Procure-to-pay · Construction & engineering

Construction doesn't buy like everyone else. Neither does Atlas.

The whole source-to-pay cycle, from tender to final payment. Plus three things general systems lack: a prompt-payment clock, lien holdback kept apart from retention, and bonds held per contract. Built for construction and engineering firms.

Prompt payment clock & notice window Statutory holdback on every payment Bonds per contract, with expiry alerts Lots & subcontractors Included · in every Atlas licence

Why general tools fall short

Three things other systems leave you to track by hand.

General procurement tools carry none of these. So construction buyers end up in spreadsheets, right where the money and legal risk are highest.

Payment is a legal duty

A proper invoice starts a legal clock. Pay late and interest runs. Miss the notice-of-non-payment window and you lose the right to withhold. A general AP process knows neither.

Holdback is not retention

Retention is a commercial term you agreed and can change. Holdback is set by law. It is held on every payment and released after the lien period. Mix them up and you misstate what is owed, and when.

A bond belongs to the job, not the supplier

A bond has an amount, a surety and an expiry date, for one contract. It cannot be a certificate filed against a supplier. An expired bond on a live site is an uninsured site.

Prompt payment

A proper invoice starts a clock. Atlas watches it.

Under Ontario's Construction Act, and similar laws elsewhere, a proper invoice sets a pay-by date. It also opens a shorter window to serve a notice of non-payment. Atlas tracks both for your regime.

The due date and notice window come from your confirmed regime. Not a generic default.
No prompt-payment law where you work? That is a real answer too. The contract's own terms govern, and Atlas says so. It does not invent a clock.
No confirmed figures, no legal date. The regime ships empty. Until an administrator confirms the numbers, the screen asks for them. It does not guess.
Starting figures ship for every Canadian province and territory, the federal Act and the UAE. You confirm them. Atlas does not give legal advice, and the screens say so.
The clock covers the owner tier only. Shorter clocks further down the chain, from contractor to subcontractor and beyond, are not calculated.

.../contracts

A contract with its milestones, holdback and payment status

ContractPayment clock, notice window and holdback on one record.

Statutory holdback

Held on every payment. Released when the lien period ends.

Atlas already handled commercial retention on milestones. Holdback is different. The law imposes it to protect lien rights. It is held from every payment and released only after the lien period. Atlas keeps the two apart. Each payment shows its own holdback, separate from retention, and when it comes back.

Holdback calculated and recorded on each payment when the invoice is paid. It uses the statutory rate and stays apart from retention.
Release date counted from each payment against the lien period. It is a prompt to check, not permission to release. No date is shown until the figures are confirmed.
Nothing is netted into one figure. Holdback is shown on its own. Atlas does not deduct it from the payment automatically.

Bonds & guarantees

Every bond, on the contract it protects.

A bond belongs to one contract. It has an amount, a surety and an expiry date. Atlas holds it that way, not as a supplier certificate. So you can see the cover on a live job, and a lapse is hard to miss.

Performance, labour & material payment, bid, maintenance and parent-company guarantees
Each with its amount, surety and expiry date, tied to one contract
A warning on the contract 45 days before a bond lapses. An expired bond on a live site is an uninsured site.
In the Gulf edition, the templates reflect on-demand bank guarantees and decennial liability
The UAE has no prompt-payment clock and no holdback, so Atlas calculates neither there. No law is loaded for the US, the UK, the EU or Australia. You enter your own figures.

.../suppliers

Supplier and contract record showing bonds with amounts and expiry

Cover, in viewBond type, amount, surety and expiry, per job.

Tender by trade package

One tender. Many lots. Each awarded on its own.

A construction tender is rarely one line. Atlas runs one sealed event, split into lots by trade, package or phase. A committee evaluates the bids. Each lot is awarded separately, with subcontractors named against the event.

One event, many lots. Bidders price the packages they want. Each lot is awarded on its own merits.
Sealed bids opened by a named person, with committee evaluation and a full audit trail
Subcontractors tracked against the event. Who does what is on the record, not in an inbox.

Progress payments

Certify the work, then pay against it.

Construction is paid in stages. The milestone schedule sits on the contract. Each milestone is achieved, certified, then invoiced. It is matched three ways before money moves. Retention sits on the milestone, and holdback is recorded against each payment.

Milestone schedule on the contract: achieve, certify, invoice, in that order
Three-way match on the milestone before payment, like any other spend
Holdback calculated and recorded when each invoice is paid. Shown apart from retention. Never deducted automatically.
Coded bills post to all eleven finance systems Atlas connects. Journal entries post to six: QuickBooks Online, Xero, Business Central, Sage Accounting, Sage Intacct and NetSuite.

.../contracts

Milestone payment application with certification and match status

Certified, then paidNothing moves until the milestone is signed off and matched.

When it stops you

What this pack refuses, and what to do about it.

Atlas refuses a lot here, on purpose, and every refusal carries its reason on the screen. These are the ones this industry meets, in the words the screen actually uses — so that meeting one is a thirty-second fix rather than a support call.

What Atlas will not do

What the screen says

What to do

A legal date it was not given the figures for

The prompt-payment regime ships EMPTY. Until an administrator confirms your jurisdiction's figures, the screen asks for them rather than computing a date from a plausible default.

Confirm the regime in Settings. A jurisdiction with no prompt-payment statute is a real answer too — the contract's own terms then govern, and Atlas says so rather than inventing a clock.

Two lots sharing a code

Refused as you enter it. An award recorded against the wrong package is the error nobody catches until it is expensive.

Give each package its own code.

Adding a lot after bidders have priced it

Lots can be added only while the event is being planned or quoted. After that no lot is added, so nobody is evaluated against a tender they did not price.

Settle the packages before you invite. A late package means a re-tender, which is what it would be in any case.

An award that puts one firm over the concentration cap

Refused at the moment of award, and the message does not stop at refusing: it names the lots that firm has already won.

Award it elsewhere, or raise the cap deliberately. Splitting a job to spread risk and then letting one firm win it all is a position you should arrive at on purpose.

Work stopped because a bond is missing

Atlas does NOT do this. It warns when a bond is missing, expired on a live job, near expiry, or short against a contract value that variations have grown — and it does not block the work.

Obtain or update the bond and record it. The warning is yours to act on; Atlas will not stop a site on its own authority.

Releasing holdback because Atlas said so

It will not say so. The lien period turns on facts Atlas does not hold. The release prompt is a reminder to check, never authority to release.

Take the decision on your adviser's word. Atlas models the owner tier only; the clocks further down the chain to subcontractors are shorter and it does not compute them.

Every one of these is also written into the guidance drawer on the screen it happens on, and into the process guides your own workspace generates — so a person who meets it at four o’clock on a Friday does not need us, or you.