Tl;dr

We digitize subcontractor invoicing and payment approvals (valuations) and connect them to the respective quality checks of the works, trade handovers, and live progress.

Konstructly not only streamlines manual processes and provides unparalleled visibility, it drives productivity from contractors’ supply chains using the ultimate incentive - cash.

Team 👷👷👷

Hi everyone, we’re Dima, John, and Stefan, and we’re on a mission to prevent overspend in construction. We’re doing this by ‘following the money’ and mapping payments directly to their corresponding works on-site.

The Problem ❌

In construction, Production— those doing and managing the build on-site— are disconnected from Commercial, those responsible for the project’s finances and profitability.

This ultimately results in overspending.

For example, quantity surveyors spend 25-50% of their time processing subcontractor invoices, mostly because they don’t have the necessary data on hand. They also spend a lot of time on low-value, manual tasks like data entry. This means that they spend less time on high-value tasks like tendering and procurement, where oversights result in costly mistakes.

Lack of visibility means that a lot of stuff gets swept under the carpet, only to resurface at the end of a project (eg. variations). It also means that subcontractors are less accountable as it’s more difficult to prove things, resulting in reduced productivity, more rework, and longer delays.

The Solution ✅

A single app connecting Production and Commercial stakeholders, entities, and workflows, to save time, increase visibility and incentivize productivity.

How It Works 👨🏻‍💻

Subcontractors’ site teams log their progress for approval/QA by the general contractor’s (GC) site team and for handover acceptance by the next trade. This progress auto-fills their applications, saving their commercial team a lot of time.

The GC’s commercial team then just has to amend/review as necessary in a simple, purpose-built interface, with all the production data visible (progress, QA, handover acceptance). It makes valuing and approving the subcontractor’s work a lot quicker and provides much more control/visibility. This incentivizes subcontractors to build the right first time (productivity) as GCs can more easily identify inadequacies and withhold payments until works/tasks are performed properly, in their entirety.

Recorded Handovers are extremely powerful - general contractors are finally able to capture responsible parties and quantify delays, allowing them to enforce liquidated damages or, at the very least, have more leverage in final account negotiation. This encourages prompt and correct behavior from both parties, once again relying on cash to drive productivity.

How We Came Across the Problem 💡

Stefan previously built and operated a construction labor marketplace.

He handled invoicing and payments between the subcontractor and contractor, needing to manually unify all the different document formats (photos of handwritten statements, WhatsApp lists, emails, word docs, spreadsheets, etc) and manage the endless back and forth between multiple stakeholders - who all had different opinions on what work had been done and how much should be paid!

Not only was the submission and approval process extremely inefficient, but there was no visibility over the corresponding works or their quality checks, massively increasing risk and friction between the parties. Something had to change!

Our Ask 🙏

Connect us with relevant constructions peeps! eg. Those at general contractors/house builders turning over $20m/year.

Drop Stefan an email at: stefan@konstructly.com