A superintendent requests a change. The foreperson keeps the crew moving and sends a picture. The PM expects approval. Accounting assumes the item will be included in the next billing. Everyone has a piece; nobody sees the whole change.
For growing contractors
The crew did the extra work. Make sure the office has what it needs to bill it.
A field request becomes a conversation, a photo, a price in progress, and a note someone intends to send later. By billing time, the question is not only what happened. It is what was documented and approved.
Hazel & Helm helps contractors find the break between estimating, field work, project management, and accounting, then design and implement the right response.
Book a Free Introductory CallBring the job handoff you wish were easier to trace.
Where the record breaks
“We talked about it on site” is a fragile billing process
Now the office is reconstructing the record, waiting longer to invoice, or having a dispute about what was authorized. Telling the field team to take better notes doesn't settle who prices a change, who can approve it, or how billing learns that the work is complete.
Does this sound familiar?
Bid assumptions never make it into the project handoff.
Change requests are recorded differently by each foreperson.
A price exists but approval status is unclear.
Billable work is discovered after the billing cycle.
Where the trail gets thin
Make the trail visible while there is still time to act
A sound process shows requested, priced, submitted, authorized, completed, and ready for billing, along with the exceptions that don't follow a tidy path. We look at actual changes from recent jobs and identify where proof or ownership disappears.
A shared register may be part of the fix. So might clearer rules about when work proceeds and how authorization is captured. AI may organize field notes for human review. It cannot create an approval that never happened.
The engagement
Strategy that reaches the field and the invoice
Bring one recurring issue. We trace it through the people, documents, and systems involved; determine the cause; recommend the change; and help put it in place. We choose a measure with you, such as time from field request to submitted price, approved work waiting for billing, or missing documentation at invoice time.
- Trace
- Find the break
- Design
- Implement
- Measure
On a free introductory call, you can walk us through the recurring issue without assembling every job record first. We will discuss the people and decisions involved and see if there is a fit. The paid work is then scoped to the problem; a change touching estimating, PM, and accounting systems at scale would need a broader plan.
Who you will work with
Who is behind Hazel & Helm?
Sara Greenlaw, Founder
Founder Sara Greenlaw has spent roughly 15 years scoping and implementing business technology projects, translating requests into deliverable work and managing the handoffs that determine whether a launch succeeds. Your team knows the contracts and field conditions.
She brings a structured way to turn that knowledge into a process people can use.
A good fit
Several active jobs, costly gaps between field and office, and leadership willing to examine how work actually moves.
Questions
Before you book
Can this connect to our construction software?
We look at what the software can already do and the information people actually enter before recommending an integration.
Will it recover every unbilled change?
No credible consultant can promise that. We can improve documentation, ownership, and visibility, then measure what changes on real projects.
Do crews need to change the way they work?
Possibly. We design the change with people in the field because an office-perfect process crews cannot use will fail quickly.
Follow the change from site to invoice.
Show us where the trail gets thin. We will help solve the problem behind it.
Book a Free Introductory Call