What is untracked material costing you?
Four questions about your shop. You get an annual number for material that walks off, the mornings lost to emergency supply runs, and the material you used but never billed. No signup to see it. Every assumption is a slider you can argue with.
Want this breakdown in your inbox?
One email with your numbers and the assumptions behind them, from Rob at Sway. No list, no sequence.
Every trial includes a 30-minute setup call. Catalog imported, labels printed, first real checkout done together.
Three leaks, counted separately.
None of this is waste. Cut-offs and overage are the cost of doing the work. This is material you paid for that never earned anything back.
- Material never attributed to a job. Your monthly spend, times twelve, times a percentage that depends on how you track today. With no tracking we start at six percent; a whiteboard and texts, four and a half; a spreadsheet, three; an app crews actually use, one and a half. Consumable-heavy trades (painting, electrical) run a little higher, HVAC a little lower, because of what fits in a pocket. The range shown is 40 percent either side of that, which is about how far shops land from our default once they measure it.
- Used on a job, never billed. Only counted if you bill materials to clients. A tech grabs a fitting on a service call, the ticket never shows it. The same tracking method sets the rate: three percent with no system, down to a quarter percent with crew checkout, because the checkout is the record the invoice gets built from.
- Emergency supply runs. Runs per week, times hours door to door, times what a field hour actually costs you loaded, times fifty weeks. Plus the retail premium and the fuel. We start at one run per crew per week. You know your real number; move the slider.
What is not here: the job you underbid because last time's material cost was a guess, the customer who disputed an invoice with no backup, the tool that walked. Those are real and they are bigger, and nobody can estimate them from four inputs.
About the estimate.
Where do the shrinkage percentages come from?
They are working assumptions from the shops we talk to, not a published study: material that gets bought but never lands on a job runs a few percent of spend when nobody tracks it and drops below two percent once crews check material out to a job. Every percentage on this page is a slider, so put in your own number if you know it.
Does this estimate include waste and overage?
No. Cut-offs, spills and normal overage are a cost of doing the work. This estimate only counts material you paid for that never got attributed to a job: walked off, double-bought, sat in a van until it was junk, or got used and never billed.
Do I have to give you my email to see the number?
No. The estimate runs in your browser and updates as you type. The email form is only there if you want the breakdown sent to you, and it goes to Rob at Sway Integrations, not a mailing list.