Kratos: site diary to payment claim on one platform

Modules live in production

30, with new modules shipping

Nathan Contractors is an Australian civil construction contractor specialising in structural concrete, with projects across bridges, electrical substations, wind farms, dams and water infrastructure, and mining. It captured site information once and then rebuilt it by hand at every later step. Labour, plant and work completed were recorded on site, copied into spreadsheets, and passed around by email and separate systems before they could support an approval, a claim or a report.

In construction, that record is what gets a contractor paid. Delay notices, time claims, scope changes and payment claims all run to contractual deadlines, and each is only as strong as the site evidence behind it. With facts spread across disconnected files, a notice can be missed, a claim takes longer to prepare, and a report can quietly use figures nobody approved.

The people doing this work are supervisors, engineers and commercial staff, often under time pressure in the field, the site office and head office. Nathan Contractors had spent many years looking for a system to manage its projects without finding the right fit.

We kept the problem and the solution apart until the problem was clear. That is why Kratos follows how a job really runs instead of copying the systems it replaced.

• Diagnose before designing. We spent time with Nathan Contractors' people to learn how a job runs, and set solutions aside until we understood the drivers of time and money: re-keyed data, missed deadlines and paper forms.
• Prototype with the people who use it. We sketched several designs, then put working prototypes in front of foremen, engineers and commercial staff in rapid workshops, so Kratos works in the field, on a tablet and in the office.
• Change gradually. We trained users side by side, stayed close after the system was live, and released improvements as small revisions, so people can learn each change before the next one arrives.

Kratos is one connected workspace, grouped the way Nathan Contractors runs a job. A fact recorded on site moves through approval into claims and reports without being typed again.

The daily site diary is the main point of entry. Approved diaries feed the reports, and the extra work, delays and scope changes raised from them carry through to the payment claim. Work run sheets are recorded separately on site and sent to subcontractors to support their claim assessment.

• Project controls. Each job is set up once, and everything thereafter uses the same dates, budgets, cost codes and team, so nothing is re-keyed or out of step. Short-term planning replaces the Excel planning workbook, giving crews and managers one agreed plan for the next four weeks on each structure.
• Site records. A daily site diary records labour, plant, work done, delays and site-raised changes, and that single entry becomes the evidence for everything that follows. Extra work dockets (dayworks dockets) turn diary labour entries into evidence the client signs, and work run sheets that were once calculated by hand on paper are now calculated by Kratos.
• Approvals. Every diary, short-term plan, delay notice, time claim, scope change and payment claim goes to the authorised person for sign-off, before it moves on. A personal action list shows each person exactly what tasks are waiting on them, so approvals don't stall in someone's inbox.
• Commercial and claims. Delays, time claims and scope changes are linked in one chain and tracked against their due dates on a single overview, so both site and office can see what is due. Payment claims bring contract rates, signed extra work dockets and approved scope changes together in one place, with every version kept.
• Reporting. Production rate, weekly hours, quantities and timesheet reports use only approved records, so the numbers match what was signed off. Foundation progress reporting shows each wind turbine foundation at a glance, from the footing model to the work still to do.

Nathan Contractors now runs a job from contract to payment claim on one live platform. Reports that used to be built by hand from copied figures, and took hours to prepare, are now calculated by Kratos from approved records.

They are now ready whenever needed, so managers can check progress at any time, rather than waiting for the next report.

We built a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server into Kratos, so authorised staff can ask Claude or ChatGPT about live project data in plain English. The AI works under the same controls as every other request.

• Same permissions. People sign in with their own Kratos login, and the AI sees only the projects and records that person can already see. Access is checked again on every request.
• People approve what AI adds. AI brings information into Kratos as well as reading it. An AI contract reader pulls setup details from a signed contract and shows the exact page each value came from, and nothing is saved until a person accepts it.
• Every lookup recorded. Each request is logged by person, AI app and project, without storing the data returned. Administrators can see and end any connection, and connections end automatically when someone logs out, changes their password or loses access.
• Approved by the business. Nathan Contractors signed off on connecting live data, and access is rolling out in stages.

Kratos holds commercial, contractual and workforce records. Every request is checked on the server, not just hidden on screen.

• Role and project permissions. Each person gets only the modules their role needs and sees only the projects they are assigned to. Access to one job does not open up another.
• Authority for key decisions. High-stakes actions, such as approving a short-term plan or correcting a client decision, also require the right role on that project, such as project manager.
• Secure sign-in. Data is encrypted in transit, and signing out or changing a password ends every existing session.
• A record that can't be quietly changed. Approvals record who signed off, approved notices and claims are kept as fixed versions, and production data is protected by managed backups.

• Custom platform development
• Approval workflows
• Commercial and claims management
• Operational reporting
• Governed AI access