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.

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.

Read next

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