Digitizing the construction site: How to seal the workflow and regain control of material costs?

It's the 21st century on a modern construction site. Drones are flying over the project taking surveying measurements, architects are designing in BIM (Building Information Modeling), and excavators are equipped with GPS systems.

But all you have to do is enter the Construction Manager's barracks to go back to the 1990s.

Piles of papers pile up on the desk (and under it). Muddled WZ-tki (Outside Releases), crumpled concrete invoices, acceptance reports drenched in coffee. It is here, in this operational chaos, that developers' and contractors' money disappears.

There is a sad rule of thumb in the construction industry:we build fast, but settle slow. Why? Because the circulation of information between the construction site and the accounting office at headquarters resembles a deaf telephone. Today we'll show how a simple change in the process and the use of AI can get document data into the office as fast as a ceiling is poured.

"Shoebox" - or how (not) to manage construction costs

Many contractors still use the "per box" method of accounting. The construction manager collects documents throughout the month, puts them in a folder (or literally in a box), and on the last day of the month takes this package to the office.

The implications of this model are lamentable for liquidity (Cash Flow):

• Lack of real-time knowledge: Since the documents flow once a month, you find out on the 30th what the material costs were on the 5th. You react "after the fact" when the money has long been spent.
• Lost WZs: "Somewhere here was this wuzet for 20 pallets of wool...". If the document gets lost in the mud or thrown away by accident, and the supplier invoices you, you have no shim to check if the goods even arrived.
• Payment congestion: If an invoice for materials arrives three weeks late in accounting, the due date passes before anyone even enters it into the system. The supplier stops deliveries, and contractual penalties for delays start ticking.

This is the real cost of analog chaos.

Smartphone instead of a scanner. How does AI deal with "yard dirt"?

When we propose digitization to construction companies, we often hear objections:"Ladies, my foremen are not going to operate complex systems, they are supposed to keep an eye on the schedule, not click on tablets.".

And this is where the dog is buried. Modern automation (such as Dokum) does not require the Construction Manager to be an IT specialist. It only requires him to have one thing: the ability to take a picture.

The "no-touch" process looks like this:

1. A shipment of hollow blocks enters the yard.
2. The manager checks the goods, signs the paper WZ.
3. He pulls out his phone, takes a picture of the document (even on his knee, even in low light).
4. It sends the photo to a dedicated e-mail or via instant messenger.

The end of his work. Artificial intelligence does the rest. The system recognizes the type of document, "straightens" the photo, and then extracts key information from it: the date, the name of the supplier, the list of materials and quantities. 30 seconds later, the accountant at headquarters has this data in digital form (for example, in Excel). This allows the office to receive information from the construction site in real time, rather than at the end of the month.

No more manual transcription: Invoice vs. WZ

The biggest job in construction accounting is painstakingly transcribing data from paper WZs and invoices so that they can be cross-referenced with each other. When manually entering thousands of items in a hurry, it's easy to make a mistake or overlook that there are 10 tons of sand on an invoice and only 8 on a WZ.

Implementation Dkoum changes this process. The tool provides ready-made, structured data. The accountant doesn't have to waste time "pasting" numbers from dirty sheets of paper. She receives a ready-made file (e.g. Excel or an ERP batch) in which she has black and white listed items.

By not having to rewrite data, he gains time for what matters most - the verification. With the digital data ready in front of his eyes, he can instantly compare the delivery with the invoice and catch any discrepancies before he lets go of the transfer.

The digital twin of your documentation

The construction and development industry is drowning in more than just financial paperwork. Acceptance protocols for premises, waste transfer notes (BDO), material certificates, approvals for steel.

Searching for a particular certificate from six months ago, when a supervising inspector enters a construction site, is usually a nervous flipping through dozens of binders in a dusty container.

With parsing, the content of the documents is converted into digital text. This makes your archive searchable. Need to find "Concrete B25 Certificate?" You type the phrase into your computer and find the right file in seconds. You build an order that's flood-proof, loss-proof or fire-proof in the barracks.

Summary: Build facilities, not bureaucracy

Profitability in the construction industry is falling because material and labor prices are unpredictable. The only place you can look for safe savings without sacrificing quality is in operating costs and sealing the workflow.

You can't afford to have WZs lying around in managers' folders for 30 days. Get your company out of the paper era. Give managers a tool they already have in their pocket (their phone), and give the office real-time data, ready to go.

Want to see if AI can handle a crumpled WZ from your construction site? Take a picture, send to Dokum and see how quickly we turn "yard clutter" into a tidy spreadsheet.