Keeping track of materials and tools across a yard and several sites

Two different things go missing, for two different reasons

Materials disappear into over ordering. Nobody is quite sure what is in the container, so another pallet is ordered to be safe, and the first one is found in October under a tarpaulin. That is not theft, it is not knowing, and it is paid for twice.

Tools disappear into people. A grinder goes out with somebody on Tuesday and there is no record of who, because at the moment it left, writing it down would have taken longer than handing it over. Six weeks later nobody can say whether it was lost, borrowed or is in the back of a van. Both of these are record problems, not honesty problems, and they are fixed in the same place: at the moment the thing moves.

The yard and the site are different places, and the stock moves between them

Most stock software assumes one location, so a firm running stores and three sites ends up with either one list that is true nowhere, or four lists that never agree. Neither survives a busy month.

What works is treating each place as its own count, and treating a delivery to a site as what it actually is: goods leaving one place and arriving at another, recorded once, from a phone, by the person driving the van. The total across the firm stays right because nothing was invented on either side.

A tool is lent, not sold

This is where most stock software fails on a building site. It knows how to take stock away and it does not know how to expect it back, so tools are either booked out as if they were consumed, which makes the numbers nonsense, or not booked out at all, which is what actually happens.

The useful shape is a loan: this went to this person, this many, expected back, and it stays visible as outstanding until it comes in. Nobody has to be accused of anything. The list simply shows what is still out, which is usually enough on its own.

What this does not do

It is worth being clear, because the search results for this are full of software promising the lot.

• It does not do job costing. It will tell you what left the stores and where it went; it will not allocate that against a project budget or a client invoice.
• It does not schedule plant or track certification and inspection dates for equipment.
• It does not hold a serial number register per tool. A tool can carry a barcode or a code you print yourself, which is enough to scan it in and out, but it is not an asset register.
• If what you need is any of those three, this is the wrong tool and no title should suggest otherwise.

Doing it in Invenva

Each stores, yard or site is its own workspace, and stock moves between them as a transfer: one entry, booked from a phone, arriving on the other side at the value it left with. The firm total is the sum of places that are each individually true.

Tools go out as a loan with a name and a date to come back, and stay on the outstanding list until they are returned. Materials go out as an ordinary issue. Both keep who, when and how many, and entries cannot be edited afterwards.

It works with no signal, which on a site is not a nice extra, and syncs when there is one. A foreman can be given the ability to book goods in and out without being able to change prices or delete anything, and every entry keeps their name.

The demo is a stocked workspace with history in it and needs no account.