A finance team transforms funding review without giving up control.

The construction finance team at a full-service REIT with $50B in managed real estate assets reviewed contractor progress claims and invoice-backed funding packages across developments and major capital projects. Each package needed the right evidence and authorized approvals before the owner released payment.

Extracting invoice data did not finish the review.

Financial analysts had to connect the property, supplier, contract, approved changes, progress claims, holdbacks and payment history. A revised invoice could be a duplicate, an unpaid balance or a legitimate change. The answer often depended on a colleague who knew the project and earlier submissions.

Automating extraction alone left analysts doing the same investigation and chasing the same approvals. The finance team needed a complete review process that reduced the work without weakening payment controls.

Mason mapped the checks and the approval chain.

Mason worked through completed and disputed packages with analysts and approvers. The team documented the evidence required for each project, why packages were sent back, and how approval routes changed by amount or exception. Owner-side payment review was kept distinct from any lender’s decision to advance funds.

Those findings became both review rules and approval steps. The workflow had to know who could confirm a charge, who could authorize payment, and when missing evidence should stop a package from moving forward.

AI prepared the review; people made the decisions.

The workflow matched invoices and progress claims to the property, supplier, contracts, approved change orders, previous requests and payment records. It checked totals and highlighted missing support, mismatched amounts and possible duplicates before preparing the analyst’s review.

The analyst could see each flagged item beside its evidence, resolve the issue or send a question back to the project team. A resubmitted invoice appeared with the earlier version, approved changes and payment record. That made it easier to distinguish an incorrect charge from a legitimate balance or a holdback not yet due.

Once the analyst completed the review, the package moved to the next authorized approver under the firm’s rules. Status, comments, corrections, and approvals stayed with the package, and reminders followed outstanding actions. A material change sent it back for review.

AI could prepare and recommend, but could not authorize a payment or bypass an approval. The record showed who reviewed each item and who approved the final package.

The transformation included the work between approvals.

Mason tested clean packages alongside partial payments, disputed charges, missing documents, and rejected requests. Analysts and approvers checked whether the evidence was sufficient and whether the right person received the next action.

The improvement came from reducing repeated preparation, email chasing and manual status tracking across the cycle. Evidence traveled with the package, so each approver could focus on the decision and material changes. Missing information and disputed work still required review.

ROI

Estimated annual value is $4.95M across $3B in construction and capital-project payments. This includes $4.5M in avoided losses and external costs, plus $450K in staff capacity, before implementation and ongoing costs.

Payment savings count only losses avoided beyond existing checks and expected recoveries, at the firm’s economic share. Valid charges awaiting support are excluded. Staff capacity is separate from cash savings.

60% shorter funding-review cycle

The team shortened the funding-review cycle by 60%. Evidence traveled with each package, reducing repeated preparation, corrections and approval chasing. Analysts and authorized approvers retained their review responsibilities throughout the process.

40% more packages approved with the same team

The team approved 40% more packages with the same staffing. Less time spent gathering evidence and chasing status created room for additional reviews while keeping human approvals in place. Released staff hours are counted once in the financial breakdown.