The invoice comes last: How a construction CFO sees spend earlier
- Growing faster than our financial infrastructure
- Where visibility broke down
- The invoice isn't the start of the obligation
- How Ramp helped
- What I'd put in place from day one
- The takeaway
When we moved into development and construction, one question became surprisingly difficult to answer:
What's coming out of the bank next week?
I knew the answer should have been straightforward. It wasn't.
Growing faster than our financial infrastructure
We were a 20-person investment and asset management firm that grew into a real estate company of more than 250 people, adding development, construction and property management along the way. In one year we added 100 to headcount, and the following year we doubled.
Our first development exceeded 500 units. Not exactly a small test run. We were building the operation and the financial infrastructure while the project was already moving.
Where visibility broke down
As spending picked up, visibility started breaking down faster than I expected.
Company cards, material orders, purchase approvals, and receipts all moved on different timelines. Approvals happened in emails and conversations. Receipts showed up in spreadsheets and scanned images. My team spent too much time chasing information that should have already been connected.
The frustrating part was that no one was doing anything wrong. We had hardworking people and processes that were still being built. The information just lived in too many places, and finance often saw the spend only after the commitment had been made.
The invoice isn't the start of the obligation
That was the moment I stopped thinking of the invoice as the start of the obligation. By then, we'd often already committed the cash.
By the time the invoice arrives, your cash forecast may already be weeks behind.
How Ramp helped
Ramp took receipt capture off the team's plate. And just as Ramp was starting to introduce procurement, we started adopting it, so purchases and approvals showed up in accounting before the invoice did. Less chasing. Smoother payments.
It wasn't a magic fix. I'm skeptical of anything sold as one, which makes me a fun audience for software demos. But it gave us something we badly needed: a more reliable view of the cash we'd already committed.
What I'd put in place from day one
If I were starting over, I'd put three things in place from day one:
- Purchasing controls before spending accelerates. They won't feel as urgent as the project until visibility breaks down.
- Receipt capture that's effortless for the field. The people building the project shouldn't have to become paperwork experts.
- One visible path for every approval. If finance can't see the commitment, the cash forecast can't reflect it.
The takeaway
The practical lesson for me was simple: by the time the invoice arrives, your cash forecast may already be weeks behind.
See how Ramp for Construction brings card spend, bills, and approvals into one project view.
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