Our recent guide explored the steps UK construction firms can take to ‘be the boss of costs’ and stop hidden cash flow killers slowly demolishing all your hard work.
With UK builders going out of business in record numbers, the first place to look for efficiency savings is in how you manage the money going out of your business.
Do any of these red flags sound familiar?
The cost avalanche: What was expected to be a healthy margin on a project is constantly whittled away as the bills continue to land. This might not be apparent immediately, but transaction fees, deferred payments interest, and other incurred costs nibble away at your profit until there’s virtually nothing left.
The payments maze: Your business has multiple ways to pay for things and they’re used interchangeably on things like materials, services, expenses and utilities. Delays are common because it’s hard for employees to get approval on the purchases they need to make on site. There’s no way to know if you’re getting the best deals, and the processes are so messy that creating an accurate forecast is nigh on impossible.
The resource swamp: Ask any finance manager where most of their time goes and they’ll all say the same thing. Admin. And top of the admin mountain? Expenses.
Processing is a massive time sink, with lost receipts the biggest headache. And this inefficiency isn’t just bad for business - wasting time and resource that could be better spent driving value – it’s bad for people. Working with poor systems and processes means they’re more stressed, more likely to make mistakes, and more likely to quit.
In the day-to-day hustle of managing a busy construction business, it’s easy to miss these red flags, but they clearly indicate that your cost management process is in need of an overhaul.
So what does that overhaul look like? Here are six steps to boss your costs:
1 Consolidate and clear the way
UK construction firms are turning to all-in-one business credit cards like Allstar to simplify their business spending and automate cost management and reporting. It’s the easiest way to get total spending control without resorting to expensive software implementation.
2 Remove obstacles
A clear, consolidated process removes the uncertainty from spending decisions, eliminating the delays that occur while employees seek approval for vital purchases. Allstar enables this, while ensuring spending is still centrally managed.
3 Dig deeper
Your spending data isn’t doing any good sat in spreadsheets, stacks of receipts, or paper files. The Allstar Plus platform lets you unlock insights on where potential savings can be made and get real-time visibility on what is going out.
4 Lay solid foundations
Relax in the knowledge that you have a credit line with flexible terms and interest free, so that when the cost avalanche lands you have enough wriggle room to ensure continued operation without cutting staff or incurring sky-high borrowing costs.
5 Plug leaks
When it takes days or even weeks to create an accurate picture of cash flow from available data, it’s almost impossible to catch mistakes, overspends, and even prevent employee fraud. With Allstar, you can create authorisation rules and spending limits for each employee, giving you full visibility over who’s spending what.
6 Stay on track
Keep a close eye on project costs with Allstar Online - real-time information at your fingertips means you can spot and address overspends as they occur, rather than later when they’ve become emergencies.
Allstar’s total spending control means fewer cash leaks, smoother cash flow management, and better planning.
*Subject to status and full credit check
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