How Reach CM Cut Procurement from Days to Minutes with a Custom Command Suite

Reach CM is a UK construction firm managing procurement across multiple active sites. Before Sonny, their procurement process ran on 10+ disconnected tools: Airtable for material tracking, Google Sheets for approval logs, WhatsApp for site-to-office communication, email for supplier coordination, and a shared Google Drive where document versioning meant adding "_FINAL_v3" to a filename. There was no single source of truth, no audit trail, and no way to know the real-time status of any order without calling the site manager.

This article is part of our Complete Guide to Custom Command Suites.

The Problem: Procurement Without Governance

The pain points were structural, not cosmetic:

• No approval governance — anyone with access to the spreadsheet could modify orders. There was no enforced approval chain tied to project value or authority level.
• Data leakage between systems — information entered in Airtable had to be manually re-entered in Sheets, then manually communicated via WhatsApp. Every handoff was a point of failure.
• No audit trail — when something went wrong (a duplicate order, a missed delivery, an unapproved purchase), there was no reliable history to investigate.
• Version chaos — documents lived in shared folders with no revision control. The "current" version was whichever file someone opened last.

This is not an unusual story. Most construction firms we talk to describe some version of this.

What Sonny Built for Reach CM

The procurement command suite replaced the entire tool stack with a single integrated system. Here is what each component does in the context of Reach CM's operation:

1. Structured Requisition Forms — Site managers submit material requests through a purpose-built portal. Each requisition is auto-numbered with a site prefix, categorised by material type, and timestamped. No more WhatsApp messages saying "we need more concrete."
2. Role-Based Approval Gating — Requisitions route automatically based on value thresholds and project rules. Site managers approve up to a threshold, procurement leads handle larger orders, directors approve high-value purchases. Every approval is logged with the approver's identity and timestamp.
3. Automatic PO Generation — Approved requisitions generate purchase orders automatically. POs include line items, supplier details, delivery dates, and reference numbers. No manual data entry. No copy-paste errors.
4. Supplier Notification and Delivery Tracking — Suppliers receive POs automatically. Delivery status is tracked in the system. Site managers can see what has been ordered, what has been dispatched, and what is arriving when — all from one dashboard.
5. Immutable Revision Control — Every document in the system (requisitions, POs, delivery notes, approvals) is versioned with a complete revision chain. When a document is superseded, the old version is archived, not deleted. The audit trail is unbreakable.
6. Multi-Channel Alert System — Automated notifications for approval requests, PO confirmations, delivery updates, and exception escalations. The right person gets the right information at the right time.

Built on React 19, Supabase (PostgreSQL), n8n for orchestration, AWS S3 for document storage, TailwindCSS for the portal interfaces.

See how procurement automation works · See our document control approach · Read our technical walkthrough of the build

Before and After: What the Numbers Show

METRIC	BEFORE	AFTER
Procurement Cycle	Days (manual requisition → email approval → manual PO)	Minutes (form → auto-route → auto-generate PO)
Data Entry Error Rate	Untracked, estimated high due to triple-entry across tools	-95% (validated inputs, no duplicate entry)
Audit Compliance	Non-existent — no reliable audit trail	100% — every action logged with timestamp and user
Tools in Use	10+ disconnected (Airtable, Sheets, WhatsApp, Drive, email)	1 command suite replacing 4 primary tools

The headline metric — procurement cycle from days to minutes — is the one people notice first. But the operational shift is deeper than speed. The 95% reduction in data entry errors means fewer wrong orders, fewer returns, fewer delays on site. 100% audit compliance means Reach CM can answer any question about any order at any time — who requested it, who approved it, what was ordered, when it was delivered, and where the documentation lives. That level of operational discipline did not exist before.

"Before Sonny Ai, our site managers were juggling spreadsheets and WhatsApp groups to order materials. Now, the system handles the entire flow: approvals, purchase orders, delivery tracking. It's industrial-grade discipline."

Read the full Reach CM case study

Why This Matters for Other Construction Firms

Reach CM's story is not unique. Every construction firm we speak to describes some version of the same problem: procurement running on spreadsheets, approvals happening over email or WhatsApp, documents living in shared folders with no version control. The tools are different but the pattern is the same — disconnected systems, manual handoffs, and no audit trail. The difference is whether the firm decides to keep patching the workarounds or replace the entire approach with a system that enforces process from day one.

See how Sonny works with construction firms · See the step-by-step automation guide · Read about the spreadsheet replacement pattern · Compare automated operations vs spreadsheets