What do out-of-pocket claims cost a contractor?
More than the money involved. A staff member buys a consumable to keep work moving, holds the docket, and submits it at the end of the month — by which point the job may be closed and the cost is absorbed into overhead. The job margin in Workbench is then wrong in a way nobody can trace. And the person who fronted the money has been financing the business for a month, which is a retention problem before it is an accounting one.
How does a claim work in Vergo?
The docket is photographed on site. Vergo reads the merchant, date and amount; the person selects the job and cost centre from the work they are assigned to; the claim goes to their supervisor immediately. Once approved, Vergo reimburses them directly to their bank account and posts the coded expense into Workbench against the job.
How does Vergo connect to Workbench?
The Workbench API sits in the customer's own environment — the contractor's IT team enables access once and Vergo handles the mapping and ongoing connection from there. Workbench publishes its service reference at its Swagger endpoint. Because access is customer-provisioned rather than partner-gated, there is no vendor approval queue between signing up and being connected.
Why keep reimbursements out of the pay run?
Timing and coding. A pay run happens on its own schedule, so a claim submitted just after one waits for the next. And money paid through payroll tends to land against a payroll account rather than the job, defeating the point of collecting the job code in the first place. Paying claims separately keeps the cost on the job and gets the person repaid in days.
How are mileage and travel claims handled?
Distance is captured on the claim and the configured rate is applied automatically. Travel and allowance claims follow the same path: submitted with evidence, approved by the same supervisor, coded to the job that caused the travel.
How do you end up with fewer claims?
By removing the reason they happen. Almost every out-of-pocket purchase exists because the person had no company card at the counter. A Vergo card with a limit and a merchant category restriction — issued per person, per vehicle or per job — converts that purchase into a coded card transaction, so there is no claim to submit, approve or reimburse.
What does the office need to set up?
Job and cost centre mapping, approval thresholds, the mileage rate and category limits. IT enables access to the Workbench environment once. After that supervisors approve on their phones, staff are paid quickly, and the accounts team looks at exceptions instead of a shoebox of dockets.
How quickly are staff reimbursed?
Vergo pays approved claims directly to the claimant's bank account rather than waiting for the next pay run, so money is returned within days of approval.
Does the claim reach the right job in Workbench?
Yes. The job and cost centre are chosen when the claim is submitted, and Vergo posts the approved expense into Workbench against that job.
Are mileage claims calculated automatically?
Yes. The distance is entered on the claim and the configured rate is applied, so nobody is working it out by hand.
Can we avoid out-of-pocket spend entirely?
Largely. Issuing controlled cards for the purchases staff currently make personally removes the claim, with limits by amount and merchant category keeping the spend in policy.
