Frame sizes in a WhatsApp photo
A local builder sends a photo of a pencil drawing with six window sizes and a door. Some sizes are brick openings, some are frame sizes, and the door has no handing marked. The office rings to check, types it into the quoting software, applies the builder's discount from memory and sends a quote. The builder says yes by text. The frames are ordered. When they are collected, one is wrong, and the builder says he meant the other size.
The builder also still owes for the last order.
Why trade orders go wrong
Trade customers want speed and their own prices, and they measure themselves. Your process for homeowners, with a surveyor and a signed contract, does not apply, but nothing structured replaces it.
- Orders arrive by text, email, photo and phone, in no set format.
- It is unclear whether sizes are openings or manufacturing sizes.
- Handing, glass and colour details are missing or ambiguous.
- Account pricing is applied by memory and varies.
- Credit limits and overdue balances are not checked before ordering.
What loose trade orders cost
Frames made to the wrong size on a builder's measurement become an argument about who pays. Discounts applied inconsistently erode margin or annoy the builder. Ordering for an account that is already overdue adds risk. And the office spends time turning messages into orders.
A trade ordering portal
- Each trade account logs into a simple portal and sees its own prices, from your account pricing rules.
- Builders enter frames on a form that asks clearly for manufacturing sizes, style, colour, glass and handing, with pictures for handing, or upload a schedule that the office converts.
- The quote is produced instantly and the builder confirms it, including a clear statement that sizes are theirs, as your trade terms say.
- Before the order goes to the fabricator, the account's credit status is checked from Xero or QuickBooks and anything overdue is flagged to the office.
- The order is tracked to delivery, and the builder is told when it is ready to collect or when it will be delivered.
- Collection or delivery is signed for on a phone, and the invoice follows automatically.
| Step | Informal trade order | Through the portal |
|---|---|---|
| Sizes | Photo of a drawing | Manufacturing sizes on a form |
| Handing | Often missing | Chosen from pictures |
| Prices | Discount from memory | Account pricing applied |
| Responsibility | Unclear | Confirmed on the order |
| Credit | Not checked | Checked before ordering |
Your trade terms, including who is responsible for sizes, are your own. The portal records that the builder saw and accepted them.
What the trade side gains
Builders get prices and quotes when they need them, without waiting for a call back. Orders arrive in a usable format with the details that cause remakes already answered. Account pricing is consistent. Overdue accounts are spotted before more stock goes out. And the office handles more trade orders with less effort.
Builders who are used to a portal from their merchants often prefer it, because it means they can order at nine in the evening after a site visit.
The portal also shows you which trade accounts are growing, which have gone quiet and which regularly order frames that need remaking, which is useful when you review trade pricing or decide who gets credit. That picture is hard to see when orders arrive as scattered messages to different people in the office.
Recognise these trade headaches?
- Trade orders arrive as photos and texts.
- Builders' size mistakes turn into arguments about who pays.
- Account discounts are applied inconsistently.
- Orders have gone out to accounts that were overdue.