How do you manage your supplier prices and invoices

[Matt Hutchings]

Hi,

I am curious to know how electrical contractors manage the prices they get from your suppliers.

Everyone knows that if you stick with one wholesaler, you are likely to get your pants pulled down by pricing over one thing or another, you need to keep them on their toes, and to do that you have to get quotes and compare prices from other wholesalers to know this.

Do you manually check each invoice, against a quote?

 

[Octopus]

I tell them when their quotes are expensive ..............

it also depends on what you are buying if its 2 or 3 of something the price doesn't really matter, if its 100 it does

Horses for courses

 

[Charlie_]

Tie the quotes and invoices together with reference numbers

 

[Matt Hutchings]

either way, you still have to manually go into each quote, invoice, and credit and look at it?

 

[Charlie_]

Depends what accounts package you use.
Also easy enough to knock up a spread sheet.
No matter what system is used there has to be some sort of manual input and also the need to look at it

 

[Octopus]

either way, you still have to manually go into each quote, invoice, and credit and look at it?

Why do you ask ?

 

[Matt Hutchings]

I'll be totally honest, I have made a system for this to happen automatically, and makes it so much easier to stay on top of pricing and the hassles with multiple suppliers.

I am very curious to see how its done at the moment, to improve upon.

 

[Octopus]

I'll be totally honest, I have made a system for this to happen automatically, and makes it so much easier to stay on top of pricing and the hassles with multiple suppliers.

I am very curious to see how its done at the moment, to improve upon.

I suggest to try and sell the system to CEF .... they are hopeless

 

[Matt Hutchings]

That is infact where the idea came from.... and is designed to help solve issues unique to CEF and others....

It wasn't available... so I made it... Automatically captures the invoice info as you receive it, and allows you to see all the invoices of a given job together, view price history of products you have been invoiced or quoted.

 

[123]

That is infact where the idea came from.... and is designed to help solve issues unique to CEF and others....

It wasn't available... so I made it... Automatically captures the invoice info as you receive it, and allows you to see all the invoices of a given job together, view price history of products you have been invoiced or quoted.

So in short, you are trying to sell us what you have created?

 

[Matt Hutchings]

So in short, you are trying to sell us what you have created?

No, rather the opposite actually, I am not selling anything. Didn't I mention that above?

 

[Andy78]

Hahaha CEF have that much of a reputation of ripping off customers with random invoicing someone has had to develop software to combat it.... excellent

 

[Matt Hutchings]

But the issue is wider than just CEF for sure..

I have spoke to electricians, who will look at every invoice, spend hours on trying dealing with quotes from suppliers, have no idea what they are being charged....

An Accountant does not look at the individual items you buy, my software does.

 

[FatAlan]

No, rather the opposite actually, I am not selling anything. Didn't I mention that above?

Quick, if it’s any good, convert it into an app

 

[Matt Hutchings]

Effectively it's a web app atm... but it works without you needing to do anything as such.

Whenever you receive a quote or invoice, that becomes your price*, if you are ever charged above that price, it can automatically email the supplier back asking for a reason, or have the original quote attached...

 

[Rosco]

Does this work from recognising part numbers as different wholesalers use different part numbers for the same product so using to compare between different wholesalers could be difficult.

 

[Matt Hutchings]

That is a great question. At the moment it does not try to cross reference the part numbers from one supplier to another, this is planned, but to get a computer to understand this, it's going to take a little creative thinking..

This is an example of a few items from an invoice, some could be tied up, some couldnt:

ESSSENTIALS Cable Ties Black L=140 x W=3.6mm
ESSSENTIALS Cable Ties Black L=300 x W=4.8mm
20CJB20B Loop-in Circular Box 20mm
80/30/2 RCCB DP 80A 30mA
MCW20SK CW Gland Kit=2 20mm S
UNDERGROUND CABLE JOINTS STRAIGHT THRU 10mm X 4C MAX
13A 2 Gang Lockable Weatherproof Outdoor Switched Socket Double Pole IP66
61/B20 MCB SP Type B 20A 6kA

​

 

[matthutch1298]

The system is up and running at *******.co.uk and I would love to get your opinions on it.

 

[richy3333]

How does it cope with organic price increases?

 

[Sintra]

Why the new user account? Only one account is permitted per member. Thread is closed for now.