WhatsApp-Based Budget Tracking for Construction Teams
A WhatsApp-based financial assistant that helps construction teams record expenses, upload receipts, and track project budgets in real time.
Project Overview
SiteBuddy was built to simplify financial reporting for construction workers who typically rely on manual spreadsheets or verbal reporting. The goal was to allow workers to submit expenses and receipts using a familiar chat interface while maintaining structured project budgets for managers.
The Challenge
Key challenges included maintaining reliable transaction recording, handling inconsistent user inputs across files and messages, managing project-level budget structures, reducing response latency, and designing conversational flows that felt natural for non-technical users.
Our Solution
We developed a WhatsApp-based system that accepts files, images, and messages to record transactions. A multi-agent backend handles transaction extraction, budget mapping, reporting, and orchestration while enforcing access control and maintaining project-level data separation.
Key Features
Transaction Logging
Workers can record expenses and payments through chat and file uploads
Budget Upload
Project budgets are uploaded via spreadsheets and stored in separate project tabs
Actual vs Planned Reports
System generates reports comparing real costs against budgeted amounts
Access Control
Users only have access to their own financial data
Conversational Processing
System provides feedback while processing uploaded files
Technical Challenges & Solutions
Transaction Reliability
System responses must reliably confirm when a transaction is recorded.
Solution: Improved validation logic and user confirmation flows.
Budget Reporting Gaps
Budget lines without expenses were omitted from reports.
Solution: Adjusted reporting logic to include all budget categories.
Latency
Response times of 8 to 15 seconds made transaction logging slow.
Solution: Identified need for performance optimization and faster inference.
User Experience
System responses were overly verbose and technical.
Solution: Simplified conversational flow and reduced system-style messaging.
Project Timeline
Discovery & Design
Defined requirements, user flows, and technical architecture
Development
Built WhatsApp integration, backend agents, and reporting system
Testing & Refinement
Comprehensive testing, user feedback incorporation, and optimizations