The construction industry has invested heavily in digitisation over the past two decades. Invoicing, procurement, and project management have all benefited from technology. Yet one area has consistently lagged behind – the receipting process.
For too long, site teams have relied on handwritten proof of deliveries (PODs) and goods received notes (GRNs), paper tickets and manual uploads. This has left contractors and suppliers struggling with lost documents, delayed approvals and unnecessary disputes.
In a recent webinar hosted by Rob Ramsay from Causeway, Balfour Beatty’s Head of Site Support, Paul Black, joined us to discuss how digital receipting is transforming this landscape. Together, they outlined both the pain points of the traditional process and the opportunities created by CausewayOne Receipting – a solution designed to bring clarity, transparency and speed to the receipting cycle.
The challenge of manual receipting
As Paul Black made clear, the inefficiencies of manual receipting create challenges at every stage of the supply chain. Up to 30% of delivery tickets never reach back-office teams, which means that invoices often arrive before there is any record of the goods being received. This delay creates a cycle of phone calls, emails and manual checks that wastes time for both contractors and suppliers.
On site, teams may sign a delivery note and tuck it into a pocket, only to remember days later that it needs to be scanned and sent on. In the meantime, suppliers issue invoices that do not match to purchase orders or receipts, triggering disputes and lengthening payment cycles. Finance teams often have no visibility until the invoice appears, and by then the opportunity to prevent errors has already been lost.
The impact of these inefficiencies is significant. Projects face increased administrative costs, compliance obligations become harder to meet, and supplier relationships are strained by late or inconsistent payments. As Black put it bluntly, without a strong supply chain, contractors cannot deliver – yet legacy processes continue to undermine those critical relationships.
“Any organisation now is only as good as their supply chain. We don’t manufacture goods ourselves – we rely on a solid, robust supply chain to deliver projects successfully.”
Paul Black, Head of Site Support, Balfour Beatty
How CausewayOne Receipting works
CausewayOne Receipting has been built specifically to address these challenges. It digitises the entire receipting process and integrates it directly into existing ERP and finance systems. The approach is designed to be simple for site teams while powerful in the back office.
When goods arrive on site, a delivery note is photographed using a mobile device. Artificial intelligence extracts the essential data – supplier name, purchase order number, delivery date – and automatically matches it against the corresponding purchase order. At the same time, suppliers provide a digital proof of delivery (POD), creating a dual layer of validation.
This information flows into a centralised workbench where documents are aligned automatically. If a mismatch occurs, the system highlights it for quick resolution rather than weeks of back-and-forth. For contractors, this creates a secure audit trail across projects; for suppliers, it ensures their invoices move through the system without friction. What was once a 27-day cycle from delivery to invoice visibility can now take as little as two days.
“We ask frontline workers to do one thing: when a delivery arrives, sign the ticket and take a photograph. Within minutes that ticket is available to my team – not two weeks later, but two minutes.”
Paul Black, Head of Site Support, Balfour Beatty
Benefits for contractors
For contractors, the benefits of CausewayOne Receipting are immediate and wide-ranging. The most obvious gain is speed: approvals that once took weeks can now be processed in days, enabling fair payment practices to be upheld and reducing the risk of disputes.
The platform also removes vast amounts of manual work. By eliminating paper trails and disconnected workflows, CausewayOne Receipting reduces GRN input time by up to 92% and removes the need for scanning and archiving altogether. Finance teams gain a single source of truth for receipting, which not only improves cost allocation and forecasting but also ensures contractors can demonstrate compliance with client and regulatory requirements.
Perhaps most importantly, digitisation creates visibility. Project managers and finance teams can see in real time whether deliveries have been received, approved, and matched to orders. This transparency provides stronger financial control and greater confidence in payment cycles, while freeing site teams to focus on value-adding work rather than chasing missing paperwork.
“This isn’t just about reducing our back-office costs – it also means suppliers don’t need to chase us for payment. We’re cutting admin on both sides.”
Paul Black, Head of Site Support, Balfour Beatty
Benefits for suppliers
The advantages extend equally to suppliers, who have long been frustrated by payment delays caused by lost tickets and mismatched data. With CausewayOne Receipting, suppliers receive confirmation that deliveries have been recorded as soon as they arrive on site. This visibility reduces uncertainty and strengthens trust between contractors and their supply chain partners.
Faster approvals mean suppliers are paid more quickly and fairly, with disputes resolved before they become major issues. The administrative burden is also significantly reduced – suppliers no longer need to send duplicate PODs or spend time answering queries about whether goods have been received. Digital proof of delivery ensures accuracy and transparency, helping suppliers get paid correctly for what was delivered.
For smaller suppliers, the benefits are particularly important. By cutting out unnecessary admin and ensuring prompt, reliable payments, CausewayOne Receipting helps level the playing field, enabling them to compete on equal terms with larger organisations.
A collaborative step forward
The Balfour Beatty pilot projects show what is possible when contractors and suppliers commit to a digital-first approach. Early trials have demonstrated the simplicity of the process for site teams, the speed of data capture, and the value of supplier engagement. Balfour Beatty plans to extend the rollout across all sites from January 2026, and Causeway is working with more than 70 suppliers to enable digital PODs as part of the process.
What makes this initiative stand out is that it is not designed as a competitive advantage for a single contractor. Both Causeway and Balfour Beatty see it as part of a wider industry shift towards more transparent, efficient and collaborative supply chains. By addressing one of the last manual barriers in the procurement process, CausewayOne Receipting offers a blueprint for how construction can modernise and strengthen relationships across the sector.
"We see this as the journey for the whole industry. This is where construction should be going – not just one contractor ploughing a lone furrow.”
Paul Black, Head of Site Support, Balfour Beatty
Ready to modernise your receipting?
The case for digital receipting is clear. For contractors, it means reduced back-office costs, stronger compliance, and faster project delivery. For suppliers, it delivers quicker, more accurate payments and far less time wasted chasing paperwork.
CausewayOne Receipting is already proving its value on live projects – and the opportunity now is to extend these benefits across the industry.
If you would like to explore how CausewayOne Receipting can support your business, contact us today.
