It is 6:00 AM on a Tuesday, and you just realized three rolls of copper wire are missing from the staging area. You check the delivery ticket from yesterday, but it’s covered in coffee stains and scribbled notes. By the time you call the supplier, they tell you prices went up 15% overnight due to 2026 tariff shifts and market volatility.
Proper inventory tracking is essential for effective purchasing management. Without a system for material price tracking, you’ll be significantly more susceptible to the impact of the price storm.
Why This Hurts Your Bottom Line
In 2026, material price swings make it harder than ever to protect your project margins. When you lose a part or a tool on the jobsite, you aren’t just losing the item—you are also losing the ability to replace it at the old price.
The primary obstacle to efficiency is manual data entry. Spreadsheets and clipboards are too slow to keep up with how fast materials move and prices change. Every hour your team spends chasing a missing delivery is an hour they aren’t finishing the job.
Two Ways to Protect Your Inventory Today
You don’t need a high-tech overhaul to start saving money right now. Try these manual steps to get a handle on your parts and materials:
- Designate a Receiving Zone: Stop letting deliveries drop anywhere on the site. Create one specific spot where every delivery must be checked against the PO before it moves.
- The “End-of-Day” Count: Have your foremen do a quick five-minute count of high-value items like copper or specialized fittings before they leave for the day. Writing these numbers on a whiteboard in the trailer helps build a culture of accountability.
How Barcode Scanning Changes the Game
Manual logs “work,” but they are a pain to maintain and they don’t talk to the office. This is where barcode scanning changes the narrative into a process that works effortlessly.
By using barcode and QR scanning for PO receipts, your team can track locations and inventory counts in seconds. You simply scan the part the moment it hits the job site, and the data is captured exactly where and when it happens. This eliminates the paper-to-office lag that causes so many headaches for the accounting team.
The Real-Time Vista Extension
The best part is that this material price tracking system is it is a real-time extension of your Viewpoint environment. It does not require a delayed synchronization process; it updates your office instantly.
When you scan a receipt in the field, it charges that item directly to the job and Phase Code or Work Order. This eliminates the typical lag in job costing, giving your project managers a clear view of their budget in real time.
This technology helps you deal with the expected high material costs in 2026 before they become a problem. It gives you a full and clear understanding of how costs will be affected and the tools to change your plan before things go wrong. This turns a big problem into a situation you can handle. This way, you can keep your profits up, stick to your project budgets, and stay ahead of the competition.
