Six price returns, one afternoon, prices expiring
You have tendered a client's portfolio with several suppliers. The returns arrive over a day: one as a spreadsheet with a tab per site, one as a PDF, one as a CSV from a supplier's portal, one with rates per meter and another with rates per site. Some quote a standing charge per day, some per month.
Your analyst retypes each return into your comparison spreadsheet, meter by meter. Prices from some suppliers are only valid until the end of the day. By the time the comparison is ready to show the client, one supplier's prices have expired, and the analyst has to ask for a refresh.
Why collation eats the time you do not have
Collating price returns is repetitive and fiddly, and it happens under time pressure.
- Each supplier returns prices in its own layout and units.
- Meters are identified differently: by MPAN, by site name, by the supplier's own reference.
- Some returns omit meters or add conditions in notes.
- Prices have short validity periods that vary by supplier.
- Retyping introduces errors that are hard to spot in a large comparison.
Expired prices and typing errors
Time spent collating is time lost from the window in which prices are valid. When prices expire before a client decides, the tender has to be refreshed, which frustrates the client and the suppliers.
A typing error in a comparison can put the wrong figure in front of a client. Even when caught, it undermines confidence in the process.
The pressure falls on the busiest people at the worst time. Several tenders often close in the same weeks, because contract end dates cluster, and each one needs its returns collated at once. Analysts end up working late to retype figures, which is exactly when mistakes creep in.
Price returns read into one comparison
We build a collation tool for tender returns.
- Each tender records the meters, their consumption as provided to suppliers and the suppliers invited.
- Returns are collected from email or portal downloads as they arrive.
- Each return is read into a standard structure, with spreadsheets and CSVs parsed by supplier template and PDFs read with a model such as OpenAI or Anthropic Claude. A person checks anything uncertain.
- Rates are mapped to each meter, with units normalised, such as standing charges per day.
- Missing meters, conditions in notes and rates far from the other returns are flagged for the analyst.
- Each supplier's price validity is recorded, and the comparison shows how long each price has left.
- The comparison is produced in your layout for the analyst to review, calculating costs from the consumption provided to suppliers.
| Step | Retyping | Collation tool |
|---|---|---|
| Reading returns | By eye, one by one | Parsed or extracted, checked |
| Mapping to meters | By hand | Matched by MPAN, site or reference |
| Units | Converted by hand | Normalised |
| Missing meters and conditions | Noticed if careful | Flagged |
| Price expiry | Remembered | Shown on the comparison |
The tool collates and checks. Interpreting offers, and any recommendation to the client, remain your consultancy's advice.
Comparisons ready while prices are still valid
As returns arrive, they appear in the comparison within minutes, with flags for anything the analyst should look at. By the time the last supplier responds, the comparison is nearly complete. The analyst spends their time checking conditions and preparing the conversation with the client, with each price's expiry in view.
Refreshes are fewer, errors are rarer and clients see comparisons sooner.
Each tender also leaves a clean record: which suppliers returned prices, what they returned, when those prices expired and what was presented to the client. When a client asks months later why a particular supplier was not chosen, the answer is on file rather than in an old spreadsheet.
Are you retyping supplier prices?
- Analysts retype price returns into comparisons.
- Supplier formats and units differ.
- Prices have expired before clients could decide.
- Typing errors have reached client comparisons.
- Missing meters in returns are found late.