How Modern IDP Solutions Can Help Construction Firms

Construction firms have a lot on their plates. In addition to the manual, on-site work, they must process tons of paperwork daily. That’s where modern IDP solutions come in.

It’s an understatement to say that construction firms deal with mountains of paperwork. A seemingly endless amount of purchase orders, work orders, building and excavation permits, subcontractor invoices, and contracts must all be processed. 

Processing these documents isn’t always as fast, easy, or accurate as we might like — but unfortunately, construction firms can’t operate properly without this paperwork.

The construction industry is a prime example of one that could benefit from streamlined document processing, faster approval processes, and full digitization. While people tend to think that the bulk of a construction firm’s work happens on-site, the truth is that firms need as much help in the office as at the construction site. 

Thankfully, modern intelligent document processing (IDP) solutions are more than capable of handling the volume and complexity of paperwork in a modern construction firm. Here are a few ways the construction industry can benefit from a modern, capable IDP solution.

Top Construction Firm Accounts Payable Benefits of Modern IDP Solutions

Modern IDP solutions are fast, easy to use, cost-effective, and highly accurate — a potential game-changer for a construction firm’s Accounts Payable. 

More specifically, an advanced IDP solution can help with:

Subcontractor Payment Interactions

A construction project has a lot of key players, including subcontractors. However, paying subcontractors isn’t always smooth sailing. Slow approval processes and data entry mistakes can cause payment delays, resulting in stress and strained relationships between general contractors and subcontractors.

A modern IDP solution will help optimize the invoice and billing process between general contractors and subcontractors, saving everyone time and frustration. A modern IDP can quickly process any invoice, regardless of format or style, and take action automatically, allowing for faster approvals.

You can even pre-authorize certain types of transactions to further streamline the approval process. And rest assured — you won’t have to worry about misplaced decimal points or misinterpreted numbers thanks to the hyper-accuracy of modern, AI-driven IDP solutions.

Change Order Billing

Changes in scope are never ideal, but often inevitable. Without a fast IDP solution, you’ll need to input data to reflect these changes manually. This could result in mistakes or prevent the information from reaching the right people in time, potentially leading to a long and frustrating process. 65% of construction managers say they’ve missed change-order opportunities when using manual systems.

It’s an entirely different story if you have a modern IDP solution on your side. With an advanced IDP system, you can ensure that the time-sensitive change of scope information is accurate and quickly processed, reaching your business partners and decision-makers instantaneously.

Time And Materials Payments

There are a lot of items and hours to keep track of throughout a construction project. These aspects can become overwhelming, but a modern IDP solution can take the bulk of the workload off your team’s shoulders, ensuring detailed and error-free accounting for each item used and every hour worked. 

An advanced IDP solution like Rossum can reduce straight-through processing (STP) by up to 95% and decrease your AP and clerical staff’s manual workload by up to 75%.

Onboarding New Vendors And Suppliers

New vendors and suppliers usually mean new invoices and document templates. Less advanced, template-based IDP solutions will require a fair amount of manual work, including preconfiguring the IDP to recognize a different template, style, or format. It’s a time-consuming and tedious process that lowers employee morale and overall company productivity.

On the other hand, a modern IDP solution will allow you to efficiently process invoices from new jobs, regions, and contractors with no manual configuration. Onboarding new vendors and suppliers will be simple. Your IDP can quickly distinguish between invoices, payment receipts, order requests, and other incoming materials to ensure they’re automatically routed to the right person or department.

Equipment Rental Invoices

You’ll have to lease equipment for one project or another — and renting equipment means paperwork. While manually processing equipment rental invoices can quickly grow tiring, it’s simple with a modern IDP solution.

You can step back and let your IDP handle any equipment rental invoices with its AI-powered data extraction capabilities. As a result of the accelerated invoice processing, you’ll have more time to tackle other business-critical tasks and enjoy a better relationship with other builders.

Financial Reporting To Clients And Owners

In every construction project, stakeholders want to know exactly how much it will cost. Clients and owners alike want to stay updated on a project’s finances, and modern IDP solutions make providing them with answers and information simple.

With a modern IDP solution, you can gain actionable insights into your finances from detailed reports. Moreover, you can customize your IDP to gather data and build reports automatically. Then, all you’ll need to do is review the information.

Or, if you’re confident in your IDP’s accuracy, it can automatically send data and reports to stakeholders without any manual oversight. You’ll save yourself some time while still keeping clients and owners informed.

Data Entry

Data entry is a significant part of a construction firm’s responsibilities. It’s also a tedious, complex, and expensive process that can become more costly with each mistake. Despite 59% of construction managers reporting that manual data entry leads to incomplete information, 47% still input data manually.

To make informed project decisions and identify potential problems down the road, more than two-thirds of surveyed construction managers say they utilize a modern IDP solution. Reliant on AI and machine learning technologies, IDPs allow faster data extraction, improve accuracy, and operate autonomously, saving resources, time, and energy.

Non-Accounts Payable Benefits for Construction Firms

Accounts payable benefits aren’t the only benefits a modern IDP solution has to offer construction firms. IDPs can also help when processing other critical documents, such as bills of lading (BOL), purchase orders, and insurance claims.

With new materials arriving regularly, construction sites are a whirl of activity. Each new shipment means a new BOL listing the type, quantity, and final destination — more paperwork to process. 

Insurance claims are a similar inevitability in the construction industry. From fire to vandalism to materials damaged en route to workplace accidents, plenty can go wrong during the building process. Filing insurance claims is traditionally time-consuming but can be expedited by a modern IDP solution.

You’ll be able to speed up data extraction, thus reducing downtime and smoothening the claim submission process to help get payouts in your pocket faster than ever.

Let Rossum Take The Weight Off Your Construction Firm’s Shoulders

Construction firms have to deal with piles of paperwork every day, but modern IDP solutions can make all the difference. Not only are they faster than outdated IDPs or manual data entry, but they’re also more accurate. If you’re looking for a modern IDP solution for your construction firm, you can’t do better than Rossum.

A trusted and secure solution, Rossum is perfect for construction firms. Not only is Rossum ready to handle subcontractor invoices, time and materials payments, data entry, BOLs, and any other incoming documents, but it’s also ready to process construction-specific documents.

For example, Rossum can handle excavation permits and checklists, daily construction reports, water well applications, material safety data sheets, non-conformance reports, construction completion certificates, and much more.

Our highly adaptable AI neural engine means invoices, PDFs, and other documents are processed with pinpoint accuracy. Sounds too good to be true? Just look at what our customers are saying.
Contact us for a demonstration to see the difference between Rossum and other IDP solutions for yourself.