Construction site supplies: ordering parts for each job
Atta orders parts and supplies for the site that needs them and delivers there. It keeps count of stock in the yard, store room and vans, moves it by transfer, and plans delivery runs in driving order. A foreman asks in chat, and the approval rules decide whether it goes through or goes up.
Ordering for a site
A destination is where stock ends up, and a job site is one. A site has an address, and the order ships there.
Ruben (foreman, Elm Street job): need 40 more anchor bolts and two boxes of construction screws at Elm Street tomorrow
Atta: The yard has 120 anchor bolts. A transfer of 40 from the yard to Elm Street covers those, so there's nothing to buy. Screws: the yard has 1 box. Two boxes are $54 each, $108, arriving tomorrow morning to Elm Street. Order them?
Ruben: yes
Atta: Ordered. $108 committed against the Elm Street job budget.
Atta checks stock first through the read-only checkStock tool. The transfer to the site needs someone with the inventory capability to dispatch it.
From the yard to the sites
Stock moves between places only through documents. An outbound takes stock from a location to a destination, a transfer takes it between locations, and an inbound brings it in from a supplier. A van is a location too, so what's loaded on it stays on hand.
A delivery run is one depot and the committed outbounds it drops. Take a run from the yard with six stops. Dispatch ships all six at once. Each stop is delivered as the van gets there. A stop has to be picked at the depot and have a placed destination before it can go on the run.
The stop order is nearest neighbour then 2-opt, in straight-line kilometres, not drive time. A promise date flags late deliveries.
Approvals for site spend
A foreman's role has a limit it may approve alone. Over it, the request goes to a project manager, then finance for larger amounts. The chain is built from the amount and the workspace's rules, and nothing is paid until the last step is answered.
Give each job its own budget through a project. It shows spent, chosen and left, and the agent says when something would go over. The budget is a plan. The approval policy and the team's budget decide what's actually allowed.
Paying
With a card program on, each order has its own card capped at the approved total, good for one payment. A charge above the cap is declined. If it's off, Atta hands over the checkout link.
Suppliers
Each supplier has a catalog with price, minimum order and lead time. Suppliers are scored on when things arrived against what they promised, but planning still uses their quoted lead times.
Where it fits
A contractor with a yard or two, a few vans and several live jobs that draw on the same stock. See multi-site inventory for the stock side.
Atta is in invite-only beta and free during the beta.
Questions
Can Atta deliver to a job site instead of the office?
Yes. A site is a destination with an address, and outbounds and orders can go there. Deliveries on a run are marked off stop by stop.
Does it check what's in the yard before buying?
The agent can read stock with its check-stock tool and propose a transfer instead of a purchase. A person with the inventory capability dispatches the transfer.
Can each job have its own budget?
Yes. A project carries a budget, a shortlist and its orders, and the figures show what's spent, chosen and left.
How does a foreman get approval for a big order?
The amount builds an approval chain from your rules, one approver at a time. The order is placed only after the last step is answered.
Related
- Multi-site inventory: warehouses, sites and delivery runsTrack stock in every warehouse, store room and van. Low stock opens a transfer or restock request, and a delivery run puts the day's stops in driving order.
- Project budgets for purchases: moves, fit-outs and eventsGive a move, fit-out or event its own budget in Atta. Shortlist items, compare them side by side, and watch spent, chosen and left. Approvals stay the same.
- Purchase approval softwareSet approval limits per role and build approval chains by amount. Approvers answer from Slack, WhatsApp or the app, and nothing is paid until the last step clears.
- AI inventory management that ends in a purchase requestAtta keeps stock as a ledger, forecasts when each item runs out from measured usage and quoted lead times, and opens a restock request instead of ordering.