are for our business, and the ability to see all of my employees transactions in real-time. We had a real issue with employees turning in their expenses on time, and our former platform made it challenging to expense more than once a month. We’ve reduced the time it takes individuals to log their expenses from 4-5 weeks to 1 week and ultimately shortened our invoicing cycle on T&M projects.”
Delaney C., Project Coordinator

“The immediate and real-time notifications prompt the users to take care of action items immediately, speeding up our process and allowing us to show actual cost more quickly. Expenses are input very easily – you upload your receipt, code the expense from dropdown menu options and submit. Approvals can be reviewed in seconds – and coding can be changed at any point in the workflow. Overall – very very happy with Center!”
Tatjana F., Sr. Project Accountant

Ready to learn more?

We partner closely with you to ensure a smooth and seamless rollout while keeping your time investment to a minimum, with no out-of-pocket costs.

Read more about Center’s best-in-class customer rating and recent accolades for usability and user satisfaction on G2. And if you’d like to find out more about how modern spend management tools can empower your construction team to do more, schedule a personalized demo today.