Streamline Your Construction Receipts With Sage Integrations

Business expense receipts may seem simple, but the process is more complicated when you’re in the construction field. Picture this: a construction crew member realizes they need a replacement part for a tool to complete an assigned task, so they buy what they need from a hardware store or lumber yard. Then, they have to keep track of the receipt during the rest of their shift and remember to send it to your accounting department for approval (and eventual reimbursement) soon after.  

Traditional credit card receipt management is inefficient on a good day, often causing delays in getting receipts to accounting or bottlenecks during the approval process. Fortunately, there are tools like hh2 and Sage ERP that can simplify the entire process. Hh2 lets your field teams enter, code, and route credit card receipts in seconds, then seamlessly integrates the data into your Sage ERP account.  

By understanding common challenges your construction company faces with receipt management and how modern software can solve these issues, your business can streamline workflows to optimize receipt management.  

Challenges of Managing Credit Card Receipts 

Staying on top of your company’s expenses comes with unique challenges in the construction industry due to the nature of your work. Your accounts payable (AP) and finance staff may work remotely or in the back office, completely separated from the activities happening out in the field. Plus, it’s typical to deal with multiple trades, crew teams, and construction projects simultaneously or even change locations from week to week. This environment makes staying on top of credit card receipts difficult for both crew members and finance personnel alike.  

Common Issues in The Field 

Field employees, including crew members, team managers, and site superintendents, may have to purchase items to complete construction tasks on a given day. While they’re supposed to record and send in receipts in a timely fashion, a few things can get in their way.  

First, field workers are busy and job sites can be chaotic, making it easy to misplace or forget about a credit card receipt. Whether shoved in a pocket or crammed in their vehicle, it may be days or weeks before the employee finds a receipt and remembers to deliver it to accounting. 

Other issues arise if your company still relies on physical receipts and manual receipt entry methods. Workers may view this task as a burden on top of their busy schedule and put off completing it. On top of that, manual data entry is inefficient and prone to mistakes, so your finance team may have trouble during reconciliation.  

These problems can lead to delays in receiving and processing credit card receipts, leaving your back-office staff spending their time and effort chasing down receipts or matching them with the right jobs.  

Impacts on Financial Accuracy and Time Management 

Since your finance team can’t see what’s happening in the field from day to day, there can be a lack of financial transparency in your construction projects. Without a clear view of daily activities and related expenses, you may not know the true field costs associated with a project. Instead, you may assume the job is within budget because you haven’t received information otherwise.  

Being in this situation can lead to surprises when credit card receipts do come in (especially when they arrive weeks after the transaction), and your company may find itself struggling to control costs or even going over its planned budget. It also negatively affects time management for field workers and back-office staff, each having to spend more time documenting and routing credit card receipts for reimbursement than on more revenue-generating tasks. 

 Benefits of hh2 Integration with Sage ERP 

Credit card receipt management doesn’t have to be problematic for your construction company if you’re using the right solution, like hh2’s Document Flow. This cloud-based construction software simplifies the entire process, from receipt capture to routing and approval, integrating seamlessly with your Sage accounting system. You can see this in action with a demo or learn more about its benefits below. 

How it Works 

Your employees can capture receipts out in the field using hh2’s mobile app for tablets and smartphones. Immediately after a crew member or project manager makes a purchase, they can open the app to take a photo of the receipt, select the appropriate code, and submit it. 

At this point, optical character recognition (OCR) technology automatically scans the image and converts information into text data before entering it into your accounting system and matching each receipt to the corresponding financial transaction. Once this is complete, the receipt is routed along your predetermined approval path in accounting for approval and reimbursement.  

Since hh2 automatically syncs with Sage, you’ll receive credit card receipts in real time and be able to access the latest information from the field. Integrating with your accounting system helps reduce receipt turnaround time while also preventing fraudulent or unauthorized purchases. 

Time Savings  

You’ll save time by eliminating manual receipt capture and data entry tasks, reducing the administrative workload on your field employees and back-office staff. Digitizing your receipts also means that receipts won’t pile up for days or weeks and overwhelm your accounting staff when they all arrive in your office at once.  

Instead, your entire receipt management process becomes more time-efficient. You can capture and route receipts faster, and integration with Sage saves your accounting team time during receipt verification and approval, reducing the time between purchase and reimbursement. 

Increased Accuracy 

Upgrading from physical receipts to digital ones helps minimize errors. Your accounting staff won’t have to try to decipher handwritten notes on receipts to determine what project or cost code it’s referring to. It also eliminates manual data entry across the process — which has an average error rate of 1% — to further increase accuracy. Plus, with prompt receipt capture and approval synced with accounting information from Sage, you’re able to stay on top of your expenses and project budgets, knowing that your financial data is current. 

Convenience 

Digitizing your credit card receipts streamlines the entire process for both field employees and your back-office accounting staff. Workers in the field can capture their receipt seconds after they’ve made the transaction, then quickly code and route it to accounting — making it much less of a hassle.  

It’s also more convenient for your accounting team since receipts automatically arrive and sync with existing financial information — without any additional effort on their part. Integration with Sage lets your staff reconcile and approve expenses all through one system, streamlining your AP process. 

Simplify Your Credit Card Receipt Management 

If you’re ready to save time and money while simplifying your credit card receipt management, consider hh2. Our AP automation solution syncs with Sage to make capturing, routing, and reconciling credit card receipts fast and easy.  

By integrating with your accounting ERP and automating workflows, your field and back-office employees can focus on the job at hand instead of constantly keeping track of receipts. With cloud-based solutions like Document Flow, your company can manage credit card receipts more efficiently and streamline your AP operations.  

Schedule your demo today to see how hh2’s Doc Flow can benefit your construction company.