AP automation software for construction companies: A complete guide

Managing accounts payable (AP) in construction involves a distinct set of operational demands. Project-based expenses, decentralized teams, varied vendor relationships, and strict compliance obligations make the process far more complicated than in many other industries. When handled manually, this complexity often results in delayed payments, missed discounts, and increased risk exposure.

To reduce this friction, many construction finance teams are turning to accounts payable automation software. The right AP system should offer features like mobile-friendly invoice approvals, integrations with major accounting platforms, secure document management, and flexible payment scheduling. These capabilities work together to reduce manual effort, improve accuracy, and support the fast-moving, project-based nature of construction work.

This guide explains what to look for in AP automation software—and how Ramp’s AP automation solution is designed to support the complex accounts payable workflows common in construction.

Why accounts payable is uniquely complex in construction

Construction AP is more layered than in most industries because payments must be managed across multiple, concurrent projects—each involving its own set of vendors, timelines, and payment conditions.

Core challenges in AP for construction companies include:

• Multi-project tracking: Teams must accurately associate costs with specific job sites. Standard AP systems often lack the flexibility to handle the variation in payment terms and approval structures that exist across different projects.
• Diverse vendor types: Projects typically involve subcontractors, materials suppliers, and rental providers, each with their own billing expectations and documentation needs.
• Conditional payment terms: Practices like retention, milestone-based billing, and progress payments require confirmation of work completed before invoices can be processed.
• Compliance documentation: Finance teams must collect, verify, and store lien waivers, W-9s, insurance certificates, and other forms—often categorized by both project and vendor.
• Field-based approvals: Many invoices need to be reviewed by job-site personnel. Without digital workflows, these approvals are often delayed due to paper-based processes or limited connectivity.

These factors create a heavy administrative burden and increase the likelihood of issues such as higher error rates due to repeated manual entry, approval delays when invoices rely on paper routing, and unpredictable cash flow from bottlenecks in processing.

Here’s how these issues map to broader financial and operational risks for construction companies:

Benefits of implementing AP automation in construction

Accounts payable in construction means maintaining the momentum of complex, multi-site operations. With tight timelines, varied billing terms, and high documentation burdens, the traditional invoice-to-payment cycle quickly becomes a liability when handled manually.

Adopting AP automation helps construction finance teams eliminate inefficiencies, reduce financial risk, and keep vendor relationships intact. Some of the most valuable benefits include:

• Faster workflows with fewer bottlenecks: Automation tools minimize repetitive tasks like invoice data entry and manual routing, freeing teams to focus on budget oversight and vendor coordination
• Fewer errors, better audit trails: Systems that automatically capture and validate invoice details help reduce mismatches, prevent duplicate payments, and keep compliance documentation organized by vendor and project
• Lower processing costs: Cutting down on paper handling, manual reviews, and rework leads to more efficient use of headcount—and fewer late fees or missed early payment discounts
• Stronger supplier coordination: Consistent, on-time payments improve working relationships with subcontractors, equipment vendors, and materials suppliers—critical for job continuity
• Smarter cash flow visibility: Automation makes it easier to forecast liabilities, schedule payments by due date or project milestone, and avoid surprises in month-end close
• Centralized financial insight: With all payables data in one system, finance teams can track spend across projects, spot cost overruns early, and improve reporting accuracy

What construction finance teams should look for in AP software

Not every AP tool is equipped for the realities of construction finance. When evaluating automation platforms, teams should look for features that align with their operational structure, vendor needs, and project-based workflows.

Here are some of the most important capabilities to consider:

• Automated invoice intake and extraction: Look for tools that scan and digitize invoices from multiple formats—paper, email, PDF—and extract key fields automatically
• Project-aware approval workflows: Invoices should be routed based on criteria like project code, dollar threshold, or department—ideally with mobile approval options for field supervisors and PMs
• Invoice and PO matching: Built-in logic to match invoices to purchase orders or receiving records helps flag discrepancies early and reduce manual review time
• Vendor record and document management: Centralized vendor profiles with attached W-9s, COIs, and lien waivers reduce back-and-forth and simplify pre-payment verification
• Payment automation and control: Ability to schedule payments by method (ACH, check, card, wire) and by due date, project stage, or funding cycle
• Customizable reporting and dashboards: Visibility into approvals, spend by vendor, project costs, and historical payments helps teams stay proactive, not reactive
• Accounting and ERP integrations: Seamless sync with systems like QuickBooks, NetSuite, or Sage Intacct ensures financial data stays accurate and up to date
• Granular permissions and audit controls: Role-based access and full audit trails help enforce internal policies and external compliance requirements

Ramp AP automation software: What it is and how it streamlines AP for construction companies

Ramp Bill Pay is AP automation software built by Ramp to streamline the entire accounts payable lifecycle—from invoice intake and approval routing to payment execution and accounting sync. While Ramp is best known for its corporate cards and spend management tools, Ramp Bill Pay extends the platform’s functionality into AP automation with features like automated invoice capture via OCR, two-way matching, configurable approval workflows, scheduled payments via ACH, check, or card, and real-time ERP integrations.

It also supports mobile approvals and expense coding, making it flexible to support finance teams across industries like construction, manufacturing, and professional services. Each feature is built to minimize bottlenecks and risks commonly associated with manual AP processes.

Below are Ramp Bill Pay’s core AP automation features and how each one can be used by construction finance teams.

Automated invoice capture

Ramp’s AP automation software uses OCR technology to automatically extract key information from invoices—such as vendor details, invoice number, dates, amounts, and line items—from various formats. For construction companies—who often receive a high volume of invoices from various subcontractors and suppliers in different formats and at irregular intervals—automating data capture reduces time spent on manual entry, minimizes the risk of errors or duplicate payments, and helps AP teams keep pace with job site activity.

Expense tracking and coding

Ramp’s AP system provides configurable rules and custom fields for expense categorization, allowing invoices to be assigned to specified departments, categories, or projects when integrated with compatible accounting systems. Without consistent expense coding by project and phase, construction companies risk budget overruns and incomplete cost reporting. Ramp Bill Pay helps ensure that every invoice is properly attributed, making expense tracking more reliable and less time-consuming.

Approval workflows

Configurable, role-based approval workflows, with routing options based on amount, department, or category are also supported by Ramp’s AP automation software. Mobile access allows stakeholders—including those in the field—to review and approve payables from any location, helping avoid bottlenecks and payment delays. This flexibility is especially valuable in construction, where project managers and field supervisors often need to approve invoices on the go.

Flexible payment scheduling

Ramp Bill Pay offers flexible payment scheduling, allowing payments to be scheduled by due date or batch-processed for multiple vendors. Milestone-based billing, retention, and progress payments are common in construction contracts. This makes Ramp Bill Pay’s flexible scheduling much easier to match payment timing with project cash flow and contract obligations—without relying on disconnected tools or spreadsheets.

Vendor management

Ramp’s AP system centralizes vendor information and document storage for W-9s and 1099 vendor tax data. With dozens of subcontractors per project and evolving documentation requirements for construction companies, staying organized is essential. Centralized vendor management helps teams verify documentation before releasing payments and simplifies preparation for audits or compliance checks.

Integrations with construction management and accounting platforms

Ramp integrates with whichever accounting system your construction business uses—so you can reconcile your books without friction. We offer direct integrations with leading ERPs and accounting platforms like NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct, and Acumatica, enabling real-time sync of vendor bills, reimbursements, payments, and accounting fields. Select systems also support bi-directional sync for vendor bills and imported item receipts.

For platforms without native integrations—like Viewpoint Vista and Viewpoint Spectrum—Ramp provides Universal CSV (uCSV) exports that match your chart of accounts, tracking categories, and project codes for seamless reconciliation. Ramp also offers a robust API and trusted implementation partners to support custom integrations when needed.

Reporting and analytics

Ramp’s accounts payable software provides visibility into expenses, approvals, and payment status with reporting that can be segmented by custom fields. Access to real-time data helps construction project managers and finance leaders track costs without waiting for month-end close. When integrated with the accounting system, reporting on spend, identifying trends, and supporting more proactive financial management is easy.

Low pricing and processing fees

Ramp offers a free plan that lets you manage spend, automate vendor payments, and speed up your month-end close. For organizations with more advanced needs, Ramp Plus is available at $15 per user per month, and custom Enterprise plans are also available upon request. Plus, you can handle all domestic and global vendor payments on a single platform—by check, card, ACH, or international wire with zero fees*.

AP automation success stories from construction companies

From streamlining invoice approvals to cutting check volume and payment delays, here's how these three construction companies automated their AP processes with Ramp’s AP software.

1. How Roof Squad saved 10+ hours per week with Ramp Bill Pay

Roof Squad’s AP process was heavily manual—staff had to route invoices from their CRM into bill pay tools, reconcile records in QuickBooks, and constantly shift money between bank accounts to ensure vendors were paid on time. With limited payment flexibility from their traditional bank and little automation across invoice intake or approvals, the risk of late payments was constant.

After adopting Ramp Bill Pay, the team integrated their existing CRM workflows and enabled automated invoice ingestion and job costing. For Roof Squad, invoice processing that once took hours became a few clicks. Errors dropped, and the team saved more than 10 hours each week on bill processing alone.

Same-day ACH payments through Roof Squad’s Ramp Business Account also gave them the flexibility to pay vendors exactly when needed—without having to preemptively move money between systems. By centralizing all their payments, records, and workflows on Ramp, they also eliminated late payments entirely.

“The way bill pay works now is super easy… Now it’s just a couple clicks away, saving us about 10 hours a week and reducing the number of errors we make.” — Alejandro Calderon, CFO at Roof Squad

2. How Bratjen Construction streamlined invoice approvals with Ramp Bill Pay

Bratjen’s AP process was time-consuming and error-prone—approvals were routed manually, invoice data was marked up in PDFs, and checks were written by hand with job codes added in pen. For higher-dollar invoices, back-and-forth email approvals often delayed payments and created confusion about who authorized what.

That’s where Ramp Bill Pay helped Bratjen fully digitize and automated its AP workflow. Now, invoices are uploaded directly into Ramp, where vendor info auto-populates and each invoice is routed based on amount: smaller bills are auto-paid, while larger ones trigger project manager or senior leadership approvals. This structure has improved controls, reduced payment errors, and flagged unnecessary charges before money goes out the door.

Instead of manually writing and reconciling 100 checks each month, Bratjen’s team now exports a clean CSV of bill payments to their accounting system—freeing up hours of manual effort and improving accuracy.

“Before we would have to pay an invoice and mark up a PDF with all that information. Now everything’s just a click of a button. As soon as we get an invoice now, we can drag it over into Bill Pay and populate all the vendor information.” — Michael Irvin, Director of Operations at Bratjen Construction

3. How Viking Well Service improved AP visibility with Ramp Bill Pay

Viking Well Service had heavily manual AP processes, requiring its controller to spend hours each week digging through fragmented invoices, payment records, and purchase approvals. Without a centralized system, bills and purchase orders were disconnected—making it difficult to track payment status or maintain oversight of large equipment purchases.

With Ramp Bill Pay, Viking consolidated its purchase orders and bills into a single platform. The AP team can now match payments to POs, track what’s been paid or is still outstanding, and rely on a simplified, single-approval workflow. This has improved visibility into spend and eliminated the need for repetitive invoice follow-ups.

Month-end close, which once took over a week due to missing card statements and manual coding, now happens in just two days. And because transactions are automatically categorized and visible in real time, Viking’s finance team can focus on planning rather than chasing paperwork.

“Having the purchase order and bills all in one place just makes a whole lot more sense… It’s really important for control purposes, for visibility.” — Chris Lowdermilk, Senior Controller at Viking Well Service

Why construction companies choose Ramp’s AP automation software

Whether you're managing a few jobs or coordinating dozens of active projects, automating accounts payable can free up time, reduce errors, and give you better control over spend. Ramp’s AP automation software helps construction companies bring together invoice capture, approvals, payments, and compliance tracking in one system to support the pace and complexity of construction work.

Want to see how it fits into your workflows? Get started with Ramp Bill Pay.

Explore how Ramp Bill Pay supports AP automation across teams, company sizes, and industries

*Same-day ACH payments and International payments may incur a fee unless you are using a Ramp Business Account. Ramp Bill Pay is available on our free plan with no software or transaction fees. Note that certain ERP integrations require a Ramp Plus account, which includes a monthly fee.