Owner Rejects Your Escalation Clause? Four Answers
When an owner rejects your escalation clause, the job is not over. Here are the four objections owners actually raise and the answer that moves each one.
By Emily13 min read
Emily
Job Costing and AP
Emily writes about material job costing and accounts payable workflow at CheckMySupply: coding to jobs, duplicate control, credits, and month-end close.
Tariffs and Construction Contracts: Who Eats the Increase
A tariff price increase mid-job is a construction contract question, not a trade policy one. Here is which clause decides who pays, and what to do this week.
By Emily10 min read
Material Escalation Change Order Documentation Checklist
Material escalation change order documentation, line by line: the notice, the index proof, the quote trail and the invoices that get an owner to sign it.
By Emily10 min read
Which Index to Use in a Construction Escalation Clause
Which index to use in an escalation clause for construction: name the BLS series that matches your actual material exposure, not a broad construction average.
By Emily11 min read
How to Write a Material Escalation Clause That Pays Out
How to write a material escalation clause: picking the threshold, the cap and the index, with real BLS series IDs and the arithmetic worked line by line.
By Emily12 min read
ConsensusDocs 200.1 Price Escalation vs AIA A201
ConsensusDocs 200.1 price escalation is a real standard clause. AIA A201 has no equivalent. Here is what each document actually gives you, and what to add.
By Emily9 min read
Material Price Escalation Clause: How to Get One Accepted
How a material price escalation clause works in construction contracts: the named index, the trigger, the cap, and what to say when the owner pushes back.
By Emily10 min read
Bid vs Actual Material Cost: How to Measure the Gap
Bid vs actual material cost analysis in one hour a month: what to compare, where the numbers come from, and how to feed the gap back into the next bid.
By Emily11 min read
How to Compare Supplier Quotes and Catch Missing Items
The low quote often wins by leaving things out. How to compare supplier quotes for missing items, level the scope, and stop paying full price for the gaps.
By Emily9 min read
Approved Equal Substitution: What It Does to Material Cost
An approved equal substitution changes material cost in more places than the unit price. Here is what moves, who keeps the saving, and what to check first.
By Emily10 min read
Construction Buyout: Lock Material Pricing After You Win
Construction buyout is where material pricing stops being a guess. Here is the ritual that turns a winning bid into firm POs, held prices and a real tally.
By Emily11 min read
How to Bid Using Historical Material Costs, Not Catalogs
Bid using historical material costs from your own invoices instead of catalog prices. Here is how to build the unit-cost table, escalate it, and check it.
By Emily10 min read
Material Contingency vs Escalation Clause: Which One
Material contingency vs escalation clause: one is money you carry and can lose, the other is a contract right to be paid. Here is which belongs on which job.
By Emily9 min read
Live Material Pricing Estimating Software vs Your Invoices
Live material pricing estimating software prices your bid off a catalog feed your distributor runs. Your own invoices show what you actually pay. Use both.
By Emily10 min read
Takeoff to Purchase Order: The Material Price Gap
The takeoff to purchase order material price gap is where estimate accuracy is lost. Five leaks, the release checklist that closes them, and a running tally.
By Emily10 min read
How Long Should a Construction Bid Be Valid?
How long should a construction bid be valid when copper is moving? No rule sets it, your bid letter does. How to pick the window and what each week costs.
By Emily10 min read
Estimating Material Costs Under Price Volatility
Estimating material costs during price volatility is a system, not a bigger contingency. Date-stamped quotes, your own purchase history, and a closed loop.
By Emily11 min read
Gross Margin by Job vs by Trade in Construction
Company margin looks fine while two jobs bleed out. Here is why gross margin by job in construction exposes material leakage that trade-level averages hide.
By Emily11 min read
WIP Report Material Costs: What Your Banker Sees
Material cost overruns land in your WIP report before they land in your P&L. Here is how a banker and bonding agent read a contractor WIP, line by line.
By Emily10 min read
Truck Stock and Job Costing: Why Some Jobs Look Bad
Truck stock wrecks job costing for contractors because unallocated material lands on whichever job was open. Here is how to find it and how to fix it.
By Emily8 min read
How to Code Material Invoices to Job Cost Codes
Code material invoices to job cost codes without slowing the field down: capture the job at the counter. Here is the workflow that survives a busy week.
By Emily9 min read
Committed Cost vs Actual Cost in Construction Job Costing
Committed cost in construction job costing is money you have promised but have not yet been invoiced for. Here is how to see it before the invoice lands.
By Emily10 min read
Why Your Job Went Over Budget on Materials
Your job went over budget on materials and the estimate may not be why. Here is how to tell a bad takeoff from a market move from an invoice that drifted.
By Emily11 min read
Job Costing Material When Purchases Are Counter Runs
Job costing material counter purchases is the part textbooks skip. Here is a ticket-to-job system that works when half your material leaves on a will-call.
By Emily9 min read
Material Price Variance Formula vs Quantity Variance
The material price variance formula splits a blown material budget into two problems: what you paid per unit, and how much you used. Here is how to run both.
By Emily10 min read
Scanning Paper Supply-House Invoices From the Truck
Your invoices are paper and they live in the truck. What actually works for capturing them, what OCR gets wrong, and how to stop losing price history.
By Emily11 min read