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Purchasing & subcontractors

What this covers

Section titled “What this covers”

A job buys from a lot of people. Materials, fixtures, equipment and trade labor all come from separate counterparties on separate terms. This area is how those commitments get written down before the money moves.

Commitments

Section titled “Commitments”

There is no Purchase Orders screen here. A subcontractor is committed through a Commitment, which carries the signed subcontract behind it rather than standing alone as an order.

That difference is the point. A purchase order is an instruction to supply at a price. A commitment is a contract with a party who will be on site, which is why it sits alongside the compliance the subcontract depends on: a current certificate of insurance, a W-9, and a signed Master Agreement, all held at company level in Companies rather than per project.

Every line is coded to the project and to a cost code, so the obligation lands on the job’s books the day it is signed. Committed amounts appear in budgets and cost control — the difference between what a job has planned to spend and what it has already promised. When the subcontractor invoices, the invoice carries the same job and cost coding, so the two describe the same work in the same terms.

Subcontract reconciliation compares what was committed against what has been billed and paid, which is the check that a subcontract is running to its number.

What the subcontractor sees

Section titled “What the subcontractor sees”

There is no Vendor Portal on this instance. Commitments, changes to them, and requests for pricing all reach the subcontractor by email.

Putting that exchange in a portal — where a sub signs their contract, uploads a job hazard analysis, fills in their own pay application, and sees the issues assigned to them — is a stated goal. None of it exists today.

Section titled “Related”