For building materials distributors
A short season to get right, and a winter to carry what’s left
Lumber, panels, drywall, insulation and fasteners: much of the year’s sales come in a few warm months, and prices move with the market. Datazimuts reads your ERP’s exports, cleans the item data first, and tells your buyers every morning what to order from each supplier, with the reason behind every quantity.
What goes wrong
Where the buying goes wrong
Short in May
Spring arrives, every contractor starts at once, and the yard runs out of the common sizes while the suppliers’ lead times stretch.
Carried through the winter
What was bought for a season that ended early sits in the yard until spring, and the cash with it.
Lumber prices move
Lumber and panel prices can swing a lot in a few weeks. Buying ahead pays only when the stock sells soon after the increase.
What Datazimuts does
A plan every morning, and nothing sent without a yes
The order plan, supplier by supplier
Every morning, what to order from each supplier, rounded to their packs and minimums, with the reason behind every quantity.
The item doctor first
Unit and price-unit errors, duplicates and phantom stock are found before any forecast. An item with a problem gets no order line until a person confirms the fix.
A free health check, in ranges
Dead, excess and returnable stock, rebates within reach and stock to verify, each as a low and a likely figure with its evidence. Never a promise.
Supplier invoices, read and matched
Forward invoices to your own address. Each one is matched to its PO and receipt; a price or quantity that differs is held with its reason and dollars.
Alerts in plain words
Write the rule the way you would say it. You see it as understood, tried on today’s data, before it starts.
Drafts in your ERP, after a yes
Nothing reaches a supplier on its own. A buyer approves, then the POs land in your ERP as drafts, or as files you import yourself.
What moves the numbers
What moves your demand and your costs
Construction starts
New homes and commercial jobs pull rough-in material in waves, months after the permit. The forecast learns each branch’s waves from its own sales, as a range rather than one number.
Lumber and panels
Lumber and panel prices can swing a lot in a few weeks. An announced change goes in once, and the next plan reads it.
Steel
Steel sets the price of fasteners, pipe, strut, studs and much of what is made from it. An announced increase goes in once, and the next plan reads it.
Renovation and service work
Repairs and renovations keep a steady base under the season, spread over many small orders. Each line’s likely demand comes with its range.
Quebec’s construction holiday
Two weeks in late July when most job sites stop. Your past summers show the dip, and the forecast starts from them, branch by branch.
Heating and cooling degree-days
A cold snap or a heat wave moves furnace parts, circulators, condensers and refrigerant within days. The forecast starts from each branch’s own past seasons and plans to a range, so a normal swing is covered.
A typical year
Strong from April to October, with a dip during Quebec’s construction holiday in late July, and quiet in the coldest months.
The item doctor
Unit traps caught before any order
An item with an unresolved unit problem gets no order line and no dollar figure until a person confirms the fix.
Lumber per thousand board feet
Lumber priced per thousand board feet (M) but sold by the piece: read as a price per piece, it looks a thousand times too dear.
Sheets by the bundle
Drywall, plywood and OSB bought by the bundle or the lift and sold by the sheet.
Fasteners by the box
A box of 1,000 nails or screws invoiced as one unit, so the history says one when a thousand left.
Same product, two names
The same panel entered once in French and once in English, or under two supplier numbers: history split in two, and both reordered.
Buying ahead
Should you buy ahead of an increase?
Buying before an increase saves on every unit, and costs money to hold until it sells. Move the sliders on a made-up example to see where it stops paying.
Illustration · made-up figures
Buy ahead of an announced price change?
Lumber and panels: about $20,000 bought a week.
+$2.4k–2.5k
Worth a look: even the low figure comes out ahead.
Your ERP
Reads the ERP you already run
Eight ERPs have a ready mapping, and any other can send CSV or Excel exports. Each export guide names the five lists to send and where to find them.
- Common in this trade
- Also read
Free health check
Get your free health check
Tell us who you are and which ERP you run; your trade is already chosen. We write back with the export guide for your ERP and the next steps.