Control Material Costs: A 30-Day Plan for Contractors
A dated 30-day plan to control material costs: pull your price history, set PO and matching rules, and walk into the supplier conversation with receipts.
By Emily10 min read
Tag
invoice audit
29 articles tagged invoice audit from the CheckMySupply invoice audit desk.
Who Manages Material Costs in a Contractor Business?
Who manages material costs in a contractor business, how to split buying, matching and price history across a 20-person shop, and when to hire for it.
By Emily9 min read
Export Purchase History From Your Supplier Portal
How to export purchase history from a supplier portal as a contractor, which fields you actually need, and what to do when the portal only hands you PDFs.
By Emily10 min read
Why Your Field Service Pricebook Drifts From Real Cost
ServiceTitan and every field service app freezes material cost the day you build the book. How pricebook material cost drift quietly eats your job margin.
By Emily10 min read
QuickBooks Material Items Setup for Contractors
Most shops book material as one lump sum, which erases unit price history at the source. A QuickBooks contractor material items setup that keeps every price.
By Emily10 min read
Contractor Material Cost Software Stack, Layer by Layer
A contractor material cost software stack runs five layers, counter ticket to general ledger. Here is what owns each one, and the middle layer nobody buys.
By Emily10 min read
Material Shrinkage for Contractors: Theft or Bad Coding
Material shrinkage in construction is usually a job coding problem, not theft. Here is the four-test sequence that tells a contractor which one they have.
By Reena11 min read
Build a Material Price Index From Your Own Invoices
How to build a material price index from invoices you already have: pick the basket, set a base month, weight it by real spend, and read what it tells you.
By Jordan11 min read
How to Benchmark Material Costs as a Contractor
Am I being treated badly on price? How to benchmark material costs as a contractor with your own invoice history, free BLS index data, and a second quote.
By Jordan10 min read
PVC Pipe Price Increase: What a Contractor Can Verify
A PVC pipe price increase hits contractors every quarter and the reason given is always resin. Here is what you can actually verify, and what you cannot.
By Reena10 min read
Contractor Manufacturer Rebate Programs You Never Claim
A contractor manufacturer rebate program pays for work you already did. Here is why claims lapse, which rebates were never yours, and what to keep on file.
By Alex10 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
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
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
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
Purchase Order Tolerance Thresholds: Chase It or Not
What purchase order tolerance threshold should you set? Published practice runs a few percent or a dollar cutoff. How to pick yours and what to always chase.
By Reena10 min read
Core Charges and Environmental Fees on Your Invoice
A core charge is refundable, an environmental fee is not. How to read the core charge and environmental fee lines on a contractor invoice and claim deposits.
By Reena10 min read
Supplier Fuel Surcharges: What to Audit and Negotiate
Freight, delivery and supplier fuel surcharge lines move with diesel and nobody audits them. How the charge gets set, and what a contractor can negotiate.
By Reena11 min read
Invoice Quantity Does Not Match Delivery: The Fix
When the invoice quantity does not match delivery, the packing slip is your proof. The ten-minute weekly count that catches short shipments before you pay.
By Reena10 min read
The Contractor Invoice Control Process: Four Documents
A contractor invoice control process built on four documents: quote, PO, packing slip, invoice. Where each handoff leaks money, and how to close the gaps.
By Reena11 min read
2/10 Net 30 Discount Calculation: Check Your Supply House
The 2/10 net 30 supplier discount calculation runs on the pre-tax subtotal, not the invoice total. Here is the math, and how to check what you really got.
By Alex9 min read
Electrical Supply House Price Increase: 5 Places It Hides
An electrical supply house price increase rarely lands on the big-ticket line. Here are the five line items where it actually hides on your monthly invoice.
By Jordan9 min read
Supply House Credit Request Time Limit: The 90-Day Rule
There is no published supply house credit request time limit for billing errors, but the clocks are real. Why fresh invoices get credited and old ones do not.
By Jordan9 min read
How to Track Material Price History From Your Invoices
The spreadsheet method to track material price history as a contractor: which columns to build from twelve months of supply-house invoices, and how to use it.
By Jordan13 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
How to Catch a Duplicate Supply-House Invoice
Paid the same supply-house invoice twice? It happens more than shops think. How duplicates get created, how to spot them, and how to get the credit back.
By Reena12 min read
Quote vs Invoice Mismatch: How to Catch It
The quote said one number and the invoice said another. Why supply-house quotes and invoices drift apart, and the two-minute check that catches it every time.
By Reena12 min read
Material Price Creep: What It Is and How to Spot It
Same part, same supplier, higher price every month, and no phone call. What material price creep is, why nobody flags it, and how to find it on your invoices.
By Jordan12 min read