For electrical distributors
Wire, conduit and breakers on the shelf when the job needs them
Wire bought by the reel and sold by the foot, prices that follow copper, and contractors who order a whole job at once. 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
One job empties the bin
A contractor’s job takes every reel of 12-gauge in the branch, and the regular customers find the bin empty the next morning.
Stock that stops matching the shelf
Partial reels, cut-offs and slow fixtures pile up, and what the ERP shows drifts from what is really there.
Copper sets the price of wire
Wire and cable follow copper. Suppliers pass increases on quickly, and buying a few weeks ahead is worth it only when the stock moves soon after.
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
Copper
Copper moves the price of wire, pipe, fittings and motors, and suppliers pass it on with a few weeks’ notice. Enter an announced increase once: the next plan reads it, and each line it touches says so.
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.
Contractor jobs
A won job can take a month of stock in one order. The forecast sets one-off project orders apart, so one job does not raise every order after it.
Resin
PVC, PEX and ABS pipe and plastic conduit follow resin prices. An announced increase goes in once, and the next plan reads it.
The exchange rate
Goods bought in US dollars cost more when the Canadian dollar weakens. Orders keep their currency, approval limits count US-dollar orders at your rate, and an expected change of rate goes in as an event.
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.
A typical year
Follows construction: busier from spring to fall, slower in the coldest weeks and during Quebec’s construction holiday in late July. Big jobs make any week lumpy.
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.
Wire by the reel, sold by the foot
Building wire bought by the 1,000-ft or 500-ft reel and sold by the foot: one reel read as one foot is a thousandfold error, and the doctor stops it before any order.
Metres here, feet there
One branch sells cable by the metre, another by the foot: the doctor finds the 3.28 between them before the forecast adds them up.
Connectors priced per 100
Wire nuts, connectors and fasteners priced per 100 or per 1,000 but counted by the piece.
Conduit by the length
Conduit bought by the 10-ft length and sold by the foot in one branch, by the length in another.
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?
Building wire: about $12,000 bought a week.
+$2.8k–2.9k
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
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.