Pass 01
Control the purchase
Set card limits by person, project or vendor.
Case study · Construction spending
When project spending lost its paper trail.
A construction business was tracking expenses in Xero and project information in SharePoint. But contractor receipts weren’t reliably making it back, and spending wasn’t always connected to the right job.The owner estimated that around $10,000 no longer had a clear tracking trail.I audited the setup and mapped a controlled-card workflow designed to capture the missing information when the money was spent.
The problem
The spend existed. The useful trail did not.
Around $10,000 in spending no longer had a clear tracking trail. That meant poorly tracked spending, not confirmed missing or stolen money.
Contractors had to keep receipts, submit them later and remember which job each purchase belonged to.
The purchase happened before the useful project details were captured.
Xero held the expense while SharePoint held the project information, but the two records did not stay aligned.
Missing receipts and project details only became obvious when someone tried to rebuild the trail.
Capture the trail when the money moves
The proposal put the controls and receipt capture around the purchase itself, instead of relying on everyone to reconstruct the details later.
What could stay
SharePoint could stay. Xero could stay.
The missing connection would sit between them and keep the purchase, receipt and project together.
Capture at purchaseKeep both systems
The spending control path
Four passes. One complete trail.
Pass 02
Capture the receipt
Attach the receipt when the money is spent.
Pass 03
Match it to the job
Connect each expense to the right construction project.
Pass 04
Update both records
Send clean data to Xero and the project details to SharePoint.
Xero and SharePoint aligned
The transaction and project record would receive the same clean information.
What happens when something does not match?
The routine path could run automatically. The exceptions would stop.
Missing receipts, unclear project details and purchases outside the rules would be surfaced for a person instead of being pushed through with incomplete information.
The proposed setup would handle
- Apply the card rules
- Keep the receipt with the transaction
- Standardise the transaction data
- Update Xero and SharePoint
A person would still handle
- A missing receipt
- A missing or unclear project
- A purchase outside the rules
- Anything the workflow could not match safely
What the proposed setup was designed to change
01
Each cost would keep its paper trail. The contractor, receipt and construction job could stay connected from the purchase onwards.
02
Spending rules would apply earlier. Limits could be checked before the money was spent instead of after the fact.
03
Xero and SharePoint would tell the same story. The accounting record and project ledger could receive consistent information.
04
Missing details would surface sooner. Exceptions could be flagged while the purchase was still recent.
The useful part was connecting the purchase to the project.
The card was only one part of the proposal. The real job was keeping the purchase, receipt, accounting record and construction project connected.
That would make the information easier to trust without replacing the systems the business already relied on.
01
Put the Data in Order
Clean up the information and make it usable before building anything on top of it.
02
Make Your Systems Work
Work out why the software is getting in the way and make it support the real job.
03
Build What’s Missing
Create the missing connection or tool when the standard options can't do the job.
04
Make the Change Stick
Check the result, deal with problems and leave people with a setup they can use.
Another project
Moved a Healthcare Business Into Halaxy
6,860 patient records and years of clinical information moved and checked.
Spending losing its paper trail?
Show me how the purchase, receipt and project information move now. I’ll map where the trail is breaking.