From Receipt to Bank: 5 Finance Tools Every Engineering Company Needs

Introduction - 5 Finance Tools

Lift engineering businesses move fast: call-outs, PPM contracts, installs, subcontractors, vans, parts, and a blizzard of invoices, receipts and payments. If your systems don’t talk to each other, cash slows and margins drift.

At Jones Financial Accounts (JFA), we help construction and engineering SMEs build smart finance stacks that connect field, finance and banking, so data flows from receipt → bill → approval → payment → board KPIs with minimal admin.

In this guide, I’ll show you the top 5 tools we implement most often for lift companies, plus how to review your process, avoid mistakes, and roll everything out in the right order. For deeper context, see our post on lift dashboards (great for KPIs) and our resources page for free templates to get started. Read: “How to Build the Perfect Dashboard for Your Lift Business”.|  Explore free downloads.

What you need to review

#1 Evidence Capture (Invoices & Receipts). 

If you can’t reliably capture supplier bills and field receipts (fuel, parts, parking) with images attached to the ledger line, you’ll lose VAT, spend hours chasing paperwork, and delay month-end. Fix this first. Tools: Dext for capture; GetMyInvoices to auto-fetch portal bills.

#2 Approvals & Payments. 

Who prepares a payment run? Who approves? Where’s the audit trail? Email approvals and manual banking create errors and fraud risk. Use approval workflows and Open-Banking payments so batches are safe, fast and visible. Tool: Apron.

#3 Card & Out-of-Pocket Spend (Engineers). 

Engineers need simple company cards with automatic receipt recovery, tagging spend to jobs/vehicles. Tool: Pleo.

#4 Reporting & KPIs. 

Directors need one view of job/contract margins, debtor days, and cash runway. Tool: Fathom(board-ready dashboards and scenarios). See our lift dashboard guide for KPI structure. 

#5 Collections & Cash Visibility. 

With retentions and stage payments, cash can stick. Pair your stack with a rolling 13-week forecast and debtor focus. For methodology, see our stress-tested forecasting piece. Read: “The CFO’s Guide to Stress-Tested Forecasting.” 

When these five are mapped, the tech becomes obvious. Start where money leaks most (evidence and approvals), then layer cards and dashboards. Grab relevant freebies on our Resources page to speed setup. 

Why it matters

For the business: A connected stack turns work done into cash in quickly. Bills and receipts arrive with images; approvals are one-click; payment runs are safe; directors see live margin and cash runway.

Month-end drops to days, not weeks. Pricing reviews, utilisation and contract profitability get attention because finance isn’t stuck chasing evidence.

For stakeholders:

• Owners/Directors: Clear, timely MI reduces guesswork on pricing, hiring and bids. Banks and investors see control and lend on better terms.

  
  

• Clients & Main Contractors: Faster, cleaner invoicing and documentation lowers disputes and improves CSAT, supporting renewals on maintenance portfolios.

  
  

• Staff & Engineers: Less admin, fewer “can you resend that receipt?” messages, and clearer job tagging. Morale improves because systems help, not hinder.

  
  

• Suppliers/Subcontractors: Predictable, accurate payment runs strengthen relationships and may unlock better terms.

  
  

Risk of ignoring:

Lost VAT from missing receipts; duplicate or late payments; fraud exposure; inflated debtor days; low-confidence reporting. A single missed contract renewal or over-run job can erase the profit from three others.

Commercial upside: 

Firms that standardise capture, approvals and payments typically see debtor days fall, admin hours fall, and board decisions speed up, a compounding effect that improves gross margin and cash resilience.

Strategy to get it right

Finance team (own the core):

1. Dext as the universal AP inbox (email-in, drag-drop, mobile camera). Switch supplier emails to your Dext address. Build vendor rules (GL/ VAT/ tracking).

   
   

2. GetMyInvoices to auto-fetch portal bills (fuel cards, merchants, tool hire, mobiles) + monthly statements, pushing PDFs/data to Dext or the ledger.

   
   

3. Apron for AP approvals and Open-Banking payments. Implement maker–checker, vendor cleansing, and weekly standardised runs with remittances.

   
   

Operations/Engineers (field spend):

Pleo cards for supervisors/engineers with project/vehicle tags, merchant rules and auto-receipt chasing (push/email/SMS). Train for “snap at point of spend.”

Leadership reporting (visibility & control):

Fathom dashboards: install vs service margins, engineer utilisation, debtor days, WIP and cash runway; monthly board pack with trend commentary and what-ifs. Link this to our guidance on KPI cadence in the lift dashboard post. See KPIs for lift firms. 

To reinforce good habits, book a quarterly systems audit and a monthly KPI meeting. Our free tools on the Resources page can help you standardise workflows. 

The Top 5 (what it does • benefits • disadvantages • ease)

1. Dext — Capture, Code and Publish Bills/Receipts (with Images)

What it does (in detail):

• Central “inbox” for supplier bills and receipts: email-in, drag-drop, mobile camera for engineers.

• OCR extracts supplier, date, net/VAT/gross, tax rate, due date and suggests GL codes/suppliers.

• Line-item extraction for detailed purchases (useful for parts/tools).

• Rules to auto-code by vendor, keyword or amount, and push to the ledger with the document attached.

• Statement fetch and bank statement capture options to support reconciliations.

  
  

  Benefits:

• Stops re-typing and attaches evidence to every transaction (VAT-safe).

• Cleaner purchase ledger; faster pre-month-end accruals; fewer missing documents.

• Engineers can snap fuel/parking receipts on the spot; finance stops chasing.

  
  

  Disadvantages:

• Needs light training so staff submit to Dext (not random inboxes).

• Complex suppliers may need rule-tuning for perfect coding.

  
  

  Ease of implementation: Easy (2–5 days). Connect your ledger, set vendor rules, train engineers to use the app, and flip your AP email to Dext’s address.

2. GetMyInvoices — Automatic Invoice & Statement Retrieval (Portals + Email)

What it does (in detail):

• Auto-fetches invoices/credits from hundreds/thousands of supplier portals (fuel cards, tool hire, builders’ merchants, mobiles, software) and monitors an AP email for e-bills.

  
  

• Normalises PDFs, extracts header data, and pushes files + data to Dext or direct to the ledger, keeping the image attached.

• Optional monthly statement downloads for reconciliations (e.g., fuel/tool accounts).

• Routing rules can pre-tag costs to jobs/vehicles/departments.

  
  

  Benefits:

• Ends “please resend the invoice” emails—evidence arrives automatically.

• Fewer late/missing bills; tighter VAT and faster month-end.

• Better costing: predictable vendors auto-tag to the right project/cost centre.

  
  

  Disadvantages:

• Some niche portals need manual login setup or occasional re-auth (MFA changes).

• Paper invoices still need Dext/photo capture for completeness.

  
  

  Ease of implementation: Easy–Moderate (3–7 days). Connect your top 15–30 vendors + AP inbox, map to ledger categories, monitor the first month for gaps.

  
  

3. Apron — Accounts Payable, Approvals & Open-Banking Payments

What it does (in detail):

• Centralises bills (from Dext/email/API), extracts data, and routes through role-based approvals with full audit trail and comments.

• Schedules and pays suppliers via Open Banking (bulk runs across entities), with status tracking and automatic remittances.

• Handles employee reimbursements; syncs payment refs back to the ledger.

• Optional PO/delivery matching if you run a light PO process.

  
  

  Benefits:

• Maker–checker control removes “paid from someone’s login” risk.

• Fast, accurate payment runs; fewer typos/duplicates; predictable cash impact.

• Standardises “payment day” and keeps directors out of the bank portal.

  
  

  Disadvantages:

• Supplier master data needs a clean-up (bank details, emails) for a smooth start.

• Another platform for teams used to manual banking, training matters.

  
  

  Ease of implementation: Moderate (1–2 weeks). Connect banks/ledger, define rules (e.g., >£5k needs director), cleanse suppliers, pilot one weekly run, then scale.

4. Pleo — Company Cards that Auto-Recover Receipts (ideal for engineers)

What it does (in detail):

• Issue physical/virtual cards with per-user limits, merchant rules and spend caps.

• Auto-chases receipts via push/email/SMS until the image is attached to the exact transaction.

• Tag spend to jobs/vehicles/engineers; export to the ledger with VAT rate + image.

• Mileage and small out-of-pocket claims handled in the app.

  
  

  Benefits:

• Eliminates receipt chasing; recovers VAT you’d otherwise lose.

• Real-time view of field spend (fuel, consumables, parking) against projects.

• Cuts overspend with granular controls; reduces cash handling.

  
  

  Disadvantages:

• Requires a small behaviour change (snap receipts same-day).

• Rare cash purchases still need a fallback process.

  
  

  Ease of implementation: Easy (2–5 days). Mirror your chart of accounts and tracking in Pleo, roll out to supervisors first, set 48–72-hour auto-reminders.

  
  

5. Fathom — Board-Ready Dashboards, KPIs & Scenario Planning

What it does (in detail):

• Pulls from the ledger to visualise revenue by stream (install/service), gross margin by division, engineer utilisation, WIP velocity, debtor days, cash runway.

• Produces standardised board packs with trend charts and commentary placeholders.

• Scenario modelling: test price rises, labour rate changes, parts inflation, or contract churn before committing.

  
  

  Benefits:

• Directors see actionable signals (margin drift, low utilisation, WIP creep) in one place.

• Decide with confidence: hire, price, van fleet, or subcontract mix—based on evidence.

• Month-end becomes a conversation about actions, not formatting slides.

  
  

  Disadvantages:

• Needs disciplined month-end; poor data in = poor insight out.

• First-time KPI design benefits from CFO input.

  
  

  Ease of implementation: Moderate (~1 week once books are clean). JFA sets KPIs/targets, exception alerts, and a reusable board pack; we train leaders to read and act.

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5) Common mistakes (and consequences)

• Email approvals & manual banking. Consequences: duplicate/late payments, fraud exposure, weak audit trail, strained supplier trust.

• Missing receipt evidence. Consequences: lost VAT recovery, HMRC risk, messy audits, delayed accounts sign-off.

• Portals ignored. Consequences: bills never downloaded, costs missed until statements arrive, inaccurate margins.

• Dashboards without a month-end discipline. Consequences: decisions on bad numbers, mispriced work, avoidable overdraft usage.

• No ownership. Consequences: finance chases ops; engineers ignore process; directors lose confidence in MI; culture slips from proactive to reactive.For stakeholder impact across the chain, clients, suppliers, banks and staff, see our related industry posts and categories on the Daily Blog. 

7) Why professional support pays off

JFA implements in the order that protects cash first: Dext → GetMyInvoices → Apron → Pleo → Fathom. We map your process, eliminate re-typing, set receipt/bill pipelines so every pound has paperwork, build maker–checker approvals, standardise weekly payment runs, and design a board pack that highlights the signals (margin drift, utilisation, WIP creep, debtor slippage).

You get time back, risk down, visibility up, and a strategic plan to grow profitably. Want a quick self-check first? Try our free 3-Minute Financial Health Check. Start here. 

8) Key takeaways

• Capture every bill/receipt with images; stop re-typing and protect VAT.

• Approve and pay via controlled workflows; kill email approvals and manual banking.

• Give engineers cards that auto-recover receipts and tag spend to jobs.

• Put board-level KPIs on one page and review them monthly (at least).

Wrapping up today's insights, tomorrow we simplify another accounting challenge