On most construction projects, 40 to 50% of total cost is materials and subcontracts. Yet procurement is often the least-systematized part of the business, run on phone calls, texts, and the vendor someone used last time. That gap is exactly where margin leaks out, and where a little discipline pays back fast.
Below are seven practices we see the strongest contractors use to keep control of their spend, drawn from more than a billion dollars of procurement run through QuoteToMe.
1. Quote competitively on every order that matters
The single biggest lever is also the simplest: get more than one quote. Across our customer base, the highest vendor quote on an order averages 3.2 times the lowest. Defaulting to the usual supplier feels efficient, but it quietly leaves thousands on the table per order.
High bids run at 3.2× the low. Competitive quoting turns that gap into margin.
2. Standardize the request, not just the relationship
A good RFQ spells out quantities, specs, delivery dates, and terms so every vendor bids on the same scope. When requests are consistent, quotes are comparable, and leveling them takes minutes instead of an afternoon of spreadsheet gymnastics.
3. Enforce the rates you already negotiated
Master agreements only save money if they’re honored on every line. Rate enforcement, checking each order against agreed pricing, catches the slow creep of “market adjustments” before they reach the invoice.
4. Approve before you commit, not after
Pre-commit approvals put a checkpoint in front of spend, while it can still be changed. The alternative, finding out at invoice time, means the money is already gone and the only question is who absorbs it.
- check_circleSet approval thresholds by role and dollar amount
- check_circleRoute the right orders to the right approver automatically
- check_circleKeep an audit trail of who approved what, and when
5. Confirm delivery in the field
Receiving is where paperwork meets reality. Confirming what actually arrived, on site, the day it lands, closes the gap between ordered and received before it becomes an invoice dispute three weeks later.
6. Match four ways before you pay
A true four-way match reconciles the Quote, Purchase Order, Delivery Confirmation, and Invoice before anything is approved for payment. It is the difference between paying for what you received and paying for what someone billed.
7. Make the data flow to your books automatically
Every order should land in your accounting or ERP system already job-coded, so committed cost is current before the invoice arrives. Manual re-entry is slow, error-prone, and the reason month-end always feels like detective work.
None of these practices require a bigger team. They require a system that makes the disciplined thing the easy thing, so quoting, approving, receiving, and matching happen by default on every order.