Build profitability for construction clients with spend management

Understanding and controlling costs is essential to profitability. However, in the construction industry, that’s easier said than done. Accountants specializing in construction are familiar with how seasonal work, long contracts, varying supply costs, and workers spread over different worksites limit project and overall spend insight—making it hard to determine financial performance. Plus, 30–90 day closes mean construction clients may rely on outdated information for financial decisions, which can be the duration of an entire construction job.

Help protect project profitability

BILL’s modern spend and expense management solution, which integrates technology and corporate cards, helps elevate financial insight and performance for your construction clients. Plus, the software is free to use.

Issue and manage physical or virtual corporate cards

With BILL Spend & Expense, you or your client can deliver as many physical or virtual corporate cards as needed to employees at no additional cost. Each card can be attached to specific projects and budgets and issued with limitations such as how much they can spend and what type of purchases they can make based on merchant codes. Has an employee left the company? Or do they no longer need purchasing power? BILL’s software lets you easily and instantly freeze or deactivate corporate cards.

Automatically enforce expense guidelines

Your client can now control spend before one project dollar is spent. With spend parameters and rules, employees can spend as needed to support contracted work. If they attempt a purchase that does align with these guidelines, the charge won't be approved.

Capture spend in real-time

Each purchase made with a BILL Divvy Card is tracked and viewable on your spend management dashboards. You can monitor budget and project spend in real time instead of waiting for credit card statements to come in the mail.

Centralize workforce expenses

BILL Divvy Cards simplify spending, coding, and documenting expenses. Employees download the BILL Spend & Expense app. When they purchase something with their BILL Divvy Card, the app prompts them to upload a picture of the receipt and code the expense.

You can also set it up so that purchases are precoded, putting all the accurate information you need in one place. ‌ No matter where they are—in the office or on-site—their expenses are digitized, organized, and accounted for as soon as they occur. That means no more lost or missing receipts.

Empower approved spending

What if an employee needs more money for an approved purchase? They can use the BILL Spend & Expense mobile app to request more funds. The budget owner is alerted and can allot more funds within minutes. This can come in handy with costs for supplies and equipment changing throughout a contract’s lifespan.

It also ensures no surprises on how much materials cost when you get a card statement weeks later. Instead, your client can immediately view the increased budget allotment and the spend and communicate those increases to their customers or stakeholders.

Leverage virtual cards for recurring spend  

Does your client have recurring leases or spend with specific vendors? They can use virtual BILL Divvy Cards, which provide a unique card number. Having as many virtual cards as needed helps to track and analyze specific types of spend on projects while protecting your clients’ credit.

Use data to inform estimates

Since BILL Spend & Expense enables reporting on all of your client’s spend made with their BILL Divvy Cards, they can use real-time and historical spend data when creating project estimates.

Earn rewards*

Purchases made with BILL Divvy Cards can earn cash-back rewards for companies—not for individual card holders. Not interested in cash back? Your client can opt for gift cards or statement credits. Rewards points don't expire and can be tracked on BILL Spend & Expense’s rewards dashboard. They can also maximize rewards with travel, software subscriptions, and online advertising spend.

Help close the books faster

Spend data and documentation is digitized, organized, tracked, and at your fingertips, helping to cut down the time it takes to close the books. For example, Westland Construction estimates that BILL Spend & Expense reduced the hours spent pulling charges and reconciling accounts from 180 a month to 20.

New service opportunities for your firm

While spend and expense management benefits your construction clients, it also allows your firm to explore a new revenue stream. Offering spend management as a service–either as a standalone service or part of client advisory services–allows you to build stronger ties and a stronger bottom line. Here’s information on how this might look for your firm:

Interested in offering BILL Spend & Expense to your construction clients? Reach out to your account manager or sign up for the BILL Accountant Partner Program.