The construction industry keeps picking up pace.
Fresh infrastructure spending, demand for specialised construction projects, and growing revenues mean many firms are scaling fast.
But behind the scenes, spend management isn’t keeping up, especially for finance teams relying on old-school methods and outdated processes.
If the company is growing, but you’re trying to juggle expenses across multiple projects, subcontractors, and job sites, it can soon start to feel chaotic.
Here’s the financial impact of that chaos, plus how Pleo can provide some much-needed control, visibility, and simplicity.
Expense chaos is costing your business
Whether you’re a finance manager at a small bricklaying firm or the CFO of a specialised construction company with multiple sites, keeping track of your finances is the first step to a successful build.
But sometimes, that’s easier said than done. Construction can be old-school, with many firms still relying on paper-based processes to get the job done.
Site managers often pay out of pocket and forget to submit receipts. Company cards are shared with no clear ownership. Teams make quick, untracked purchases to keep projects moving. Spending isn’t segmented by site, making it hard for finance to track or allocate costs. With finance teams stretched thin, expenses are only reviewed at month-end—by then, it’s too late to catch overspending or unusual activity.
Traditional methods—tracking fuel receipts across three active sites, shared cards for emergency materials, and juggling invoices for a team of 15 electricians in spreadsheets—simply aren’t keeping pace with an industry that’s building bigger and faster than ever before.
Lost receipts, delayed reimbursements, and budget blind spots leave too much room for errors, delays, and overspending.
It’s time for a new approach.
Research from Sage shows that digital systems and processes can cut costs by up to 20% and boost productivity by 15%. By offering a simplified and streamlined way to manage on-site spending , Pleo allows finance managers and construction teams to focus on delivering projects on time and on budget, minus the messy paper trail.
Pleo: The finance multi-tool built for construction companies
By putting site spending on rails, eliminating out-of-pocket spending, replacing manual expense reports, and improving profitability, Pleo helps construction companies take control of their costs.
Here’s how it works.
Reimbursements
From last-minute safety gear to extra cement, construction sites go through a lot of materials. Sometimes, to keep things moving, site managers cover these expenses out of pocket. Rather than expecting them to keep track of every receipt and fill out time-consuming paper forms for each one, Pleo instantly captures each expense.
The result? Faster reimbursements and less manual work for your finance team. No more late claims, time spent chasing receipts, or delayed reimbursements.
With Pleo, companies can speed up the reimbursement process by as much as 30x.
Smart company cards
When your site manager needs materials from three different suppliers in one morning, Pleo’s smart company cards ensure every purchase is tracked by project code, in real-time.
Finance teams get complete visibility and control over every single transaction, regardless of how many sites you manage.
Pleo’s smart company cards help companies cut expense approval time by 85%.
Clear spending guidelines
In construction, managing expenses isn’t a one-size-fits-all challenge. Finance teams need to juggle costs across multiple projects, each at various stages of completion. Sudden weather delays can throw budgets off track, resulting in delays or extended equipment rentals. Subcontractor expenses across different sites can suddenly lead to a flurry of unchecked and unexpected expenses.
Pleo lets you set clear, AI-powered spending guidelines, tailored to each site. That way, everyone knows what they can expense for work, before they pay. This reduces out-of-policy spending without slowing down the build.
Guidelines are based on your existing spend categories, making it quick and easy to create consistent, role-specific guidelines. AI capabilities mean employees can ask questions and receive instant answers about what can and can’t be expensed, reducing the chances of spending errors.
Automated expense reports
Instead of expecting finance teams to spend hours tracking down paper receipts and manually entering expenses from dozens of sites, Pleo streamlines online spending.
Expenses are logged automatically, either by using a company card or quickly scanning receipts. Everything is categorised in real time, so finance knows exactly what’s being spent and where.
Accounting integrations
Construction CFOs usually need to juggle multiple tools, including accounting software like Xero, and construction-specific software like Procore and Raken.
Pleo integrates with popular accounting platforms like Xero, Sage, and QuickBooks, so expenses flow directly into your books, no matter how many entities are involved.
Reconciliation, VAT handling and reclaim, plus month-end closing are all streamlined too, saving time, reducing the chance of costly human errors, and boosting compliance.
Pleo eliminates manual ERP import, saving companies 100% of the time they’d usually spend on this task each month.
Analytics and insights
If you’re managing finances across multiple sites but don’t have clear spend data, trying to control costs is pure guesswork. Knowing where and how to optimise those costs? Impossible. Pleo’s analytics dashboard breaks down spend by site, team, supplier, and category. Finance teams can instantly spot overspending, forecast budgets, and make smarter spending decisions.
Pleo’s spend optimisation also uses smart analytics and insights from over 40,000 companies to proactively suggest where to save money. Add cashback on every card purchase, and it’s easy to maximise your returns.
Pleo offers 1% cashback on card spend.
How Pleo helped architecture firm Cobe simplify expense management
Architecture firm Cobe might create cutting-edge building designs, but its spend management processes needed a modern makeover. Previously, employee expenses had to be submitted manually, using paper forms.
Every month, the accounting department had to process up to 300 reimbursements.
The transition to Pleo made a huge difference. Employees now have access to individual company cards, eliminating the need for manual reimbursements and allowing real-time expense tracking—no paper forms required.
Read the full case study.
But Pleo isn’t just for forward-thinking architecture firms. It’s also built for traditional construction companies. If you’re a finance manager trying to juggle spend across multiple job sites, you know the drill: site managers paying out of pocket, subcontractors handing in crumpled receipts, and mystery expenses no one remembers.
With Pleo, finance teams get real-time visibility and control across multiple job sites. No more manual reimbursements, chasing receipts, or guessing which project each expense belongs to.
Laying the groundwork for smarter spend management
Construction projects will always have surprises, whether it’s last-minute material requests or a crumpled pile of out-of-pocket receipts. But your expense management shouldn’t be one of them.
It’s time to lay the groundwork for clear, real-time spend control with modern tools built for the way construction works today.
Pleo gives construction companies everything they need to track spend across multiple projects. From streamlined approvals and on-the-go receipt capture, to smart company cards and real-time analytics, finance gets the power to keep control over project budgeting and cash flow forecasting.
And with tools like Pleo in place, better spend management becomes more than just admin. It becomes a building block for smarter forecasting and better project outcomes.
To see how Pleo can transform your business, book your free demo today.
