Systemising the Finance Department of a Kenyan Construction Company
Fix Kenya Engineering & Construction Limited
Fix Kenya Engineering & Construction Limited
FKE is a Kenyan construction company specialising in roofing, steel fabrication, and general construction. With a stated ambition to become the leading roofing and construction company in Kenya, FKE operates across multiple project verticals with a focus on premium quality and B2B positioning.
At the time of engagement, FKE was managing KES 5M in monthly revenue, processing over 300 supplier payments per month, and tracking a KES 20M debtor book, all across disconnected spreadsheets, manual ledgers, and fragmented communication channels.
Running, but running on manual processes that consumed enormous amounts of time.
FKE's finance operations were not broken. They were running, but running on manual processes that consumed enormous amounts of time and left critical gaps in visibility.
The finance team was spending 2 to 3 hours daily on manual reconciliation, duplicate data entry across spreadsheets, and chasing receipts for transactions that had already happened. Payroll calculations were done by hand, including PAYE, NSSF, SHIF, and Housing Levy deductions, with statutory filing reminders tracked informally. Supplier payments through their Boya corporate card were recorded separately from the rest of their financial data, making it difficult to see the full picture.
The CEO had a similar problem at the executive level. Understanding weekly cashflow, project profitability, or debtor exposure required assembling data from multiple sources, a process that consumed 2 to 3 hours every time. There was no single view of financial performance, and no way to ask a quick question about the numbers without pulling someone off their work to compile a report.
FKE needed a system that could unify their entire finance function into one place, inside the CRM they already used, without disrupting the operations that kept projects moving.
A structured AI Gap Assessment mapped every manual workflow.
SDFM Group Limited conducted a structured AI Gap Assessment of FKE's finance department, mapping every manual workflow, identifying where time was being lost, and quantifying the impact of each gap on the business.
The assessment identified that the core problem was not the absence of tools. FKE already had a CRM that managed their projects, invoicing, and client relationships. The problem was that their financial operations sat outside that system, scattered across spreadsheets and manual processes that no one could query, automate, or report from in real time.
The recommended solution was to build the entire finance function as a suite of custom modules directly inside FKE's existing CRM. No new platforms to learn, no data migration, no separate login. Everything would live where FKE's team already worked.
The build followed a milestone-based delivery approach, with each module developed, tested, and deployed incrementally over 8 weeks. FKE's operations continued without interruption throughout.
Eight custom modules, purpose-built for FKE and deployed inside their existing CRM.
Each module addresses a specific operational gap identified during the assessment.
Finance Core
Central finance hub for manual transaction logging (cash, bank, M-Pesa, OpenFloat), payment account management, receipt tracking, WHT register, bank statement imports, and reconciliation across all channels.
CEO Dashboard & Cashflow
Real-time executive dashboard with weekly cashflow planning, P&L reports mapped to FKE's actual trial balance structure, tax computation, approval history, and vertical performance reporting.
Project Budgets
Per-project budget allocation with vertical tagging (Roofing, Fabrication, General Construction), real-time spend tracking against budgets, threshold alerts, and cross-vertical performance comparison.
Debtors & Collections
Tracks every outstanding invoice with aging analysis, automated follow-up reminders, payment promise logging, and a full collections activity log so nothing falls through the cracks.
Payroll & Statutory Compliance
End-to-end payroll runs with automatic PAYE, NSSF, SHIF, and Housing Levy calculations. Generates payslips, tracks recurring bills, manages WHT returns, and sends statutory filing reminders before deadlines.
Boya Wallet Integration
Syncs confirmed transactions from Boya (FKE's corporate card and wallet spend platform) into the finance suite for automated expense categorisation and reconciliation against project budgets.
Finance AI Assistant
A Claude-powered, tool-calling AI agent that answers plain-language questions about live data across every module. Questions like "What is our debtor exposure this month?" or "Which project is over budget?" return instant, data-grounded answers without anyone writing a query.
Documentation & Knowledge Base
26 step-by-step how-to articles covering every workflow across the suite, browsable by staff and searchable by the AI Assistant. When someone asks "how do I run payroll?" the assistant pulls from this knowledge base.
Every module shares a unified sidebar navigation under a single "Finance" menu group. Data flows between modules automatically. A transaction logged in Finance Core appears in project budget calculations, feeds the CEO dashboard, and becomes queryable by the AI Assistant, all without any manual re-entry.
What changed
- Manual reconciliation that consumed the finance team's mornings is now handled automatically as transactions flow through the system. Receipt tracking is now captured at the point of entry.
- Payroll, which was calculated by hand with statutory deductions worked out on a spreadsheet, now runs in minutes with PAYE, NSSF, SHIF, and Housing Levy applied automatically. Payslips generate instantly. Filing deadlines are tracked with automated reminders.
- The debtor book, which was managed informally, now has a structured register with aging analysis, follow-up logging, and payment promise tracking. Nothing falls off the radar.
- The CEO's weekly financial review dropped from 2 to 3 hours of manual data assembly to a single dashboard that updates in real time. The AI Assistant answers questions about cashflow, project profitability, or debtor exposure in seconds from live data.
- Project budgets, previously tracked in isolation, are now monitored against spend in real time with threshold alerts and vertical performance comparisons across Roofing, Fabrication, and General Construction.
- Every workflow in the system is documented. The built-in knowledge base has 26 step-by-step articles covering every module.
Four reasons this engagement delivered lasting results.
Built inside the existing system.
FKE did not have to learn a new platform, migrate data, or change how they work. The solution lives inside the CRM they already use every day.
Designed for how FKE actually operates.
Every module was built against FKE's real workflows, their actual P&L structure, their statutory obligations, their project verticals, and their team's daily routines. This is not an off-the-shelf tool configured to approximate their needs.
AI that answers questions, not just stores data.
The Finance AI Assistant gives FKE something most systems cannot: the ability to ask a plain-language question and get a data-grounded answer in seconds, without anyone needing to run a report or build a query.
Delivered without disruption.
The 8-week build followed a milestone-based approach. FKE's operations continued uninterrupted throughout, and each module was deployed incrementally so the team could adopt it at their own pace.
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