AI Procurement Software for
Electrical Contractors

Better procurement processes give you the foundation to take on more jobs and larger and more complex projects. When you have real-time visibility into costs and schedules, you will be more competitive in bidding and more confident in your project execution.

The data and reporting capabilities help you learn from each project to improve estimating and operations on future jobs. Understanding your true material costs on each job and ability to negotiate better pricing based on your volume across jobs makes you a smarter, more efficient contractor.

Many customers find that the professional image of having sophisticated systems helps them win work with larger clients who expect that level of operational sophistication.

The inventory module lets you track general inventory of materials stored in your warehouse as well as materials stored in a warehouse for a specific job. You can see what's in the general stock, what's stored for specific jobs, and all the scheduled inflows and outflows.

Field teams can check inventory from their phones before making trips back to the warehouse. When placing orders, the system can show what's available in stock versus what needs to be ordered from vendors.

When you set up job warehouses, field staff can check what has been delivered to the warehouse for a specific job. This is important for projects where there is not enough space to store materials at the job site and the majority of materials are shipped to the warehouse. When the field crews are ready to receive the materials at the job, they request job-specific inventory via the mobile app and handle such requests as regular orders (tracking received items, etc.).

Here is the full list of inventory management functionality:

• Easy set up of warehouses with associated inventory via a simple file upload
• Transfer inventory between warehouses
• Transfer leftover inventory from a specific job to the warehouse
• Place inventory restocking orders for the warehouse
• Monitor scheduled inventory inflows and outflows
• Have min restocking thresholds for each item with automated notifications when inventory is low for a particular item

Field Materials offers both an iOS and Android app (available in English and Spanish) that allows users to:

• See the jobs they’ve been assigned to
• Submit field requisitions for these jobs to be approved by the designated office staff
• Order items from pre-approved buyouts
• See all orders on their jobs
• Receive orders on site by taking snapshots of packing slips and capturing any delivery issues
• Reserve a PO number to provide to vendors in case of Will Call orders. When the slip is uploaded for such POs, AI will read the slip to itemize the PO for review at the office. This way, when the invoice is sent, you can easily verify what was purchased (cost code can be optionally provided by field staff when reserving a PO).
• See inventory availability in the company warehouse (if activated)
• Respond to an invoice kickback: approve or provide commentary

The app works offline too, which is important on job sites with poor cell coverage. Everything syncs up when they get back online.

We have a dedicated prefab module for this use case. Prefab components (e.g., spools in mechanical trade) are set up at the project level where each component has a dedicated bill of materials. When a PM or field staff need specific prefab components, they request them via the mobile app by selecting specific components set up at the project level. Prefab manager reviews and confirms such orders. Once confirmed, purchasing teams use the bill of materials for the components set up at the project level to order materials from vendors.

Prefab orders have special statuses that make it easy to track their current state:

• Materials requested
• Materials Received
• In Production
• In QA
• Ready for Shipment
• Ship Now
• Scheduled for delivery

As a prefab order goes through these stages, field teams can check on the status without the need to call the office or prefab shop. Whenever the order is fabricated and is ready for shipment, field staff can request their shipment to the job site by setting the status to “Ship now”.

Actual delivery of the prefab order is confirmed via the mobile app with an optional packing slip that could be attached.

The biggest problems we solve are the ones that probably keep you up at night - cost overruns, communication breakdowns, and time wasted on paperwork or data entry. Here's what we typically see:

Your field teams are ordering materials by calling or texting the office, creating delays and potential miscommunication. Delivery slips get lost, so your AP team can't match invoices when they come in weeks later. You find out about budget problems at month-end instead of instantly when it happens. And everyone's spending way too much time on data entry instead of building projects.

We solve this by giving everyone real-time visibility into what's happening. Your project managers can see exactly what's been ordered, received, and invoiced for their jobs. Your field teams can create request materials from the job site. Your accounting team can process invoices quickly because everything's already coded and matched up. And you get alerts when budgets are getting tight, so you can make adjustments before it's too late.

Most construction companies are still doing procurement the same way they did 20 years ago - lots of phone calls, emails, spreadsheets, and manual data entry. You probably have quotes scattered across different people's email inboxes, purchase orders that don't match what actually gets delivered, and invoices that take weeks to process because nobody can find the original paperwork.

Field Materials centralizes everything in one place where your whole team can see it. When a vendor sends you a quote, our AI reads it and extracts all the line items automatically. When you're ready to order, the system creates purchase orders instantly from a quote instead of someone typing everything out by hand. When materials arrive, your field teams can snap a picture of the delivery slip with their phone. AI will read received quantities and field crews can report any issues directly to the vendor.

Field Materials is an AI construction procurement software. The 3 main benefits are:

• Eliminate data entry: your team probably spends a lot of time entering vendor quotes or field requisitions as purchase orders, chasing down packing slips, and entering invoices into your accounting system. We automate 90% of that work. The platform connects directly to your ERP system - Viewpoint Vista, Sage, Viewpoint, Foundation, and others - and handles all common procurement workflows like getting quotes or reconciling invoices. 
• Better cost controls: By centralizing and tracking all expenses and verifying all prices against budgets and buyouts, you typically save 5-10% on material costs just by catching mistakes and preventing budget overruns.
• Real-time visibility: Your field teams can request materials from their phones. Your PMs and field crews get a real-time view into what's been ordered and delivered, and your accounting team can process invoices in minutes instead of hours. There are explicit approval processes that you can set up for POs and invoices. Invoices or receipts can be easily kickbacked to PMs or field staff for review and be approved via a mobile phone.