Most US contracting crews run in two languages: the work in Spanish, the books in English. The gap between them is where receipts disappear. A foreman photographs a receipt and texts it to a thread nobody files from; the bookkeeper works from what made it to the office; the job costs whatever the office saw.
Obra closes that gap without asking anyone to learn a new app. The crew sends receipts to a WhatsApp number in whichever language they type; Obra answers in that language, reads the receipt, and files a draft on the right job. A reviewer, in English or Spanish, confirms it. The bilingual crew guide walks through a week of it.
What the foreman sees, and what they don't
A submitter's whole interface is a chat: send a photo, get a reply confirming the amount and the job, done. They never see the contract value, the margin or what other people were paid. That's not a restriction bolted on; it's the design. Capture and finance are different roles held by different people, and the person at the lumber counter shouldn't need a login to the accounting.
Cost codes in two languages
The category list is the one place both languages have to meet. Keep it short, keep it bilingual on paper, and confirm receipts against it in seconds. The cost code list builder produces the starter list for your trade; the sample above is the deck crew's eight, with both names on each line so nobody has to translate at the counter.
Where the money actually goes
NAHB's remodelers' study puts labor and trade contractor costs at more than half of revenue. On a crew-heavy job the labor line is the margin, and a day's hours that never become a change order is a day's margin gone. Obra records expense claims and extras the same afternoon, in the crew's language, so the change order can go out before the work is finished, not after.
What Obra isn't
Not payroll, not scheduling, not a messaging app. Obra records money on jobs. WhatsApp is the capture channel because it's the one the crew already has; the ledger, the exports and the forecast live in Obra, in the language each person reads.