Customer evidence on application accuracy, commercial oversight and handling higher workloads supported the Autodesk company’s entry in the 2026 Stevie Awards for Technology Excellence
Payapps has won Gold for Company of the Year in the Construction & Civil Engineering Technology category at the 2026 Stevie Awards for Technology Excellence. The result is confirmed in the organiser’s published winners list.
For construction businesses, the award story centres on a recurring commercial task: managing the information needed to assess subcontractors’ payment applications. As project numbers grow, teams must track submissions, agreed values, and outstanding queries across an expanding supply chain.
Payapps’ cloud platform brings submission, assessment and approval into a shared system. It also supports valuations, variations, retentions and associated documents. According to the company’s award announcement, its entry combined evidence of product development and adoption with customer outcomes across the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
How the company award was assessed
The award considers achievement at company level. Under the programme’s published judging process, at least five qualified judges score each entry on a ten-point scale. The highest-scoring qualifying entry in each category receives Gold.
Payapps reports that judges highlighted the customer evidence supporting its nomination, including changes in contractors’ commercial and finance processes.
OCU Group reports fewer rejected applications
One example is OCU Group, a utilities and digital infrastructure specialist. In a case study published by Payapps, OCU describes how paperwork and spreadsheets made it difficult to maintain visibility as its workload increased. Staff absence could leave colleagues uncertain whether an application had received a response.
OCU introduced Payapps in November 2024. Payapps’ award announcement reports that application rejection rates subsequently fell from approximately 60–70% to below 5%. The case study also records an increase in certifications from around 800 to 2,000 over a 12-month period, without additional finance staff.
OCU’s account explains how the process works after certification: information enters its accounting software, where a separate compliance check occurs before payment. Subcontractors can also see agreed values and identify the weeks to which queries relate.
Connecting commercial decisions with finance
The OCU case study illustrates why application management extends beyond collecting forms. A submission, its assessment and the amount approved for payment are different stages. Making those stages visible helps teams identify whether the next action sits with a subcontractor, a commercial assessor or finance.
Payapps manages the information and processes surrounding applications for payment; it does not itself transfer construction payments. That distinction matters when considering where the platform fits within a contractor’s existing accounting arrangements.
The award also follows Autodesk’s acquisition of Payapps in February 2024. Its financial disclosure confirmed the transaction’s completion. The companies had announced a strategic relationship in 2022; Autodesk’s subsequent acquisition announcement set out its intention to bring payment and compliance management into its wider construction software offering.
Read more about Payapps’ win here.
