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Eric Pratt grew up counting inventory in his family's 100-year-old power tools and machinery business, learning bookkeeping from his grandmother while the rest of his family worked the trades. He spent years selling virtual card and e-payments before joining Viewpoint in 2020, right as they rolled out an e-payments program for Spectrum with barely twenty live customers. Six years later he sits on the Trimble App Exchange team, works closely with fintech partners like EarlyTrade, and calls himself the "AP partner guy."On this episode of Finance at the Jobsite, Eric sits down with Rishi Srivastava to unpack how construction finance teams actually buy software, why peer references beat logic every time, and why he thinks AI — the way most teams are using it today — is quietly creating more work at every stage of the funnel. He walks through what App Exchange is really solving as ERPs like Vista and Spectrum evolve, where economy of scale breaks an integration, and why AP managers, not CFOs, are often the ones doing the real selling upward. He tells the story of a COVID-era CFO whose owner leased an industrial printer for her living room so checks could keep flowing, uses it to explain why every "we've always done it this way" objection deserves curiosity rather than judgment, and closes on why reverse-prompting your own Drive to find the bottlenecks is more useful than another chatbot.Topics include: What Trimble App Exchange is really solving as ERPs evolveWhy trust signals — peer references, CFMA presence, live customers you can text mid-demo — beat logic in construction salesVista vs Spectrum: two ERPs, two very different customer personasWhat breaks first when an integration scales from 10 to 400 customersWhy AP managers, not CFOs, are often the real champions — and how to arm them to sell upward"Living in the white space": reading what isn't being said in a status-quo objectionWhich manual back-office behaviors are actually optional now, even if they don't feel like itThe COVID-era CFO who printed checks from her living room — and why accommodation beats judgmentEarlyTrade, dynamic discounting, and why it isn't factoringThe AI paradox: why the tools we're using today are creating more mental work at every stage of the funnelFinance at the Jobsite is hosted by Rishi Srivastava, Co-Founder and CEO of Beiing Human, AI-powered accounts payable automation for construction contractors.

Brandon Kyse started as a framer at fifteen, studied construction management at Cal Poly, spent seven years in solar, and then thirteen years at RDO Equipment — one of the largest John Deere dealers in the world — running divisions up to $400 million. On this episode of Finance at the Jobsite, he sits down with Rishi Srivastava to unpack what he learned from the dealer seat and what it means for the contractors he now works with. Brandon walks through the P&L of a $400 million dealership and explains why the biggest revenue line carries the thinnest margin, why service is where the money is made, and how cutting one service manager can improve the numbers on paper while quietly wrecking the customer experience. He tells the story of an $80,000 engine that telematics flagged a week before it failed — and why the real breakdown was about ownership and communication, not the technology. He also revisits the Sungevity moment of 2009, when a competitor selling solar off Google Maps aerials proved everyone in the market wrong about how customers had to buy, and draws a straight line to how construction and equipment companies are operating today. Topics include: What contractors actually want from dealers (and what dealers keep missing)Why companies outgrow their operating systems long before they outgrow their technologyThe hidden cost of good people compensating for broken handoffsWho your best customer really is — hint: not the biggestCapturing thirty years of technician knowledge before it walks out the doorWhat to change Monday morning if you have telematics and nobody owns the alertsWhy "bring AI into the company" is not an operating objectiveAdvice for contractors mid-ERP implementation: don't blow it up, cut the timeline in halfHow to move a "we've done it this way for forty years" culture — put a cost on the status quoFinance at the Jobsite is hosted by Rishi Srivastava, Co-Founder and CEO of Beiing Human, AI-powered accounts payable automation for construction contractors.

Caryl Coronis, CPA, CCIFP, has served CFMA at every level — Houston chapter president, co-founder of the resurrected Lone Star Conference, and most recently national chair. But her construction finance career started with a surety agent telling her, "You're going to have to do percent complete," and an invitation to a chapter meeting. In this episode, Caryl joins Rishi Srivastava to talk about what a commercial landscape company taught her about equipment: when one riding mower goes down, four people with push mowers finish the job, and that labor is where the money quietly leaves. Those fundamentals scaled all the way up to cranes at a specialty bridge builder, where shaving one or two points off equipment cost meant real dollars in a thin-margin business. She also shares how three chapter presidents brought back a regional conference that had died at 15 attendees and grew it to roughly 300 — and why sponsors willing to risk their money made it possible. Then the conversation gets candid: navigating owner politics from the finance seat, the family business where Friday decisions got reversed after Sunday dinner, the son who bought a two-seat sports car on the company's dime, and the quiet way tasks stop getting done when one person leaves and nobody plans the handoff. We also cover the CCIFP exam at regional conferences (with a free retake), why the certification still matters when AI models can pass it, the CFMA heavy equipment comparator (hecomparator.com), and Caryl's pitch for why the regionals — at half the cost of national — are the best first step for anyone in year one. Topics covered: Percentage of completion accounting and how CFMA fills the training gapThe real cost of equipment downtime and the repair-vs-replace decisionRebuilding the CFMA Lone Star Conference from 15 to 300 attendeesOffering the CCIFP exam at regional conferencesKeeping the CCIFP relevant in the age of AIOwner politics, family businesses, and being the outsider in the roomWhy handoffs fail and how job descriptions, task lists, and software training fix it"Yes, it integrates" — the ERP bolt-on realityHow to get involved with CFMA at any levelResources mentioned: CFMA Connection Cafe, hecomparator.com, cfma.org (search "regional conferences") Beiing Human will be at the CFMA Carolinas Conference in Greensboro, October 22–23. Stop by the booth. Finance at the Jobsite is hosted by Rishi Srivastava, founder of Beiing Human. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Audible, or watch on YouTube.

Most contractors will tell you they run at 25%, 30%, even 40% gross margin. Almost none of them are right. In this episode of Finance at the Jobsite, host Rishi Srivastava sits down with Luke Boyenger — former EY auditor turned fractional CFO, running a firm built specifically for construction companies. Luke's family manufacturing business went bankrupt in the 2008 crisis, and the question "what did we get wrong?" sent him back to school at 24. What he found is the same gap he sees in nearly every contractor he talks to today: the finance seat is the last one to get filled. The uncomfortable thesis: revenue in construction doesn't create cash, it consumes it. Luke walks through why some contractors need to cut their business in half to double their profit, why a line of credit and your own cash is a fragile capital structure, why merchant cash advances trap good companies in a spiral, and why "revenue is something you should back your way into" after you've set a profit target. What we get into: Why gross margin is almost always lower than owners think$20M at $250K profit vs. $10M at $1M profit — real contractors who shrank and made more money60–120 day payment terms and why subcontractors are functioning as unpaid banksWhat "capital infrastructure" actually means for a $10–30M subcontractorThe war chest: building 6–12 months of cash before you take distributionsThe five KPIs every construction owner should review monthlyWhy owners who know what to do still don't do itKeeping business and personal finances clean — and why stacked entities and trusts usually backfireChapters00:00 Intro01:00 From the trades to EY to fractional CFO02:56 Where contractors are most confidently wrong04:46 Profitability vs. "happy revenue"06:44 Warning signs you're growing revenue at the expense of profit09:00 Shrinking from $20M to $10M and making more money10:21 Cash flow and capital infrastructure14:10 MCAs, predatory lending, and 120% effective rates15:09 Smarter capital tools before you're under pressure17:20 Subcontractors as the industry's real banks18:10 Operator vs. owner mindset21:00 Managing by financial signals instead of gut feel23:35 Why execution is so hard in construction finance25:38 Weekly, monthly, and quarterly financial disciplines26:35 Invoice terms, late-paying GCs, and how to bid for them29:45 The biggest mistakes limiting $10–50M subcontractors33:40 Separating business and personal finances37:25 One uncomfortable financial truth for construction owners Finance at the Jobsite is hosted by Rishi Srivastava, founder of Beiing Human. New episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and YouTube — just search Finance at the Jobsite.

What actually tells you whether a construction company is healthy? For Josh Bohlke, CFO of Columbia River Electric Maintenance, the answer goes far beyond the P&L. After moving from commercial banking into the CFO seat at a $30–40 million electrical contractor, Josh saw firsthand how different construction finance looks from inside the business. In this episode of Finance at the Jobsite, we dig into WIP, backlog, gross profit, job costing, working capital, ERP data quality, automation, and the changing role of the construction CFO. Josh explains why WIP is more art than science, why contractors need to understand their balance sheet, and how bad ERP data—from stale POs to unclosed jobs—can quietly distort decision-making. We also discuss: Why backlog and gross profit are two of the most important construction KPIsHow labor hours, installed quantities, and cost should be used together to evaluate job performanceWhy analyzing the business entirely through the P&L can be dangerousWhen it may be worth reconverting or cleaning up your construction ERPLessons from rebuilding a Spectrum ERP environmentWhy clean data can help identify job fade weeks instead of months laterWhere automation works well in construction—and where human judgment is still criticalThe opportunity to automate AP, credit-card coding, and vendor statement reconciliationProcore, Spectrum, integrations, and the reality of “software fatigue”Why building your own software with AI may work for small workflows but create security and maintenance risks for mission-critical systemsHow AI could shift finance teams away from building spreadsheets and dashboards toward interpreting data and making strategic decisionsWhy the CFO's job requires not only financial expertise, but tact when delivering difficult messages to ownershipA practical conversation about what it really takes to run the finance function inside a growing construction company—and how that job may change as AI becomes part of the back office. #ConstructionFinance #ConstructionCFO #ConstructionAccounting #JobCosting #WIP #ConstructionTechnology #ConstructionERP #APAutomation #ArtificialIntelligence #ConstructionAI #Procore #ViewpointSpectrum #CashFlow #WorkingCapital #FinanceLeadership #ElectricalContractor #FinanceAtTheJobsite

Matt Hunter, CPA didn't take a straight line into construction finance. He was out on his own at 16, sitting in a classroom at North Georgia Military College when the second plane hit on 9/11, and deployed to Afghanistan within weeks. Twenty-one years later he retired as an Army major in military intelligence — and only came to accounting in his thirties. In this episode of Finance at the Jobsite, Rishi and Matt get into the parts of the CFO seat most people won't say out loud. What we cover: Digging out of ~$1.2M in unpaid payroll tax at a packaging company — the cash-out refi, getting the IRS to abate roughly $400K in penalties, and losing a banking relationship over a tax lien mid-COVIDCleaning up 36 months of financials at a copier business and adding close to $1M to the sale priceThe first things Matt checks when he inherits broken books (hint: it starts with the balance sheet, not the P&L)What it actually takes to stand up a finance function from scratch — and why the best money an owner can spend is on the best bookkeeper they can findOwners who have never once logged into their ERP, and the 20,000 inventory items that should have been 1,000The politics of family-owned construction: supervising the owner's spouse, intercompany billings in Vista, and why the hardest part of these jobs is rarely the numbersFinding out he was being replaced from an email to a recruiter he was accidentally copied on — two months after a glowing reviewMental health, bravado, and job loss in construction and the military — told honestly, without the polishEarning credibility in ego-heavy rooms: know your numbers, get out of the office, and take care of peopleRed flags and the questions to ask before you sign with a founder-led construction companyMatt is currently looking for his next CFO role in commercial construction or manufacturing, open to relocating within a half day's drive of Atlanta. If you're hiring — or know someone who is — reach him at [email protected] or on LinkedIn. Finance at the Jobsite is hosted by Rishi Srivastava and brought to you by Beiing Human. #FinanceAtTheJobsite #ConstructionFinance #ConstructionAccounting #CFO #ConstructionCFO #CPA #FamilyBusiness #JobCosting #ERP #Vista #ViewpointVista #ConstructionIndustry #Leadership #VeteranLeadership #MentalHealthInConstruction #APAutomation #Controller #ConstructionManagement #BeiingHuman

Construction companies don't blink at a $500,000 backhoe. They agonize over a $50,000 software line item. Kris Lengieza, Field COO at Procore Technologies, thinks that mental model is about to break — and that the shift starts when CFOs stop treating AI agents as IT spend and start treating them as labor. Rishi and Kris get into the CFO conversation that made it click: "I trust my PMs to hire day laborers out of their project budget. Why shouldn't they have the same autonomy to fund AI agents?" In this episode: Why the construction CFO role is shifting from bookkeeping to capital deployment, IT, and M&AAutomation vs. augmentation — and what each actually means for a mid-size GCThe productivity math: 35% of a field day spent on low-value work, 20% just hunting for answersAgents across systems, not just inside one — ERP, SharePoint, Procore, and 150+ connectorsCost control and guardrails: how one agent run turned into a $700 bill, and why "hardened" agents matterWhether AI spend belongs in project cost or the IT budget (and why construction's 1–2% tech spend is misleading)Robots as tools vs. full autonomy — Dusty Robotics, DroneDeploy, Bedrock Robotics, and what 2031 looks likeThe "Trish" story: a project admin whose role was elevated, not eliminatedWhy 76% of digital transformations fail, and how to survive an ERP migrationWhat makes a construction tech startup defensible in the SaaSpocalypse: proprietary data and deep domain expertiseKris's 2030 prediction: the same number of humans, one project engineer, and a hundred agentsKris spent 20 years in the field — Whiting-Turner, Weitz, Stiles — before moving to Procore, where he's led global partnerships, technology evangelism, and now the Field COO role. Lehigh civil engineering grad, LEED AP, ENR Southeast Top 20 Under 40. "The agents aren't coming. They're here." #ConstructionFinance #ConstructionTech #AIinConstruction #CFO #Procore #ConstructionManagement #AIAgents #DigitalTransformation #ConstructionIndustry #FinanceAtTheJobsite #ConstructionRobotics #ConstructionAccounting #FutureOfWork #ContechPodcast #BuiltEnvironment

Every contractor says they're best in class — but until you put your numbers on paper, you haven't proven it. In this episode of Finance at the Jobsite, Rishi sits down with Arleen Barningham, Product & Data Analytics Manager at CFMA, and Rhett Ennis, CPA, Shareholder at CBIZ CPAs and Pacific Northwest Construction Practice Group Leader, to break down CFMA's Financial Benchmarker — the tool that lets construction companies see how they really stack up against their peers. We get into what the benchmarker is and the question it was built to answer 30 years ago, why contractors are so often surprised the first time they see their "report card," and how to choose a fair peer group. Rhett shares the metrics he finds most diagnostic (working capital, equity, AR turnover, and the underrated gross profit per FTE), which widely watched ratios get misread most often, and why the real breakthrough happens when owners see their results visually instead of in raw numbers. Arleen walks through the data-collection grind — why a survey can take a CPA four to five hours — and the modernization push to pull data straight from ERP systems via API, plus how CFMA protects the confidentiality of sensitive financials. Whether you're a CFO, controller, or contractor who's never benchmarked before, this one is a challenge to stop guessing and start proving it. 📩 Never miss an episode — join 500+ construction finance and ops leaders getting practical insights in their inbox: https://beiinghuman.com/newsletter-signup/ #Construction #ConstructionFinance #CFMA #Benchmarking #JobCosting #WorkingCapital #CFO #Contractors #ConstructionAccounting #ConstructionTech #FinanceAtTheJobsite #ConstructionManagement

Tanmaya "TK" Kala spent 13 years at DPR Construction rising to Project Executive on billion-dollar healthcare projects — including OSHPD hospital builds where clients demanded actual-cost documentation down to the square foot of drywall. Now he's Co-Founder & COO of MeltPlan, building AI tools for pre-construction. In this episode of Finance at the Jobsite, TK breaks down why the finance–operations gap exists on nearly every project: why coding invoices is "a chore" that gets deprioritized, how he blocked Friday afternoons just to get billing done, and why the accounting system — not the PM platform — is still the real source of truth. He shares stories from the field, including a subcontractor emailing certified payroll with exposed Social Security numbers, and explains why billing becomes a last-minute scramble when everyone waits until the deadline to maximize cash flow. We also cover: lump sum vs. cost plus contracts and what each means for financial workload, why only 2% of projects hit cost, time, and benefits, material tracking in a post-COVID supply chain, and TK's vision for AI making project managers reviewers instead of doers — plus his 95% accuracy threshold for when AI automation actually pays off. Chapters:00:41 – TK's journey: from structural engineering to Project Executive at DPR11:05 – The finance vs. operations gap21:32 – Real jobsite finance stories: Friday invoice coding, billing scrambles, and a payroll PII scare30:10 – Cost tracking: lump sum vs. cost plus, and why material tracking is art and science40:17 – Technology in construction and the founding of MeltPlan47:35 – The future of construction finance: AI as first-pass coder, PM as reviewer

Everyone says AI agents are about to run your back office unattended. The research — and a day in the life of a construction finance software founder — says something more useful and a lot more specific. In this solo episode of Finance at the Jobsite, host Rishi Srivastava (founder of Beiing Human) gives the honest version of where AI agents genuinely help in construction accounting and where they fall on their face. No slideware — these are tools he runs every day, backed by two pieces of research: Meta's GAIA-2 benchmark and CFAgentBench https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.22000 , a new paper from his team testing agents on CFO-grade work. What you'll learn: Why the best AI agent completes only ~42% of everyday tasks start-to-finish — and why "on a clock" is where they fail hardest. The plan-act-observe-feedback loop that makes an agent auditable and trustworthy. Live look at two workflows that work today: creating a Viewpoint Vista job from an award email, and automating a dreaded ERP data migration. Why reliability collapses from ~66% (one try) to ~38% (five times in a row) — and why you should demand the "five in a row" number, not the demo number. How MCP ("USB-C for AI") is dissolving vendor lock-in and turning your finance systems into places agents can act, not just read. Why human-in-the-loop isn't a weakness — it's the architecture that survives an audit. Real questions from CFOs, controllers, and ERP partners throughout, plus where this is all headed in the next year. Whether you're running the numbers, leading the team, or designing the systems that keep projects moving — this is your place to learn what's working, what's broken, and what's next in construction finance. Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Audible, or watch on YouTube — just search Finance at the Jobsite.

What does a modern construction finance stack actually look like — and in what order should you build it? Rishi Srivastava sits down with Rory Carlson, CCIFP, VP of Accounting & Finance at Adjustable Concrete Construction (and a CFMA 2022 Rising Star), for a practical walk through 15+ years of construction finance. Rory shares the lessons behind two successful expense-management implementations, why ERP integration and construction focus are non-negotiable when vetting AP tools, and how to actually weigh credit card rebates (Corpay) against zero-cost expense apps (Finvari) using a simple Excel ROI model. He also gets candid on the ACH-vs-outsourced-payments tradeoff (control vs. risk vs. automation), how he once turned payments into a six-figure profit center, and why FP&A is the next frontier — but only after payroll, expense, and AP are automated and the books close on time. If you're a controller trying to convince an owner in the $5–25M range that expense and AP automation is worth it, this one's for you. In this episode: The biggest shifts in jobsite finance over 15 yearsGC vs. subcontractor: how the finance function differsWhy expense management is the easiest first winFinvari vs. Corpay: rebates, per-user cost, and real ROICoding expenses at the point of purchase vs. chasing receiptsACH vs. outsourced payments: control, risk, and liabilityThe three things that actually matter in an AP automation toolFP&A: budget vs. actual, 13-week cash forecasting, and scenario planningThe exact order of operations for building a finance stack from scratchFinance at the Jobsite is brought to you by Beiing Human. Hashtags #FinanceAtTheJobsite #ConstructionFinance #ConstructionAccounting #CFMA #CCIFP #APAutomation #ExpenseManagement #ConstructionTech #FPandA #Controller #CFO #Subcontractor #GeneralContractor #CashForecasting #ConstructionIndustry #BeiingHuman #AccountsPayable #ERP #Viewpoint #ConstructionPodcast

How does a professional drummer who toured with Heart and mixed for U2 end up becoming the Validation Institute's 2025 Benefits Advisor of the Year? In this episode, Rishi sits down with Donovan Pyle — CEO of Health Compass Consulting and author of Fixing Healthcare — to expose why healthcare has become the fastest-growing financial risk on construction P&Ls, and what CFOs can actually do about it. US employers spent $1.3 trillion on healthcare in 2024 — and roughly 25% of it, about $4,000 per employee per year, was pure waste. For a 100-person contractor running 2–3% net margins, that waste eats jobs. Donovan breaks down the hidden machinery: why legacy brokers get paid more when your costs go up, why most PBM contracts say the vendor has no obligation to act in your interest, and why "healthcare just goes up every year" is a story the industry tells to keep you out of the room. Inside the conversation: The structural conflict of interest baked into the broker model (and why it's technically a prohibited transaction under federal law)The Johnson & Johnson case: a $10,000/month drug that cost $78 in cashHow a teachers union saved $3.6M by replacing one PBM — and how Blue Wave turned a 34% increase into a cost reductionThe fiduciary storm under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, and the personal liability CFOs don't know they carryThe Rosen Hotels playbook: $500M+ saved since 1991 with zero-deductible, value-based plan designA Monday-morning action plan: pull your contracts, demand 408 compensation disclosures, and build a strategy instead of buying a planWhether you're a construction CFO, HR leader, or any executive tired of watching your second-largest expense erode your margin, this is a roadmap for taking back control. Learn more about Donovan's work at healthcompassconsulting.com and fixinghealthcare.com. #FixingHealthcare #ConstructionCFO #EmployeeBenefits #HealthcareCosts #FiduciaryDuty #CFMA #FinanceAtTheJobsite

Liens, delay claims, and the quiet margin levers most contractors leave on the table. In this episode of Finance at the Jobsite, Rishi Srivastava sits down with Ryan Heeth — a construction attorney whose career runs from purchasing agent at Gilbane, to in-house counsel for major New York City builders, to his current seat as Director of Development & Construction at Pratt & Co Capital in the Cayman Islands. Ryan explains why a clean contract is just a risk-allocation document the moment construction starts, and what it actually takes to build a million-dollar extra-cost claim without crossing into a willfully exaggerated lien. He breaks down why liens and claims are two different animals, why you bring in an independent scheduling consultant before accounting prices a delay, and the precise moment an operational problem quietly becomes a legal one. Then he opens up the playbook CFOs and controllers rarely hear out loud: how cost-plus GMP general conditions become hidden profit centers — agreed labor rates, insurance markups, contingency control, shared savings, and change-order markups. He also flips to the owner's seat, watching schedules of values for front-loading on a $100M build, weighing design-build against cost-plus, financing through private credit instead of US-style construction banks, and turning CCIPs into a profit center. Plus the change-order trap that can waive your delay-claim rights before you even know they exist. Chapters: contracts and job-site reality · liens vs. claims · delay claims and critical path · where law meets finance · hidden profit centers in cost-plus GMP · switching to the owner's seat · building in the Cayman Islands · financing, insurance, and career lessons. #FinanceAtTheJobsite #ConstructionFinance #ConstructionLaw #CFO #Controller #ConstructionAccounting #CostPlus #GMP #DelayClaims #ConstructionClaims #Liens #ChangeOrders #ContractNegotiation #ConstructionManagement #GeneralContractor #RealEstateDevelopment #CCIP #ConstructionInsurance #PrivateCredit #ConstructionIndustry #BuildingTheFuture #JobsiteFinance #ConstructionCFO #CaymanIslands #AECindustry

Most contractors stay on the same ERP for 10–20 years — and when they finally switch, the technology is rarely the hardest part. The people are. In this episode, Rishi Srivastava sits down with Cathy Wendt, who has spent nearly 30 years helping construction companies select, implement, and migrate accounting systems. Cathy breaks down the entire ERP journey: how to know if you've actually outgrown your system (hint: revenue size isn't the indicator), why QuickBooks falls short for contractors, and what really happens during a migration from systems like Sage 100 Contractor to Acumatica. In this episode: Warning signs you've outgrown your ERP — and when it's just a training problemSingle-entry vs. double-entry accounting, and why banks and bonding companies careThe leadership mistakes that doom ERP selection before it startsRealistic migration timelines: from 6-week emergencies to 6-month buildsData migration pitfalls: dirty vendor records, duplicate entries, and job historyWhy cost code structures spark more debate than the chart of accountsThe human side of change: managing experts who suddenly become novicesCathy's advice for anyone planning a migration in the next two yearsConnect with Cathy Wendt: syscon-inc.com (newsletter: syson University) #ConstructionFinance #ConstructionAccounting #ERP #ERPMigration #ConstructionTech #ConstructionERP #Sage100Contractor #Acumatica #QuickBooks #JobCosting #CostCodes #ChangeManagement #ConstructionManagement #CFMA #ContractorLife #ConstructionPodcast #FinancePodcast #ConTech

What does it take to go from construction trial lawyer to Chief Legal Officer of a billion-dollar electrical contractor — and what do you learn about construction from inside the courtroom that most executives never see? Brent Zimmerman knows. In this episode of Finance at the Jobsite, Rishi Srivastava sits down with Brent Zimmerman — Chief Legal Officer and Assistant Secretary of Miller Electric Company, Board Certified in Construction Law by The Florida Bar, and a former construction litigator who spent 15 years representing owners, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and sureties before going in-house. Brent takes us inside the rooms most people never see: mediations with 20–25 parties and 100+ people in a hotel convention center, a parking garage collapse during a concrete pour that killed a worker and triggered roughly $150M in bodily injury claims and $40M in property damage, and the two trials where he deliberately seated lawyers on the jury — and won both. We get into: – Why contemporaneous documentation is the single biggest factor that decides construction disputes — and why "he said, she said" is a roll of the dice– The first question Brent asks every client: "What's the other side going to say you did wrong?"– Litigators vs. transactional lawyers — and why a litigator sees risk differently– The early warning signs a project is headed to litigation: compounding payment delays and GCs stockpiling change orders for end-of-job horse trading– Brent's economic rule of thumb: don't litigate without at least $1M in dispute — because serious construction trials cost over $1M in fees and experts, and fewer than 5% of cases ever reach trial– Why "money is no object" never survives the second $30–50K monthly legal bill– Why mediation is your last chance to control the outcome — and why the Suits line "going to trial is rolling dice" is the only accurate thing in that show– Elected vs. appointed judges, burden of proof in civil cases, and why 95%+ of construction contracts waive jury trials– AI in construction disputes: faster document review, hallucinated case citations, and why litigation costs aren't coming down– The one habit that keeps contractors out of court: great contemporaneous records — always, not just when things go bad If you're a contractor, CFO, or project executive who'd rather make money than sit in depositions, Brent's playbook — get the work, do the work, get paid, and document everything — is the masterclass. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 👤 ABOUT THE GUEST — Brent Zimmerman is the Chief Legal Officer and Assistant Secretary of Miller Electric Company, a billion-dollar electrical contractor headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, where he oversees all legal affairs — contracts, risk management, bonding and insurance, M&A, compliance, and dispute resolution. Before going in-house, Brent spent 15 years in private practice as a construction litigator, representing owners, developers, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and sureties in state and federal courts and arbitration. He is Board Certified in Construction Law by The Florida Bar and AV Preeminent rated by Martindale-Hubbell. 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brentzimmerman🌐 Miller Electric: https://www.mecojax.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎙️ ABOUT FINANCE AT THE JOBSITE: Finance at the Jobsite is the podcast where construction CFOs, COOs, and operators share the hard-won lessons behind building profitable construction businesses. Hosted by Rishi Srivastava, founder of Beiing Human. 🔔 SUBSCRIBE for new episodes every week👍 LIKE if this episode helped you💬 COMMENT with your biggest takeaway