Controlling material spend when prices keep moving

Material costs are unusual among the categories on a job because they're driven by a market you don't control, on top of the wastage and over-ordering you do. Both need managing, but they need different responses.

Separate price rises from wastage

If materials cost is rising as a share of a job, the first question is whether the unit price from a supplier has moved, or whether more units are being used than planned. These have different fixes — a price rise might need a new supplier conversation or a pass-through to the client; wastage needs a site-level look at ordering and handling.

Track price per supplier, not just total spend

A supplier whose invoices are quietly climbing 15-20% over a few months, faster than the rest of your suppliers, is worth a direct conversation before it becomes the new normal. Reviewing total spend alone hides this, because a slow creep across many invoices doesn't look like one big increase.

Order against the programme, not against optimism

• Bulk-ordering materials well ahead of when they'll be used increases the risk of damage, theft, and obsolescence if the spec changes.
• Under-ordering causes costly emergency top-up orders at whatever price is available that day, often from whichever supplier can deliver fastest rather than cheapest.
• Matching order timing to the actual programme — not a best-case one — reduces both risks at once.

Reconcile deliveries against invoices

Invoiced quantities that don't match what was actually delivered — short deliveries, substituted products billed at the original price — are one of the most common sources of quiet overspend, and one of the easiest to catch if delivery notes are checked against invoices rather than just paid on trust.