ERP for contracting companies

A contractor knows the contract value and knows what has been collected. What was actually spent on this specific project — materials, labour, subcontractors, plant — is usually known after it ends, when knowing is no use.

A contracting ERP is an accounting and operations system that ties every riyal spent to a specific project: from the purchase order to the subcontractor's claim to the site daybook. Fahim delivers this system over WhatsApp, so the site engineer records a delivery by message and the owner asks about any project's profitability from a phone. It suits small and mid-sized contracting companies in Saudi Arabia running anywhere from two projects to dozens, that want to see cost variance during execution rather than after handover.

Costing at project level, not company level

The fundamental difference between general accounting and a contracting system is that every movement is attributed to a project: the supplier invoice, the labour hours, the subcontractor's claim, the purchase order. Only then does “what did I make on that project?” become a question with an answer.

• Budget versus actual per line, with variance visible during execution rather than after it.
• Progress claims — completion percentages, retention and advances calculated inside the system.
• Subcontractors — contracts, claims and amounts due tied to the same project.
• Site daybooks — labour, plant and materials received, recorded day by day.
• Cash flow — due and collected per project, because a contracting crisis is a cash crisis before it is a profit one.

What Fahim actually solves

The problem with contracting systems is not reporting — it is capture from site. A site engineer will not open a system to record a steel delivery. In Fahim they send a WhatsApp message or a photo of the delivery note, and it is recorded against the project directly — in Arabic, by text or voice.

And you ask from your phone: “how much has been spent on the Riyadh project this month?”, “which claims are still uncollected?” — and the current numbers come back.

Who this system is for

• A general contractor running several projects at once who needs the cost of each one separately.
• A subcontractor who wants to track their claims and retentions held by the main contractor.
• An engineering office or fit-out company whose work runs on contracts and stage payments.
• An operations and maintenance company holding annual contracts with recurring work orders.

A company executing one very large project with a full finance department and an established system may be better served by integrating through the API rather than replacing it — and we say so plainly before contracting.

A working day on one project

For example: a contract worth SAR 1,200,000 for the fit-out of a building, with the steel line budgeted at SAR 180,000. This is how the day runs:

• 7 a.m.: the site engineer sends a photo of the steel delivery note from the supplier. Quantity and value are recorded against the steel line of the project.
• 10 a.m.: the labour supervisor sends “attendance today 14 workers, two absent”. The labour hours enter the project cost.
• Noon: the plumbing subcontractor sends their second claim. The accountant reviews and approves it from a phone, and it appears among the project's payables.
• Afternoon: the owner asks “how much have we spent on steel?”. The answer: SAR 205,000, roughly 14% over budget while completion stands at 60%.
• Evening: Moeen sends the day's summary: what was received, what was spent, and which claims remain uncollected.

The numbers here are hypothetical, but the path is real: the variance showed up on the day, not at the end of the project.

How it works, step by step

1. Define the project: contract value, budget lines, retention percentage and advance payment.
2. Link the sources: purchase orders, subcontractor contracts, labour and plant are attributed to the project from the first movement.
3. Daily capture from site: a photo, a text or an Arabic voice message becomes an entry on the right line.
4. Progress claims: completion percentages generate the claim, with retention and the advance deducted automatically.
5. Follow-up: a budget-versus-actual report per line and a cash flow per project, both requested by message.

These steps produce 5 core reports: project cost by line, the claims statement, subcontractor payables, the monthly site daybook, and the projected cash flow. All are requested from WhatsApp with an ordinary question and arrive with today's numbers, not those of the last closing.

What regulation requires and how it is covered

E-invoicing is mandatory under the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA): Phase 1 since 4 December 2021, and Phase 2 (integration) in waves since 1 January 2023. Every claim or invoice issued from the system carries the 15% VAT, is stored in the required format, and reaches the tax report with no second entry. Wages for project labour fall under the Wage Protection System through the Mudad platform, so the upload file is built from the approved payroll run instead of being assembled by hand at the end of every month.

Compared with spreadsheets and traditional systems

• Spreadsheets: you know the project cost when someone sits down to add it up, which is once a month at best. And any file edited by more than one person loses its correct number.
• General accounting software: records expenses against the company, not the project, so you know the overall profit but not which project is losing.
• A traditional contracting system: good reports, but capture depends on an office clerk keying in whatever reached them from site, late.
• A system that runs from WhatsApp: capture happens on site at the moment of the event, and the report is requested with a question.

What Moeen adds

Moeen is the personal assistant included in the Moeen and Fahim plans. It sends you a morning summary of project status, reminds you of a claim due for submission or a subcontractor payment coming due, and prepares the payment request or the quote for you to review before sending. It alerts you when a line exceeds its budget, and it takes no financial action without your permission.

Permissions in the system come in 5 roles: general manager, sales manager, accountant, warehouse supervisor and employee. So the site engineer records but does not see profit margins, and the accountant approves but does not edit contracts. Alongside Moeen, 4 AI agents work on sales, finance, purchasing and market, each watching its own area and raising what deserves attention.

Plans and trial

The Essential plan at SAR 75 per user per month gives you the full system from the browser. The Moeen plan at SAR 375 adds WhatsApp and the personal assistant. The Fahim plan at SAR 935 adds AI that modifies the system on request: you ask by message for a new field in the site daybook or a report in a different layout, and it is applied within minutes. Larger companies have the Enterprise plan on request. Prices exclude 15% VAT, the first month is free, and with the Golden Guarantee you get a full refund within 30 days if it does not suit you. Plan details are on the pricing page, and you start from the free trial page.

Implementation plan

1. Setup: define the company, the projects in progress and their opening balances, and add users with their roles.
2. One pilot project: capture from site starts on a single project until the team gets used to messages instead of paper.
3. Roll-out: the remaining projects are moved over, and subcontractors and suppliers are linked.
4. Monthly review: budget versus actual for every project in one meeting, using the same numbers everyone sees.

The free month is usually enough for the first two steps, so you decide to continue having seen the numbers of a real project.

Read next

• Managing contracting sites from WhatsApp
• Cash flow management
• Procurement and purchase orders