Work situation: 8 obstacles that are holding back your projects... and how Freedz eliminates them!
Between missing parts, delayed approvals, discrepancies in amounts, and poorly managed retention guarantees, the construction process can quickly become a nightmare for social landlords, particularly their accounts payable departments. If poorly managed, a construction project validation workflow delays payments and strains relations between the various parties involved in a project.
Key takeaways
- The status of construction work is vital for the cash flow of construction companies, but managing it remains one of the most complex processes in real estate.
- The triangle formed by the project owner, project manager, and contractors (and their subcontractors) increases the number of back-and-forth exchanges and the risk of errors.
- There are eight recurring causes of delays: missing parts, MOE validation, subcontractor management, incorrect market or amendment versions, complex successive validations that are difficult to trace, payment delays, Excel, and lack of an overall vision.
- A workflow for validating work status such as Freedz centralizes exchanges, automates checks, and guarantees complete traceability.
- Domofrance (social landlord) has chosen the Freedz module to simplify highly complex situations.
- The result: better adherence to deadlines, less tension with companies, and more predictable cash flow.
Why are work situations so complex?
A multi-stakeholder, multi-document process
A construction project is never "just" a document, such as a PDF or even a sheet of paper that may not necessarily be digitized. Behind it lies a contract, amendments, service orders, attachments, potential penalties, and retention guarantees. Each player—the project owner (the client who commissioned the construction, such as a social landlord), the project manager (the site manager), the construction company carrying out the work (supplier), and the social landlord's accounts payable department—sees part of the puzzle... but rarely the whole picture.
Without a structured workflow for validating the status of work, everyone works with their own emails, files, and folders. Information gets lost, versions get mixed up, and validations are delayed.
A direct impact on supplier relationships and cash flow
Every situation that gets stuck delays the invoice, and therefore payment. For the lender, this disrupts the management of work budgets and calls for funds. For companies, it undermines trust and increases the number of reminders. On a large scale, these frictions consume a huge amount of time for the work teams and accounts payable departments.
8 recurring causes of blockages in the handling of work situations
In practice, the work situation therefore flows as follows: subcontractors → main contractor (supplier) → project manager (for approval) → project owner (for accounting and payment). Each link adds controls... but also sources of blockage.
✅Missing or incomplete parts
The primary cause of the blockage remains basic: elements are missing.
- Attachments ¹ not transmitted.
- No endorsements.
- PV (supporting documents on the progress of the work and the work acceptance report) or OS (Service Order) cannot be found.
The MOE cannot verify progress, the MOA cannot commit to the expenditure. The situation goes backwards, sometimes by paper mail, sometimes by email, and deadlines are blown!
✅MOE validation that remains "on the corner of the desk"
The work status reportis first sent to the project manager, who checks whether it accurately reflects the actual progress of the project. The problem is that the project manager is not always bound by a strict contractual deadline for giving his approval. As a result, the report may remain on his desk or in his email inbox for several weeks before even reaching the lessor.
🚀The project owner then has no visibility: it is impossible to follow up on what they cannot see. A workflow for validating the status of work in Freedz clearly plans the "project manager approval" stage, tracks the date of submission and approval, and allows the lessor to monitor progress without waiting for the paper to come back.
✅Tedious subcontractor management
In many cases, the main company consolidates the shares of its subcontractors, but the final payment must go directly to each entity. This involves:
- Multiple invoices.
- SIRET/VAT checks.
- Payments broken down by accounts payable.
Without tools, managing subcontractors makes processing more cumbersome and increases the risk of errors or fraud (creation of fake subcontractors, inaccurate amounts, etc.).
🚀 The Freedz Approved Platform allows you to declare subcontractors, track their amounts line by line, and prepare payments broken down by entity, simplifying the life of the supplier department.
✅Incorrect version of the contract or amendment
A situation is based on an outdated version of the contract or does not include the latest amendment. The amounts no longer match what the project owner or project manager had in mind. Conflict is guaranteed.
🚀 Freedz centralizes contracts and their amendments, linking each situation to the correct reference system. The workflow for validating work situations is always based on the latest version.
✅Cascading validations... without visibility
A construction project sometimes requires 3, 4, or 5 approvals: contractor, project manager, project owner, project manager, real estate department, accounts payable. Without a tool, it is impossible to know "where the problem lies."
🚀In Freedz, each situation follows a defined approval process: you can see in real time who needs to approve, who has approved, who is blocking, and since when.
✅Payment deadlines impossible to meet
With this multi-step process (subcontractor → company → project manager → project owner), invoices often arrive at the lessor already past the legal deadline. The project owner finds themselves in default without even knowing that the situation was circulating.
🚀Freedz time-stamps each step : submission by the company, MOE approval, MOA receipt. Each party knows the date on which the project manager received the situation and when they validated it. This is key to meeting payment deadlines for work and securing the relationship with companies.
✅Process fragmented between paper, emails, and Excel
Much of the friction still comes from paper and postal mail, supplemented by email exchanges and homemade Excel files. Lost documents, duplicates, conflicting versions... all of this makes errors almost inevitable.
🚀By centralizing work situations in Freedz, these scattered channels are replaced by a single platform: submission, validation, comments, attachments—everything is done in one place, accessible to project owners, project managers, and companies.
✅Lack of an overall vision of the work commitments
Without consolidation, it is difficult for a lender to answer simple questions:
- What remains to be done in this market?
- How much remains to be paid for this construction project?
- What impact will this have on our fundraising and cash flow?
🚀Freedz provides dashboards that summarize commitments, approved situations, amounts paid, and remaining balances, by project.
Case study: why Domofrance chose the "Work Status" module
The social housing company Domofrance is a good example of these issues. Construction projects account for "only 10 to 15% of the invoices" processed by this social landlord, or 10 to 15,000 documents per year, but they are "the most complex to manage": co-contractors, subcontractors, reconciliation with progress reports and successive approvals from the project owner and architect.
They explain that they chose the module Work Situation module because it " simplify and streamline the management of this task ," benefit from " greater flexibility ," and co-develop the module with the Freedz teams, who are incorporating these lender requirements into their roadmap.
A key point for them: the legal payment deadline, which starts from the date of approval by the project manager. With the time-stamped signature in Freedz, they put an end to "lost invoices, missing signatures, letters lying around ," and difficulties in knowing "when the architect received the work status." This is exactly the role of a good workflow for validating the status of work.
👉 Read the testimonial of Vincent CAILHETON, Accounting and Tax Director at Domofrance.
How a good workflow for validating work status changes the game
Structure the process from start to finish
An effective workflow for validating work status is based on two pillars:
- Clear steps (filing, MOE control, MOA validation, accounts payable).
- Clearly defined roles and rights (who can view, modify, approve, or reject).
🚀Freedz allows you to model this workflow once, then apply it across your entire fleet and construction sites.
Centralize exchanges on a single platform
No more situations where information circulates by email, documents are stored on shared drives, and there are different versions between project owners and project managers. The platform becomes a shared workspace for internal teams and companies. Everyone can upload, view, comment, and approve in the same place.
Save time, gain peace of mind... and improve data quality
By automating simple checks (missing parts, data entry errors), Freedz frees up time for business validations that add real value. Data becomes reliable, usable, and directly connected to your accounting and dashboards.
FAQ – Workflow for validating the status of works
1/Why structure a workflow for validating the status of work?
To reduce bottlenecks, secure approved amounts, shorten payment times, and provide visibility to both the treasury and companies. Without a clear workflow, each player applies their own rules.
2/How many people can be involved in a Freedz workflow?
As many as necessary: project owner, project manager, real estate department, companies, management control, accounts payable, etc. You define the steps, roles, and rights by type of contract or project.
3/Can the workflow be adapted to different types of projects or markets?
Yes. You can create several workflow templates (renovation, new construction, maintenance, etc.) with their own validation rules, while maintaining a common base to simplify overall management.
4/How does Freedz integrate with our existing tools?
Freedz has APIs to connect to your ERP, business software, and accounting tools. Approved situations and amounts are fed directly into your systems, without the need for re-entry.
(1) Attachments are made during the performance of a contract. These written or drawn documents are intended to record the nature and quantity of work performed, and thus to preserve proof of the actual performance of a service.
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Freedz, the supplier invoice validation solution for real estate professionals
Waiting to comply with electronic invoicing reform: why is this not the right strategy?
