Now, more than ever, success in the construction industry means making the most of developments in the accounting tools available to us. Efficient management of processing invoices, expenses, cash flow, project budgets and material costs is the recipe for success in a well-organised construction company with minimal profit loss.

To achieve this, many construction companies use Xero as their tool of choice. This comes down to Xero’s ability to track expenses, send quotes and invoices, and manage jobs from your phone. It also allows users to create custom quotes and convert them to invoices with a ‘pay now’ button for one-click payment, providing a quick and easy process for managing costs.

What’s missing from Xero, however, is the ability to control these costs and make processing invoices quick enough not to overhaul your lunch break. This is where automation comes in handy. An all-in-one accounts payable solution like Zahara is the perfect attachment for construction companies using Xero. Construction finance managers can expect to save up to 34% of their workload by automating their AP processes (McKinsey Global Institute). Our software integrates with Xero to increase control and visibility of spend. All this saves you countless hours of manual data entry in the process.

Here are the features that will save you:

1. Approve spend on the go– Zahara’s mobile app is a construction finance manager’s best friend while working on site. In the palm of your hand you can approve or reject a purchase order. If approved, can be automatically sent to a supplier without waiting until you’re back at your desk.
2. Allocate budget to each project– Contractors working on several projects simultaneously? It is vital to grasp each project’s spending and monitor its progress for the client. Zahara allows users to see how their PO will affect the budget. If needed, it will warn them (or even restrict them) before exceeding it.
3. Process supplier invoices faster– Invoice processing doesn’t need to take hours, and manual keying belongs in a skip. Using built-in Optical Character Recognition (OCR) means invoices are automatically and intelligently read by Zahara. It will extract important information, including line items, supplier details and fraudulent behaviour. Quick, automated workflows following this process fly the invoice through the process resulting in happy suppliers who get paid quickly.

With the UK potentially heading into a recession (Sky News), AP automation is a tool that will save construction companies valuable man-hours and reduce unnecessary loss & accidental undercharging.