Petl Pay is a payment operations platform for UK construction contractors who pay subcontractors weekly under the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS). The platform lets subbies log work in plain language via WhatsApp, Slack, or ChatGPT, then automatically generates self-billed invoices, calculates CIS deductions, and enables one-click approval and settlement over open banking or USDC stablecoin. It also pushes completed pay runs to Xero and exposes payment primitives via MCP for AI-agent settlement.
Funding
Funding not disclosed
Founders
Product
Problem
UK construction contractors who pay subcontractors weekly under the CIS still run their pay runs through spreadsheets, group chats, and bank portals. This manual process is slow, error-prone, and places the burden of calculating CIS deductions and reconciling payments on a single person, often the business owner or office manager.
Solution
Petl Pay automates the entire subcontractor pay run. Subcontractors log work in plain language from WhatsApp, Slack, Claude, ChatGPT, or the Petl Pay app, and the platform converts those messages into self-billed invoices with the correct CIS deduction rate applied to labour while keeping materials separate. Contractors review and approve the entire pay run on one screen, then settle payments via open banking across 45+ UK banks or USDC stablecoin for cross-border payments. Completed runs push to Xero automatically, and the platform tracks every deduction per subbie for monthly CIS returns. Petl Pay also exposes payment primitives as MCP tools, enabling AI agents to trigger invoicing and settlement directly inside LLM conversations.
Target Audience
Primary customers are UK construction contractors, specialist subcontractors, and labour supply agencies that pay operatives weekly under CIS, along with the accountants and bookkeepers who manage their records.
Features
- Plain-language work logging from WhatsApp, Slack, Claude, ChatGPT, or the web app, with no app installation required for subbies
- Automatic self-billing and CIS deduction calculation at 20%, 30%, or 0% rates, with labour and materials split and tracked per subbie
- One-screen approval and Pay All settlement over open banking, with BACS file export for off-platform pay runs
- Project-level ledger tracking money in from clients, money out to subbies, and retained margin, with cash flow and labour cost analytics
- Xero integration that pushes completed pay runs and payments directly into accounting records
- MCP-based payment primitives (create invoice, approve payment, split across contributors, settle) enabling AI-agent settlement via stablecoin
- USDC stablecoin settlement for fast cross-border payments into LatAm, South Africa, and other regions