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
Tag
job costing
21 articles tagged job costing from the CheckMySupply invoice audit desk.
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
Supply House Backorders, Substitutions and Job Cost
A backorder substitution at the supply house is an unpriced change to your job cost. Here is how to spot the swap on an invoice and get the money back.
By Reena11 min read
Counter Purchases: Where Contractor Spend Control Dies
Counter purchases wreck contractor spend control: the ticket skips every check you own. Here is what a counter run bypasses and the fix that survives August.
By Reena9 min read
Truck Stock Inventory for Contractors: Where It Leaks
Truck stock inventory is where contractor price control dies first. Here is how truck stock, shop stock and will-call leak cash, and the system that stops it.
By Reena10 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 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
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
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
Material Cost Increase Impact on Contractor Profit: The Math
The material cost increase impact on contractor profit, in dollars: what 6% annual price drift costs a shop buying $40K a month, and what you get back.
By Jordan9 min read
Three-Way Match for Contractors, Without an AP Team
PO, packing slip, invoice. The AP control that catches most supply-house overcharges, rebuilt for a shop with one bookkeeper and a pile of paper tickets.
By Reena12 min read