A statement full of mystery fittings
The monthly merchant statement arrives. Forty-odd invoices from four branches. Compression fittings, a pump, a TRV set, a length of copper, a cylinder thermostat. Your engineers bought them on the account for jobs over the month. Some were for jobs already invoiced without them. Some were van top-ups. Some, nobody can remember.
The bookkeeper pays the statement and moves on, because there's no practical way to trace every line.
Some of those fittings were for a bathroom invoiced two weeks ago. The pump was for a job still open. Nobody will know which unless someone works through every line.
Why parts aren't recharged
Engineers buy parts in the middle of jobs, at the counter, and give the account number. They may give a job reference, or not. The merchant's invoice arrives later, sometimes by email, sometimes on paper, and the customer invoice has often already gone.
Nothing checks that what was bought for a job was billed on it.
| Purchase | What happens |
|---|---|
| Part for a specific job | Billed if the engineer remembers |
| Van restock | Mixed in with job parts |
| Returned part | Credit note not matched |
| Wrong part bought | Cost absorbed |
Several branches make it harder. Engineers use whichever branch is nearest the job, so invoices come from different places, sometimes with different account formats. The bookkeeper sees a long list of small amounts with no obvious connection to anything.
What unbilled parts cost
Every unrecharged part comes straight off the job's margin. It's hard to see because it's spread across the month. Returns that aren't credited cost money too. And without matching, you can't see which jobs actually made money.
Van stock also gets muddled. When restock purchases and job purchases are mixed, you cannot see what your vans really use, so stock levels drift and more emergency trips to the merchant follow.
Price differences also slip through. A merchant can charge a different price from the one on your account terms, and without line-by-line checking, nobody notices.
The matching we build
- Invoice capture: merchant invoices are collected from email or the merchant's online account, and paper ones are scanned.
- Line reading: each invoice line is read, with date, branch, description and any reference given at the counter.
- Job matching: lines are matched to jobs by the reference, or by engineer, date and branch where no reference was given. Uncertain matches are shown to the office.
- Invoice check: matched parts are compared with the customer invoice. Parts not billed are flagged, with an option to add them to an unsent invoice.
- Van stock: purchases marked as restock are kept separate from job costs.
- Credits: returns are matched to their original purchase so credits are claimed.
Engineers are encouraged to give a job number at the counter, and a text reminder with today's job numbers makes that easy.
We start with the merchant you use most, because a large share of the lines usually comes from one account, and add others once the matching is working well.
Every part accounted for
Parts bought for a job appear on that job before it's invoiced. The office sees what's unmatched rather than guessing. Credits are claimed. And job profitability reflects what the job really cost.
Engineers also get a gentle nudge. Seeing that unmatched purchases are queried makes them more likely to give a job number at the counter, which makes the whole process more accurate over time.
The bookkeeper also stops paying statements on trust. With every line matched or queried, the monthly payment becomes a check of a short exception list.
Is this you?
- Merchant statements are paid without checking lines against jobs.
- Parts are missed off customer invoices.
- Engineers don't always give a job reference at the counter.
- Returns and credits aren't tracked.
- You can't tell the parts cost of a given job.