Coast | KD Construction: Streamlining Expense Management with Coast

KD Construction is a specialty residential contractor with over 33 years of experience. Based primarily in South Florida but operating across several states on the East Coast, KD Construction works on residential high-rises, luxury rentals, and large apartment communities.

Sania Salas, Executive Vice President of Business Operations, has been with KD Construction for over a decade. Her role spans financial oversight, budget management, technology implementation, and operational efficiency—making her a key leader in streamlining internal systems across the business.

The Challenges

A Time-Consuming Reimbursement Process Draining Accounting Resources

Before Coast, KD Construction relied heavily on employee reimbursements for project-related expenses. This outdated system created several operational headaches:

No visibility into spending limits or employee purchases
Tedious receipt tracking and manual reconciliation
Difficulty managing project budgets across regions
A fragmented, paper-based system that slowed down accounting workflows

“It took a good two weeks out of two or three people’s time in accounting just to manage the monthly reimbursement process,” Sania explained.

Each month, accounting clerks were tasked with chasing receipts, checking the math on each purchase, and manually cutting and distributing checks. This left little time for anything else and put a constant burden on the department.

Audit Nightmares and Mileage Tracking Woes

The reimbursement process also created challenges during yearly audits. “We had to produce huge piles of paperwork for each person,” Sania said. “It was just a lot of chasing around.”

Tracking mileage for fuel reimbursements was also a struggle. Employees often failed to consistently log odometer readings, making compliance and verification difficult.

The Solution

Replacing Reimbursements with Coast Cards

KD Construction adopted Coast to eliminate reimbursements and streamline expense management across departments. Every employee now has a Coast card, and Sania’s team has full control and visibility over how those cards are used.

Better Controls, Cleaner Budgets

With Coast, KD Construction can now:

Set employee and project-based spending limits
Customize policies by region and department
Instantly turn cards on or off as needed
Require odometer readings for fuel purchases
Use memos and receipt photos to streamline cost coding and journal entries

“Now we have everything in the system. We don’t have to issue checks or chase people. It’s definitely cleaned the process up a lot.”

The memo and receipt capture features have also dramatically improved job costing accuracy. “In the past, we had issues with field teams not properly cost coding purchases,” Sania said. “Now, everything is clear and easy to audit.”

Freeing Up the Accounting Team to Do More

The impact on the accounting team has been transformative.

“Our AP clerk now has time to focus on other things. She’s expanded her position—she’s doing training, learning more, and backing up other people. Coast has really brought a lot of value because we’ve been able to save a lot of time for work that was very manual. Now, we’ve created a very automated process that’s easy to track and easy to use.”, said Sania

Results

Since implementing Coast, KD Construction has seen significant improvements across its operations:

✅ Saved weeks of accounting time every month

✅ No more check runs or receipt chasing

✅ Cleaner audits with all records digital and centralized

✅ Empowered AP team—more time for training, new systems, and cross-functional support

✅ Improved project budget tracking and job costing accuracy

“It’s taken a lot of the stress off of accounting and made it more operations, which I think is where it should be,” Sania concluded.

With Coast, KD Construction has modernized its financial operations—removing friction, improving compliance, and giving its accounting team the freedom to focus on what matters most.

KD Construction: Streamlining Expense Management with Coast