How to track materials per site: received, used and what's left

To know where your material is, record four movements at every site: what arrives, what moves in from or out to another store, what the site uses, and what goes back. Once a month, count what is on the site and compare it with what the records say should be there. The gap, material by material, is what was lost, wasted or never recorded.

That is the whole method. The rest of this post is about making it work on a real site.

Why it matters

On most building projects, material is the largest single cost, often around half of the total. A small leak there costs more than a large one anywhere else. Take a site that receives 5,000 bags of cement over a project: if 3% cannot be accounted for, that is 150 bags, and nobody notices until the project closes and the numbers no longer add up.

Tracking per site, not per company, is what makes the leak visible. A company-wide total hides one careless site behind three careful ones.

The four movements

Receipts. Everything that arrives at the site, counted at the gate against the order. Record what arrived, not what the delivery note says. If 400 bags were ordered and 380 came, the receipt says 380, and the supplier is paid for 380.

Transfers. Material that comes from your central warehouse, or moves from one site to another. A transfer leaves one store and arrives in the other, so nothing disappears on the truck. Keep moves between sites for managers: that is where material most easily goes missing.

Consumption. What the site uses, recorded when the storekeeper issues it for the work: 400 blocks for the third-floor walls, 30 bags of tile adhesive for the lobby. This is the movement most companies skip, and without it nobody can tell used material from missing material.

Returns. What goes back to a supplier because it is damaged or wrong, and what comes back to the site store unused. Fifty blocks returned to the store are fifty blocks the site did not use.

Record each movement on the day it happens, in the unit you count in. If you buy steel by the ton and issue it by the bar, choose one unit for each material and convert at the gate.

The monthly count

At the end of each month, count what is physically on the site and compare it with what should be there:

What should be there = opening balance + received + moved in − used − returned − moved out

One site, one month:

In is what was received plus what was moved in; Out is what was used, returned or moved out. The 1,460 blocks out are 1,400 used and 60 returned to the supplier; the 110 bags of adhesive in are 90 received and 20 sent from the central warehouse.

The cement gap is 30 bags, about 3% of what the site used. The blocks are within a handful, and the adhesive matches exactly.

Reading the gap

A gap is a question, not an accusation. Before anyone is blamed, check the usual causes:

• an issue that was never recorded, by far the most common;
• a delivery entered from the supplier's paper instead of a count;
• a unit mix-up, such as tons received and bags issued;
• a transfer recorded at one end only.

What remains after those checks is real loss: breakage, waste or theft. Decide in advance how big a gap you accept for each kind of material. Bulk materials such as sand and aggregate always lose a little; counted items such as fittings, cable drums and sanitary ware should match exactly. Set your limits from your own first months of counts rather than borrowing someone else's.

Who does what

The storekeeper records receipts, issues and returns. The site engineer or supervisor asks for material and confirms what was used for which work. A manager approves moves between sites. Finance sees the value of every movement, and the person who receives material does not approve the supplier's bill. Small companies combine roles, but keep those two apart.

Common mistakes

• One store for the whole company instead of one for each site.
• Counting only when the project ends, when nothing can be traced any more.
• Booking purchases straight to expense, so nobody knows what is still on site.
• Letting the supplier's delivery note stand in for a count.

How Sitely does it

In Sitely every site gets its own store when you create it, with its operations ready: Consumption, Receipts, Central WH to site if you use a central warehouse, and Delivery Orders for what leaves the site. The storekeeper records them; managers and the CEO move material between sites.

Receipts and consumption are valued as they happen. A receipt puts the material into stock at its purchase price, and consumption moves it into material used, under the trade the material belongs to, such as masonry. A supplier's bill has to match what the site actually received. When you count a store, the difference is booked, so the books and the store say the same thing.

You choose whether to run a central warehouse when your workspace is set up, and for each material whether it comes through the warehouse or straight to site.

See how material moves from order to site on How it works, or try it on your own sites: Sitely is free for 15 days.

Questions people ask

How often should a site count its materials?

Once a month for everything, and every week for expensive or easily carried items such as cable, copper and fittings.

What gap is acceptable?

It depends on the material. A small loss on bulk materials is normal; counted items should match. Set a limit for each material from your own first months of counts.

Does this work without software?

Yes. A record of the four movements for each site and a monthly count are enough to start. Software saves the arithmetic and puts a value on each movement as it happens, which a notebook cannot.