Where Is Cash Stuck in My Projects, and How Do I Find It?

To find where cash is stuck in a project, export the ERP's event log, rebuild the path each RA bill, purchase order and vendor invoice took, measure the wait at every step, and price each wait in rupees. The result is a ranked list of delays, with the biggest at the top.

Last updated 17 October 2026. Sample figures are from Crestline's glossary and are not customer data. Each carries its basis.

What do I need to find where cash is stuck?

Finding stuck cash needs one table with three columns: a case id, an activity and a timestamp. A case is the thing travelling, such as an RA bill or a purchase order. The activity is the step that happened to it, and the timestamp says when.

This table is called an event log. An amount, owner, vendor and project are optional columns, but the amount is what lets a delay be priced. Most ERPs already write these timestamps whether or not anyone reads them.

Source: Crestline glossary, event log entry, reviewed 17 October 2026.

What needs a connected ERP, and what can be done without one?

Grey Infra ERP is the only live connector today; other systems are not yet available, ask on the scoping call.

On the ERPs below, a finance team can still do the steps in this guide by hand on an export. Crestline makes no claim here about a connector for them.

Crestline is read-only in every case. It does not write back to the ERP.

How do I go from an ERP event log to a ranked list of delays?

The route has five steps: export the log, rebuild each case's path, measure the wait at each step, price each wait in rupees and rank the result. Each step produces something a finance team can check by hand.

Step 1: What do I export from the ERP?

Export one row per event for the process under test. Start with RA bills from the date work was executed, because the cash clock starts there, not at the invoice. Keep every rejected submission, since a resubmitted bill that carries only its new date erases the delay.

Step 2: How do I rebuild the path each bill took?

Group the rows by case id and sort each group by timestamp. The sequence of activities is that case's path. Two bills often take different paths, and the differences matter: a bill that skipped a step, or went round twice, is usually the finding. Dropping those rows to get a clean picture produces a clean map of a process nobody follows. This rebuild is what process mining does.

Step 3: How do I measure the wait at each step?

Subtract the timestamp of one activity from the next within each case. Report the median and the P80 (the value 80 per cent of cases fall under) rather than the average. Certification lag is the standard example: a median of 11 days with a P80 of 34 is a different problem from a median of 11 with a P80 of 14. A step with a long wait is a bottleneck, and a path that loops back is a rework loop.

Step 4: How do I price each wait in rupees?

Price the wait with cost of delay: days waited times cases affected times cost per case per day. The last term is an assumption, usually the company's cost of funding, and it must be stated next to the result.

Changing the 11% to 9% moves the result to about ₹6.6 lakh. The ranking of steps does not move, which is why the figure is trustworthy as an order and not as an exact amount. Quote it as "about ₹8 lakh a cycle", not to the rupee.

Step 5: How do I rank the delays and name an owner?

Sort the priced delays from largest to smallest and name the step, the owner and the next move for each. Do not add every step's figure together: the same cash sitting behind two consecutive steps is one pool, and summing both overstates the total.

Which processes show the most cash first?

The processes that show cash first are the ones that run from work done to money received: RA bills, retention release and vendor payments. Each can be tested with the same three columns.

For the wider picture of how these blocks add up, read the pillar guide on how a construction company frees trapped working capital.

What can go wrong when reading an event log?

An event log is only as honest as the moment each timestamp is written. If approvals are keyed in bulk on Friday for work done all week, the log shows one Friday spike and the real wait is invisible. Backdated entries are the most common reason a measured duration is wrong.

Work done over email, on site or in a spreadsheet leaves no stamp, so it shows up as one long unexplained wait. That is itself worth knowing, as long as it is read that way. A delay found in the log is a measured fact about timestamps. Its rupee cost depends on an assumed cost of funding, so it is a ranking and not an accounting entry.

How does Crestline do this?

Crestline is process intelligence software for EPC finance teams. Crestline builds the event log from the ERP's own tables, reads it read-only, follows each RA bill, retention release and vendor payment as its own case, and prices each delay in rupees with the step, the owner and the next move named. The method is described on the process mining for EPC finance page.

What Crestline is not

• Crestline is not an ERP or accounting software. It holds no ledger and issues no invoice.
• Crestline is not project management or scheduling software.
• Crestline does not write back to source systems, so it cannot trigger an action in the ERP.
• Crestline is not a general-purpose process mining platform. The comparison of process intelligence software for construction says where other tools fit better.

To see your own delays ranked, book a Crestline demo.

Key takeaways

• Finding stuck cash needs one table: case id, activity and timestamp, plus an amount to price it.
• Grey Infra ERP is the only live connector today; other systems are not yet available, ask on the scoping call.
• The steps are export, rebuild, measure, price and rank. Each can be checked by hand.
• The wait is a measured fact. Its rupee cost rests on an assumed cost of funding and is a ranking.
• Do not sum every step's cost: overlapping cash is counted twice.

Frequently asked questions

Where is cash stuck in a construction project?

Cash is usually stuck between work executed and invoice, in retention held after completion, and in vendor payments made earlier than agreed terms. An event log from the ERP shows which of these holds the most money on a given project.

Does Crestline work with SAP, Tally, Oracle or Zoho?

Not today. Grey Infra ERP is the only live connector today; other systems are not yet available, ask on the scoping call.

Is the rupee figure for each delay exact?

No. The delay in days is measured from timestamps. The rupee figure depends on an assumed cost of funding, stated beside it, and is best used to rank delays, not to book an amount.