"We're getting overcharged by vendors and can't figure out where."

The team had purchase orders, vendor quotes, invoices, and approvals, but the review process depended on people manually comparing documents across spreadsheets and email threads.

The first useful version was not a full construction platform. It was a focused workflow that matched POs against invoice lines, highlighted pricing discrepancies, and gave managers a clear review queue before payment approval.

Once the purchasing workflow became reliable, the same operational data created a path toward budget tracking, job costing, and reporting improvements.

The lesson: start with the workflow where mistakes are expensive, then let the clean data reveal the next system worth building.