Construction Inventory App for Subcontractors

For subcontractors in the construction industry who want to invest in an inventory management system, there are two main software options:

1. Inventory Management Software: Software built specifically and solely for facilitating inventory management. 

2. Construction Management Software with Built-In Inventory Management: Holistic construction management software that has features for inventory management in addition to the other tools subcontractors need (e.g. work orders, project management, time tracking, CRM, etc.).

While both software solutions can help you with inventory management, the first option (inventory-only software) comes with distinct disadvantages when compared to holistic construction management software. 

Specifically, inventory-only software often will not integrate with the other tools you use to run your business, such as your pricebook, project management, and billing systems. As a result, someone on staff needs to update each of the systems individually to keep project information up to date — a process that is both time-consuming and error-prone.

Furthermore, when project data is separated into different platforms and needs to be manually updated, executives and project managers lack an accurate, real-time picture of crucial project and financial data.

To address these and other issues, ServiceTitan’s construction management software and mobile inventory app offer inventory management that is seamlessly integrated with the other tools needed for construction projects. This helps contractors to streamline their operations and maximize profits. 

In this post, we’ll walk through how our inventory management features work, and how they connect to the other workflows of construction project management in ServiceTitan. 

ServiceTitan’s Construction Inventory Management Software

ServiceTitan’s cloud-based construction management platform provides robust inventory tracking capabilities, enabling you to easily view and track purchase orders, adjustments, transfers, item quantities, requisitions, replenishment, warranties, and more. 

Pricebook items that business owners and managers activate as inventory items are automatically tracked on our platform. 

We’ll break down how inventory is managed from our desktop platform. Then, we’ll walk through the features of our inventory app which streamlines workflows with mobile barcode scanning.

Item Overview: Easily View and Drill Down Into Inventory Details by Item

In the Item Overview section, users can get a 10,000-foot and granular view of their inventory from one place. They can see high-level metrics such as:

• Inventory valuation

• Total negative items

• Total items

They can also see a comprehensive view of their equipment and materials, including:

• Item name

• Item code

• Item description

• Inventory type

• Inventory tags

• Total quantity (available, on hold, on order, on hand) 

• Average cost per unit

• Total value 

In addition, contractors can easily drill down into individual inventory items for specific details. For example, they can see each job where that item has been used, how many times it’s been used overall, and more.  

Inventory Templates: Standardize and Automate the Allocation of Construction Materials and Equipment to Specific Locations

Once inventory items have been enabled in their pricebook, contractors can use inventory templates to define the expected equipment and material items that should be in stock at given locations (e.g. job site, office, storage, company truck, etc.). This includes setting minimum and maximum quantities for each item.

This feature is particularly useful for subcontractors who do a lot of commercial work — reducing the inefficiencies and confusion that often come with handling a diverse array of equipment and materials.

Create and Manage Purchase Orders with Ease

Any time replenishment from a vendor is initiated, an appointed person will receive a notification to create a purchase order for that request. (Users can generate a purchase order only, or create and send the purchase order at the same time.)

In cases where multiple inventory items need to be resupplied simultaneously, users can easily do that, too.   

Purchase orders can be sent as a PDF, CSV file, or both. Many of our contractors like to use the “Mark as Sent” field when they’ve ordered items outside of the ServiceTitan platform. For example, by calling a vendor or entering an order on a vendor’s website.   

Optimize Purchase Orders Further with Procure-to-Pay 

With our Procure-to-Pay upgrade, companies can choose to have ServiceTitan auto-send purchase orders to suppliers. This eliminates the need to create a separate PO, allowing contractors to save time and further streamline their purchase order process. 

Procure-to-Pay also provides automated, real-time updates to the cost and availability of pricebook items.

Efficiently Track Purchase Orders

ServiceTitan inventory provides at-a-glance statuses of all purchase orders, including whether it’s pending, sent, partially received, received in full, or canceled. 

In addition, our Aging column displays when each purchase order was sent. This makes it easy to identify delays and follow up with the relevant warehouse or vendor to see what’s behind these issues.

Pending purchase orders can be edited easily. If a project manager wants to change the source of one or more items, push out or bump up a “Required By” date, or send supplies to a different location where they’re more urgently needed, these adjustments can be made easily.  

Track and Manage Vendor Billing and Invoicing

Our Receive Shipment feature allows contractors to attach tickets and receipts to their purchase order paperwork. These become automatically available to the accounting team, so there’s no risk of misplacing or missing crucial documentation during a busy workday. (Read more on our QuickBooks accounting software integration.)

Furthermore, ServiceTitan automatically stores data and documents associated with every purchase order on the same platform. Since this storage is centralized in the cloud, office staff never have to chase after misfiled or lost documents. 

ServiceTitan users can update invoices by adding purchase order items directly to the invoices. There’s no need to worry about whether the supplies will be billed to the right client. By cutting out steps between invoicing and billing, this feature can help business owners drastically improve their efficiency while giving them peace of mind. 

It also provides a significant advantage when the scope of work expands throughout a construction project, requiring different inventory items and/or greater quantities than were originally estimated. 

For clients who have highly specific approval, billing, and payment protocols, contractors can create these relevant documents manually, using templates that are already part of their process.

To further improve workflow efficiency, our Update Pricebook function automatically updates user pricebooks with any price changes that come up during a job, ensuring their pricebook  remains accurate.     

Invoices received from vendors are automatically mirrored in bills generated within ServiceTitan. Contractors and/or their employees can pay them directly from the Accounts Payable section. Our software ensures that the proper vendors receive checks in the correct amounts.

Easily Manage Returns and Adjustments (with Fewer Mistakes)   

To manage item returns, ServiceTitan users can view a separate Credits section that displays every return that’s in process, allowing construction companies to efficiently track what they’re owed and protect their bottom line. 

Our platform also makes it simple to correct discrepancies between inventory items that are actually on hand versus what’s reflected in the system.

ServiceTitan Adjustments allows subscribers to easily tweak serial numbers, quantities, item types and locations, and more. These can be done by line item or using a spreadsheet template across multiple items and fields to automatically transfer changes across the board to an inventory count. 

Our users have found that this provides vastly greater efficiency because these adjustments would otherwise require spending many hours editing individual line items. 

Additionally, we offer an Inventory Counts feature, which provides a range of highly specific inventory verification counts:

• Cycle Count: Suggested for trucks with customizable inventory templates, as noted above.

• Item Count: Best for confirming stock-level quantities of a single item across storage locations. 

• Full Inventory Count: Preferred for periodic inventory level counts of the warehouse.

These capabilities further enable contractors and warehouse management to spend their time and energy in other ways, allowing them to minimize overhead costs, and reduce the labor hours of doing all of this manually.

Use Barcode Scanning with ServiceTitan’s Inventory Mobile App (Available on the App Store and Google Play)

Available for download on the App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android), the ServiceTitan Inventory App integrates with the ServiceTitan Inventory Module to enable mobile barcode scanning that streamlines workflows like receiving purchase orders, transferring items between locations, or performing inventory counts. 

By digitizing traditional inventory processes, companies can ensure that each action is recorded with precision, reducing the likelihood of errors that can arise from manual entry. Furthermore, teams can benefit from real-time updates that are viewable from the office, field, or warehouse. 

With the ServiceTitan Inventory App, businesses can maintain accurate inventory records effortlessly, leading to better financial accuracy and freeing up resources for other priorities.

Other Key Features for Construction Project Management

So far, we’ve focused on the inventory-specific features that construction companies can benefit from in ServiceTitan. However, as we described earlier, the value of investing in a holistic construction management platform lies in the integrated and comprehensive set of tools that help subcontractors run their operations more broadly.

In this section, we’ll cover a few more features that help contractors manage their operations.

Project Dashboard: Manage Projects from One Place

In ServiceTitan, all construction projects are managed from the project overview dashboard. 

This page allows you to: 

1. View all of the basic project information (project name, contact information, customer phone number, etc.).

2. View and log tasks for the project. 

3. Access project financials including project job costing and expense details that update automatically throughout a project.

4. Initiate key actions such as generating an estimate, purchase order, application for payment, invoice, and more.

5. View team members involved in the project.

6. Access an audit trail including events, notes, and project documentation.

Project Financials: Automate Job Costing

As you move throughout a job — creating purchase orders, logging labor hours at the construction site, processing change orders, receiving progress payments, and so on — ServiceTitan automates your financial data collection and KPI calculations.

So, instead of constantly needing to update a series of spreadsheets every time labor costs and material costs are incurred, this is done automatically for you in real time, based on work that’s completed on-site and entered into the system. 

Furthermore, you can view a detailed breakdown of your actual costs versus your budgeted costs. This will automatically update as you accumulate expenses from materials, equipment, and labor hours. It will display your margins in dollar and percent form to help you track your job costs and profitability throughout your project. 

You can also access a table breaking down your expenses in further detail:

You can click on any line item and see the exact source of where that expense came from (e.g., which technician logged those hours, or which purchase orders and vendors a set of materials came from). This allows you to easily check your numbers and feel confident in the sources of your data.

Want a Personalized Walk-Through of Our Construction Inventory Software?

While standalone inventory solutions can solve the challenges of inventory management, they put contractors on the hook for additional products to address the other basic needs of construction businesses. Inevitably, these add-ons involve additional fees and often do not work well together.

Using advanced construction management software such as ServiceTitan enables contractors to reduce errors and optimize their inventory and business processes, leading to enhanced profitability.

If you’d like to find out more about how ServiceTitan’s all-in-one contractor software can help you streamline your electrical business, book a free, personalized demo.