Tanmaya "TK" Kala spent 13 years at DPR Construction rising to Project Executive on billion-dollar healthcare projects — including OSHPD hospital builds where clients demanded actual-cost documentation down to the square foot of drywall. Now he's Co-Founder & COO of MeltPlan, building AI tools for pre-construction.

In this episode of Finance at the Jobsite, TK breaks down why the finance–operations gap exists on nearly every project: why coding invoices is "a chore" that gets deprioritized, how he blocked Friday afternoons just to get billing done, and why the accounting system — not the PM platform — is still the real source of truth. He shares stories from the field, including a subcontractor emailing certified payroll with exposed Social Security numbers, and explains why billing becomes a last-minute scramble when everyone waits until the deadline to maximize cash flow.

We also cover: lump sum vs. cost plus contracts and what each means for financial workload, why only 2% of projects hit cost, time, and benefits, material tracking in a post-COVID supply chain, and TK's vision for AI making project managers reviewers instead of doers — plus his 95% accuracy threshold for when AI automation actually pays off.

Chapters:
00:41 – TK's journey: from structural engineering to Project Executive at DPR
11:05 – The finance vs. operations gap
21:32 – Real jobsite finance stories: Friday invoice coding, billing scrambles, and a payroll PII scare
30:10 – Cost tracking: lump sum vs. cost plus, and why material tracking is art and science
40:17 – Technology in construction and the founding of MeltPlan
47:35 – The future of construction finance: AI as first-pass coder, PM as reviewer

Everyone says AI agents are about to run your back office unattended. The research — and a day in the life of a construction finance software founder — says something more useful and a lot more specific.

In this solo episode of Finance at the Jobsite, host Rishi Srivastava (founder of Beiing Human) gives the honest version of where AI agents genuinely help in construction accounting and where they fall on their face. No slideware — these are tools he runs every day, backed by two pieces of research: Meta's GAIA-2 benchmark and CFAgentBench

https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.22000

, a new paper from his team testing agents on CFO-grade work.

What you'll learn:

Why the best AI agent completes only ~42% of everyday tasks start-to-finish — and why "on a clock" is where they fail hardest. The plan-act-observe-feedback loop that makes an agent auditable and trustworthy. Live look at two workflows that work today: creating a Viewpoint Vista job from an award email, and automating a dreaded ERP data migration. Why reliability collapses from ~66% (one try) to ~38% (five times in a row) — and why you should demand the "five in a row" number, not the demo number. How MCP ("USB-C for AI") is dissolving vendor lock-in and turning your finance systems into places agents can act, not just read. Why human-in-the-loop isn't a weakness — it's the architecture that survives an audit.

Real questions from CFOs, controllers, and ERP partners throughout, plus where this is all headed in the next year.

Whether you're running the numbers, leading the team, or designing the systems that keep projects moving — this is your place to learn what's working, what's broken, and what's next in construction finance.

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Audible, or watch on YouTube — just search Finance at the Jobsite.

What does a modern construction finance stack actually look like — and in what order should you build it? Rishi Srivastava sits down with Rory Carlson, CCIFP, VP of Accounting & Finance at Adjustable Concrete Construction (and a CFMA 2022 Rising Star), for a practical walk through 15+ years of construction finance.

Rory shares the lessons behind two successful expense-management implementations, why ERP integration and construction focus are non-negotiable when vetting AP tools, and how to actually weigh credit card rebates (Corpay) against zero-cost expense apps (Finvari) using a simple Excel ROI model. He also gets candid on the ACH-vs-outsourced-payments tradeoff (control vs. risk vs. automation), how he once turned payments into a six-figure profit center, and why FP&A is the next frontier — but only after payroll, expense, and AP are automated and the books close on time.

If you're a controller trying to convince an owner in the $5–25M range that expense and AP automation is worth it, this one's for you.

In this episode:

• The biggest shifts in jobsite finance over 15 years
• GC vs. subcontractor: how the finance function differs
• Why expense management is the easiest first win
• Finvari vs. Corpay: rebates, per-user cost, and real ROI
• Coding expenses at the point of purchase vs. chasing receipts
• ACH vs. outsourced payments: control, risk, and liability
• The three things that actually matter in an AP automation tool
• FP&A: budget vs. actual, 13-week cash forecasting, and scenario planning
• The exact order of operations for building a finance stack from scratch

Finance at the Jobsite is brought to you by Beiing Human.

Hashtags

#FinanceAtTheJobsite #ConstructionFinance #ConstructionAccounting #CFMA #CCIFP #APAutomation #ExpenseManagement #ConstructionTech #FPandA #Controller #CFO #Subcontractor #GeneralContractor #CashForecasting #ConstructionIndustry #BeiingHuman #AccountsPayable #ERP #Viewpoint #ConstructionPodcast

How does a professional drummer who toured with Heart and mixed for U2 end up becoming the Validation Institute's 2025 Benefits Advisor of the Year? In this episode, Rishi sits down with Donovan Pyle — CEO of Health Compass Consulting and author of Fixing Healthcare — to expose why healthcare has become the fastest-growing financial risk on construction P&Ls, and what CFOs can actually do about it.

US employers spent $1.3 trillion on healthcare in 2024 — and roughly 25% of it, about $4,000 per employee per year, was pure waste. For a 100-person contractor running 2–3% net margins, that waste eats jobs. Donovan breaks down the hidden machinery: why legacy brokers get paid more when your costs go up, why most PBM contracts say the vendor has no obligation to act in your interest, and why "healthcare just goes up every year" is a story the industry tells to keep you out of the room.

Inside the conversation:

• The structural conflict of interest baked into the broker model (and why it's technically a prohibited transaction under federal law)
• The Johnson & Johnson case: a $10,000/month drug that cost $78 in cash
• How a teachers union saved $3.6M by replacing one PBM — and how Blue Wave turned a 34% increase into a cost reduction
• The fiduciary storm under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, and the personal liability CFOs don't know they carry
• The Rosen Hotels playbook: $500M+ saved since 1991 with zero-deductible, value-based plan design
• A Monday-morning action plan: pull your contracts, demand 408 compensation disclosures, and build a strategy instead of buying a plan

Whether you're a construction CFO, HR leader, or any executive tired of watching your second-largest expense erode your margin, this is a roadmap for taking back control.

Learn more about Donovan's work at healthcompassconsulting.com and fixinghealthcare.com.

#FixingHealthcare #ConstructionCFO #EmployeeBenefits #HealthcareCosts #FiduciaryDuty #CFMA #FinanceAtTheJobsite

Liens, delay claims, and the quiet margin levers most contractors leave on the table. In this episode of Finance at the Jobsite, Rishi Srivastava sits down with Ryan Heeth — a construction attorney whose career runs from purchasing agent at Gilbane, to in-house counsel for major New York City builders, to his current seat as Director of Development & Construction at Pratt & Co Capital in the Cayman Islands.

Ryan explains why a clean contract is just a risk-allocation document the moment construction starts, and what it actually takes to build a million-dollar extra-cost claim without crossing into a willfully exaggerated lien. He breaks down why liens and claims are two different animals, why you bring in an independent scheduling consultant before accounting prices a delay, and the precise moment an operational problem quietly becomes a legal one.

Then he opens up the playbook CFOs and controllers rarely hear out loud: how cost-plus GMP general conditions become hidden profit centers — agreed labor rates, insurance markups, contingency control, shared savings, and change-order markups. He also flips to the owner's seat, watching schedules of values for front-loading on a $100M build, weighing design-build against cost-plus, financing through private credit instead of US-style construction banks, and turning CCIPs into a profit center.

Plus the change-order trap that can waive your delay-claim rights before you even know they exist.

Chapters: contracts and job-site reality · liens vs. claims · delay claims and critical path · where law meets finance · hidden profit centers in cost-plus GMP · switching to the owner's seat · building in the Cayman Islands · financing, insurance, and career lessons.

#FinanceAtTheJobsite #ConstructionFinance #ConstructionLaw #CFO #Controller #ConstructionAccounting #CostPlus #GMP #DelayClaims #ConstructionClaims #Liens #ChangeOrders #ContractNegotiation #ConstructionManagement #GeneralContractor #RealEstateDevelopment #CCIP #ConstructionInsurance #PrivateCredit #ConstructionIndustry #BuildingTheFuture #JobsiteFinance #ConstructionCFO #CaymanIslands #AECindustry

Most contractors stay on the same ERP for 10–20 years — and when they finally switch, the technology is rarely the hardest part. The people are.

In this episode, Rishi Srivastava sits down with Cathy Wendt, who has spent nearly 30 years helping construction companies select, implement, and migrate accounting systems. Cathy breaks down the entire ERP journey: how to know if you've actually outgrown your system (hint: revenue size isn't the indicator), why QuickBooks falls short for contractors, and what really happens during a migration from systems like Sage 100 Contractor to Acumatica.

In this episode:

• Warning signs you've outgrown your ERP — and when it's just a training problem
• Single-entry vs. double-entry accounting, and why banks and bonding companies care
• The leadership mistakes that doom ERP selection before it starts
• Realistic migration timelines: from 6-week emergencies to 6-month builds
• Data migration pitfalls: dirty vendor records, duplicate entries, and job history
• Why cost code structures spark more debate than the chart of accounts
• The human side of change: managing experts who suddenly become novices
• Cathy's advice for anyone planning a migration in the next two years

Connect with Cathy Wendt: syscon-inc.com (newsletter: syson University)

#ConstructionFinance #ConstructionAccounting #ERP #ERPMigration #ConstructionTech #ConstructionERP #Sage100Contractor #Acumatica #QuickBooks #JobCosting #CostCodes #ChangeManagement #ConstructionManagement #CFMA #ContractorLife #ConstructionPodcast #FinancePodcast #ConTech

What does it take to go from construction trial lawyer to Chief Legal Officer of a billion-dollar electrical contractor — and what do you learn about construction from inside the courtroom that most executives never see?

Brent Zimmerman knows.

In this episode of Finance at the Jobsite, Rishi Srivastava sits down with Brent Zimmerman — Chief Legal Officer and Assistant Secretary of Miller Electric Company, Board Certified in Construction Law by The Florida Bar, and a former construction litigator who spent 15 years representing owners, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and sureties before going in-house.

Brent takes us inside the rooms most people never see: mediations with 20–25 parties and 100+ people in a hotel convention center, a parking garage collapse during a concrete pour that killed a worker and triggered roughly $150M in bodily injury claims and $40M in property damage, and the two trials where he deliberately seated lawyers on the jury — and won both.

We get into:

– Why contemporaneous documentation is the single biggest factor that decides construction disputes — and why "he said, she said" is a roll of the dice– The first question Brent asks every client: "What's the other side going to say you did wrong?"– Litigators vs. transactional lawyers — and why a litigator sees risk differently– The early warning signs a project is headed to litigation: compounding payment delays and GCs stockpiling change orders for end-of-job horse trading– Brent's economic rule of thumb: don't litigate without at least $1M in dispute — because serious construction trials cost over $1M in fees and experts, and fewer than 5% of cases ever reach trial– Why "money is no object" never survives the second $30–50K monthly legal bill– Why mediation is your last chance to control the outcome — and why the Suits line "going to trial is rolling dice" is the only accurate thing in that show– Elected vs. appointed judges, burden of proof in civil cases, and why 95%+ of construction contracts waive jury trials– AI in construction disputes: faster document review, hallucinated case citations, and why litigation costs aren't coming down– The one habit that keeps contractors out of court: great contemporaneous records — always, not just when things go bad

If you're a contractor, CFO, or project executive who'd rather make money than sit in depositions, Brent's playbook — get the work, do the work, get paid, and document everything — is the masterclass.

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👤 ABOUT THE GUEST —

Brent Zimmerman is the Chief Legal Officer and Assistant Secretary of Miller Electric Company, a billion-dollar electrical contractor headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, where he oversees all legal affairs — contracts, risk management, bonding and insurance, M&A, compliance, and dispute resolution. Before going in-house, Brent spent 15 years in private practice as a construction litigator, representing owners, developers, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and sureties in state and federal courts and arbitration. He is Board Certified in Construction Law by The Florida Bar and AV Preeminent rated by Martindale-Hubbell.

🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brentzimmerman🌐 Miller Electric: https://www.mecojax.com

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🎙️ ABOUT FINANCE AT THE JOBSITE:

Finance at the Jobsite is the podcast where construction CFOs, COOs, and operators share the hard-won lessons behind building profitable construction businesses. Hosted by Rishi Srivastava, founder of Beiing Human.

🔔 SUBSCRIBE for new episodes every week👍 LIKE if this episode helped you💬 COMMENT with your biggest takeaway

Michael McKeon thought crossing from public accounting into construction operations would be a long, arduous slog. Instead, he discovered something most PMs don't admit out loud: roughly half of running a construction project is accounting. On this episode of Finance at the Jobsite, the Nordby Construction project manager joins Rishi to unpack how thinking in dollars and cents changes the way he runs hospitality and winery builds in Sonoma and Napa County — and why "garbage in, garbage out" on pay apps is the difference between a project that stays on the rails and one that quietly derails.

Rishi and Michael dig into where communication actually breaks down between owners, designers, subs, and accounting; what makes a monthly accounting review effective; and the friction in stitching Autodesk Construction Cloud to Sage 300 through HH2. Michael describes his "ghost in the machine" problem with automation — works four times, fails the fifth — and lays out what an ideal low-friction subcontractor pay app process would actually look like if change orders, contracts, and schedules of values were finally talking to each other in real time. He closes with a measured take on AI in construction: he uses it daily, but he's grown more cautious after a few too many design-team emails that read like brick walls.

In this episode:

• Why an accounting background is a competitive edge for a PM
• Where communication breaks down between the field and the back office
• What makes a monthly pay app review actually work (and what flags a bad one)
• Autodesk, Sage 300, Bluebeam, HH2 — what saves time and what creates friction
• The dream of fully integrated change orders and subcontractor pay apps
• AI in construction finance: where it helps and where to be careful

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  #ConstructionFinance #FinanceAtTheJobsite #ConstructionAccounting #ProjectManagement #ConstructionPM #PayApps #ChangeOrders #AccountsPayable #APAutomation #ConstructionTech #Autodesk #Sage300 #Bluebeam #HH2 #ConstructionCloud #GeneralContractor #HospitalityConstruction #WineryConstruction #SonomaCounty #NapaCounty #FieldToFinance #ConstructionLeadership #AIinConstruction #BeingHuman #BeiingHuman