Friday Fives: raise a PO from the van, load a year of PPM in minutes
Five real automations from the Build Concierge platform, picked for the week of 24 July.
What's in this week's edition
Friday Fives is Build Concierge's weekly newsletter: five real automations from businesses already using the platform, with what each one does, the problem it solves and the result.
This week covers the everyday admin that quietly eats your team's time, from raising a purchase order on site to loading a whole year of PPM, catching jobs that stall, keeping invoicing clean, and hearing when a customer is unhappy, each one handled without anyone in the office lifting a finger.
Purchase orders raised from site by text or WhatsApp
An engineer on site sends a text or WhatsApp with what they need: the job reference, supplier, items and cost. AI reads the message, raises the purchase order against the right job in your job management system, and sends the PO number back so they can give it to the supplier there and then.
It solves engineers buying materials with no PO because raising one was too much hassle, costs landing on the wrong job or no job at all, and the office being interrupted all day by two-minute PO requests that add up to hours.
- POs raised in the time it takes to type a message
- Every purchase logged against the right job from the start
- Engineers back to work instead of on hold to the office
PPM schedules loaded from spreadsheets in minutes
When a client sends their PPM schedule as a spreadsheet, hundreds of sites, dates and asset lines, Build Concierge reads it and creates every job, visit and financial line in your job management system automatically, mapped to the right contacts and contracts.
It solves days of manual keying every time a contract starts or renews, sites missed because a row was skipped, and new contracts starting on the back foot before the first visit even happens.
- A full year of PPM loaded in minutes instead of days
- Every visit in the diary from day one of the contract
- No data-entry marathon and no rows missed
Jobs that stall get flagged before they go stale
Build Concierge continuously checks for jobs that have stopped moving: not closed down days after the visit, sat at the same status too long, or past their expected completion date. Anything stalled is flagged to the right owner automatically, with the job details attached.
It solves jobs drifting for weeks because they fell out of view, a WIP report nobody trusts, and the end-of-month scramble through hundreds of open jobs to find out which are actually finished.
- A live list of every job that needs a push, with no reports to run
- Work keeps moving and work in progress stays honest
- Month end stops turning up surprises
Only clean, complete jobs get invoiced
When a job is marked complete, Build Concierge reads the job card and checks it is genuinely finished and consistent before anything is billed. Clean, complete jobs get a draft invoice ready to review. If there is further work, or the card does not add up, it raises the follow-on work or flags it for a person instead of invoicing.
It solves half-finished or contradictory job cards being invoiced automatically, remedial work billed as if it were complete, and the office re-reading every job card by hand to work out what is ready to send.
- Only genuinely finished, tidy jobs get invoiced
- Clean jobs invoiced the day the work completes
- Nothing half-done slips onto a bill, nothing finished sits waiting
Concierge Support calls scored for sentiment
When a call comes through Concierge Support, AI reads the conversation for sentiment as well as content. Frustrated or at-risk customers are flagged immediately and logged against their record, so a manager can step in while the problem is still small.
It solves frustration signals lost the moment a call ends, managers hearing about unhappy customers weeks later or never, and churn that nobody saw coming because nobody was listening for it.
- Unhappy customers surfaced the moment they hang up
- A record of customer mood across every conversation
- Problems handled before they become cancellations
See these automations running in your operations
Whether you're already on Build Concierge or just exploring what it can do, we'll show you exactly how any of these five would work for your business.
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About the author
Simon leads operations at Build Concierge and writes Friday Fives, a weekly look at five real automations businesses are using to save time and cut costs.
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Automatically record SLA breaches against the right job stage
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When your team completes a tender assessment, Build Concierge totals the scores, applies the threshold you've agreed and saves a Bid or No Bid recommendation to the tender record. Your team still scores the tender and still makes the decision. The automation makes sure every assessment is added up and measured against the same bar.
Add approved leave to engineer diaries automatically
When a manager approves leave in your HR system, Build Concierge adds the absence to the right engineer's diary in your job management system, with the correct dates and absence type. Leave is still requested and approved in your HR system as it is today. Your schedulers see who's away before they plan the week, without anyone copying it across.
Flag high risk jobs as they arrive
Put jobs that need a closer look in front of the right person. Build Concierge scores incoming job notifications against your chosen risk factors, then flags jobs that reach your threshold and alerts the owner.
Get alerts when purchase order lines change on invoiced jobs
When someone updates a purchase order (PO) line, Build Concierge checks whether the job it belongs to has already been invoiced. If it has, the people you choose receive an alert showing what changed, who changed it and links to the job and the PO. Your team can review the change while it's recent, rather than coming across it at month-end.
Turn emailed hire requests into hire contracts automatically
When a customer emails your hire desk, Build Concierge reads the request and any attachments. It then matches the customer, delivery site and equipment, and creates a hire contract in your hire management system. Your hire desk checks and confirms the contract instead of keying it in from scratch. Requests it can't match with confidence come to your team instead.
Automatically record SLA breaches against the right job stage
A service-level agreement (SLA) sets how quickly each stage of a job should happen, such as attending site or completing the work. When your job management system raises an SLA alert because a stage has run past its agreed time, Build Concierge finds that stage and flags it as a breach. The breach sits on the job, where your team can follow it up and report on it, rather than in an inbox.
Automatically score tenders before you decide to bid
When your team completes a tender assessment, Build Concierge totals the scores, applies the threshold you've agreed and saves a Bid or No Bid recommendation to the tender record. Your team still scores the tender and still makes the decision. The automation makes sure every assessment is added up and measured against the same bar.
Add approved leave to engineer diaries automatically
When a manager approves leave in your HR system, Build Concierge adds the absence to the right engineer's diary in your job management system, with the correct dates and absence type. Leave is still requested and approved in your HR system as it is today. Your schedulers see who's away before they plan the week, without anyone copying it across.
Flag high risk jobs as they arrive
Put jobs that need a closer look in front of the right person. Build Concierge scores incoming job notifications against your chosen risk factors, then flags jobs that reach your threshold and alerts the owner.
Get alerts when purchase order lines change on invoiced jobs
When someone updates a purchase order (PO) line, Build Concierge checks whether the job it belongs to has already been invoiced. If it has, the people you choose receive an alert showing what changed, who changed it and links to the job and the PO. Your team can review the change while it's recent, rather than coming across it at month-end.
Turn emailed hire requests into hire contracts automatically
When a customer emails your hire desk, Build Concierge reads the request and any attachments. It then matches the customer, delivery site and equipment, and creates a hire contract in your hire management system. Your hire desk checks and confirms the contract instead of keying it in from scratch. Requests it can't match with confidence come to your team instead.
Automatically record SLA breaches against the right job stage
A service-level agreement (SLA) sets how quickly each stage of a job should happen, such as attending site or completing the work. When your job management system raises an SLA alert because a stage has run past its agreed time, Build Concierge finds that stage and flags it as a breach. The breach sits on the job, where your team can follow it up and report on it, rather than in an inbox.
Automatically score tenders before you decide to bid
When your team completes a tender assessment, Build Concierge totals the scores, applies the threshold you've agreed and saves a Bid or No Bid recommendation to the tender record. Your team still scores the tender and still makes the decision. The automation makes sure every assessment is added up and measured against the same bar.
Add approved leave to engineer diaries automatically
When a manager approves leave in your HR system, Build Concierge adds the absence to the right engineer's diary in your job management system, with the correct dates and absence type. Leave is still requested and approved in your HR system as it is today. Your schedulers see who's away before they plan the week, without anyone copying it across.
Flag high risk jobs as they arrive
Put jobs that need a closer look in front of the right person. Build Concierge scores incoming job notifications against your chosen risk factors, then flags jobs that reach your threshold and alerts the owner.