Three instruments decide this workflow — a Statement of Compliance, a lien waiver, a payment schedule — and the agent signs none of them. It computes and reconciles; the named signatory signs.
Compute the statutory deadline register for payment, certification and lien clocks, and escalate on it to named humans.
02
Compute hours, deductions and fringe credits from the approved timesheets.
Reason
03
Reconcile hours, classifications and fringe credits against that determination and the source timesheet.
04
Reconcile each payment application against the certified value on file and report every difference as an exception.
05
Maintain immutable per-subcontractor trust and retention ledgers, with statements and overdraft alerting.
Decide
06
Maintain the evidence pack behind every figure — timesheets, rates, the determination and the prior certification.
07
Route the pack, the open clocks and every unresolved variance to the signatory named for that instrument.
Out
08
Retain every timesheet edit, computation, draft instrument and signature against the run.
09
Execute write actions only inside the approval boundaries agreed during implementation.
→Product statement
The agent computes and reconciles; the named signatory signs each instrument — and once a deadline passes the way back is jurisdictional: in the UK, true-value adjudication in a later cycle; in Australia, generally none within that cycle.
Example workflow
One payment run, timesheet to signature
AgentHuman
1Payment cycle openedTimesheets, payment applications, wage determinations and the project's configured rules
2Figures computedHours, classifications, fringe credits, deductions and retention, each against the record it came from
3Pack assembledDraft instruments, open clocks, unresolved variances and confidence
Stages 1 to 4 run unaided, and nothing is signed, certified or released at any of them — the agent is computing, and the signatory's lane opens at the confidence gate.
5DecisionBranches at the confidence threshold
High confidence
Goes to the named signatory to sign.
Low confidence
Adds a payroll-manager read first.
Signatory decision
The run is held with its computations, its open clocks and the confidence.
Accept run · Return · Send to payroll review
Signed — recorded against the run▼
6Payroll and job-cost systems updatedOnly where write access and approval policy allow it
7Outcome evaluatedInstrument timing, variance outcomes, clock acknowledgements and corrections after signature
Returns
Every returned run is counted in the evaluation.
What should not run autonomously
Human approval stays in control
Outside the boundary — human approval required8 items
Signing or submitting a Statement of Compliance.
Executing a lien waiver, conditional or unconditional.
Issuing or withholding a payment schedule or pay-less notice.
Classifying a worker or assigning a wage classification.
Automation boundaryAgent acts unaided
✓Compute the statutory deadline register and escalate on it to the named owner.
✓Reconcile hours against the determination.
✓Assemble the evidence pack for the human signatory.
✓Maintain trust and retention ledgers, with statements and overdraft alerting.
Any write happens inside the boundaries agreed at implementation, never onto an instrument.
Certifying, reducing or setting off a payment application.
Setting a retention percentage, or moving statutory trust money.
Filing, releasing or letting a lien or notice lapse.
Determining or overriding a CIS deduction rate.
Example output
One certified line, annotated
Everything the agent computes is attached to the timesheet it was built from.
Payroll output · single worker-weekIllustrative example
Classification
What was computed
Hours reconciled
Rate source
Confidence
Instrument
Configured class
Base and fringe reconciled against the approved timesheet and the determination configured for the project
38.5 hours
Configured determination
89%
Draft — unsigned
As receivedTaken from the timesheets and the determination on file — nothing on this side is written by the agent.
What was readApproved timesheetConfigured determinationPrior certification
Why this figureBase and fringe reconcile to the timesheet — the signatory still certifies it.
ActionAccept runReturnSend to payroll review
What the score decidesBelow the threshold the run picks up a payroll-manager read before the signatory.
Value
Where AI adds value
The same four claims, placed at the point in the workflow where each one applies.
Where the value landsValue 01 – 04
Every instrumentFrom the timesheet and the determination
03Computation
Compute against the record
Hours, classifications and fringe credits are computed from the approved timesheet and the determination and rules configured for the project.
01Approved path
Meet the clock, not the cycle
Deadline registers, reconciliations and evidence packs are ready before the signatory opens the run.
02Human review
Send review to the hard deadlines
Open statutory clocks and draft instruments are marked, so the signatory's read starts where nothing reopens — a passed deadline, a waiver already signed.
04Build an evidence trail
The timesheets, rates and determination behind each figure stay with the run.
Integrations
Typical integrations
Five system groups connect to the same agent. Which of them are in scope is decided in discovery.
Construction ERP and job costSage 300 CRE Foundation · Trimble Viewpoint
Certified payrollLCPtracker Points North Certified Payroll
Progress claims and paymentsPayapps Progressclaim.com
Agent
AP, payroll and back office
Reads the timesheets Computes the run Holds for the signatory
Time capture and determinationseBacon · Procore Workforce Published wage determinations
A month can close on an acceptable instrument rate while one jurisdiction group carries most of the misses, so Nestack reports the missed-or-invalid-instrument rate by slice.
Slice performance — reported separately, not only in aggregateIllustrative example
Slice
Failure rate
Lift
Lift vs. threshold
Status
Multi-state US federally funded work
4.3%
3.6×
Review
AU trusts across NSW and QLD
3.6%
3.0×
Review
UK Construction Act work with CIS
1.8%
1.5×
Watch
Single-jurisdiction monthly cycles
0.6%
0.5×
Normal
Bar: missed-or-invalid-instrument lift vs. an all-instrument baseline · scale 0–4.0× · tick marks the 2.0× review threshold2 of 4 slices over threshold
Evidence-linked improvement
The suite is what makes a cycle finished
The cycle closes on a test the next release has to pass, not on a write-up of what went wrong in the last one.
Improvement cycle · five stagesSwitchback — the path turns at Improve and returns at Learn
01Detect
Missed-or-invalid-instrument rate rises in a jurisdiction slice.
02Diagnose
Where the misses cluster on one clock or one determination, the cause is there; where they do not, the run is read end to end.
03Improve
Each change is version-stamped and linked to the run that surfaced it.
04Verify
The release waits on the affected cases passing again.
05Learn
It becomes a permanent case and a change to the deadline register.
Learn → DetectThe return edge. The suite the next detection meets is longer by this one.
Typical build scope
Twelve workstreams across six weeks
The build scope read against the delivery timeline. Week structure follows the six-week plan — discovery, sources, payment workflow, evaluation, integration, then production validation and handover.
WorkstreamWeek 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6
01Payment workflow discovery and boundary definition.
02Timesheet and determination assessment.
03Jurisdiction, determination and trust-rule mapping.
04Timesheet ingestion and hours normalisation.
05Reconciliation logic and deadline computation.
06Confidence scoring and variance routing.
07Signatory decision workflow.
08Payroll and job-cost integration.
09Instrument-timing regression cases.
10Guardrails and signature controls.
11Computation-trail instrumentation.
12Deployment, documentation and Agent Care handover.
12 workstreams · 6 weeks · bar shows the weeks a workstream is active — several run in parallelFinal scope and sequence confirmed in discovery
Engagement tiers
What each tier includes
Rows are the capabilities named in each tier's scope. Higher tiers include everything below them.
Capability✓ in scope · — not at this tierPilotOne project, one jurisdictionProductionProduction payroll systemsAdvancedMultiple projects / regimes
Introduced at Pilot
Reconciliation and clock register✓✓✓
Signatory decision✓✓✓
Instrument-timing baseline✓✓✓
Introduced at Production
Reporting by jurisdiction—✓✓
Sign-off workflow in your systems—✓✓
Approved write-back—✓✓
Finance-system integration—✓✓
Introduced at Advanced
Mixed prevailing-wage regimes——✓
Multi-stage sign-off——✓
High payment volume——✓
Enterprise trust controls——✓
Build priceFrom $5,000From $8,000Custom quote
Final build priceConfirmed after discovery based on integrations, workflow complexity, payment volume, approval controls and deployment requirements.
Separate from buildBuild pricing is separate from recurring Agent Care, which covers managed monitoring, evaluations, incidents and verified improvements after launch.
What we need from you
What you bring, and what we build with it
Each input maps to a piece of build scope and a week in the delivery timeline.
You bringWe build with it
01Your timesheet sources and pay rules→Timesheet ingestion and reconciliation mappingWeek 1
02Representative signed payment runs→Reconciliation baseline, fringe logic and variance rulesWeek 2
03Your determinations, trust and retention rules→Jurisdiction and trust-rule mapping, and automation-boundary definitionWeek 1
04Access to relevant APIs, feeds or exports→Timesheet, determination and claims assessment, then integration setupWeek 2
05Cycles where an instrument went out wrong→Instrument-timing cases and failure-mode testingWeek 4
06The clocks that must never be met by the agent alone→Confidence scoring, variance routing, guardrails and approval controlsWeek 3
07Named signatories for each instrument→Signatory decision workflow, then pilot and production validationWeeks 5–6
Nothing else is requiredDeployment, documentation and Agent Care handover are ours.
Delivery timeline
Four phases across six weeks
A phase is drawn only over the weeks it is worked. Evaluation and pilot share week 5.
PhaseW1W2W3W4W5W6
DiscoveryW1
BuildW2 – W3
EvaluateW4 – W5
Pilot & LaunchW5 – W6
Week focusW1Payment workflow discovery, jurisdiction mapping and the boundaryW2Source integration and the reconciliation baselineW3Deadline logic, confidence scoring and sign-off controlsW4Evaluation suite, guardrails and failure-mode testingW5Payroll-system integration, a pilot run and targeted correctionsW6One full payment and certification run under the signatory
Reading the bandEach bar ends where its named work ends. The week 5 overlap is real, not padding.
At the end of W6A verified cycle in production, then monitoring sits with Agent Care.
DurationSix-week plan shown · typical delivery 4–6 weeks depending on scope confirmed in discovery.
Next step · Construction AI agent
Build an AP and payroll agent around the signatory who signs.
Show us your timesheets, your determinations and who signs each instrument. Name the three signatures first — the Statement of Compliance, the waiver and the payment schedule — then we map what the agent computes and what it never touches.
