Buying for the job, not for the guesswork
Purchasing is where quoted margin quietly disappears. The materials get ordered off a memory of what the quote assumed, the price has moved since, and nobody notices until the job is closed. Sign OS raises the order from the job’s own bill of materials and keeps the cost attached to the work it was bought for.
The order comes from the job
A released job knows what it is made of, because the recipe that priced it said so. Sign OS turns that into a materials list with exact quantities where the quote snapshot has them, and drafts a purchase order for whatever you are short — rather than asking somebody to work it out again from the drawing.
Costs land back on the job they belong to, so quoted-versus-actual margin is visible while the work is still in the building instead of a quarter later in an accountant’s report.
- Bill of materials from the job’s own recipe
- Draft PO for the shortfall, not the whole list
- Receive against the order, part deliveries included
- Costs attach to the job, so margin stays live
Let your suppliers do the pricing
Send an RFQ and your suppliers price your materials in their own portal. The answers come back into one comparison, side by side, instead of three PDFs and an email thread you have to read like a puzzle. You are comparing the same list on the same terms, which is the only way a comparison means anything.
For some Australian suppliers the prices come in live from your own trade account, so what you quote on is what you pay — not a list price everyone else gets.
- Supplier RFQs answered in the supplier’s own portal
- Quotes compared side by side on one list
- Live trade pricing from your own account with some suppliers
- Australian supplier catalogues already loaded
Orders that keep the supplier informed
A purchase order carries its own history: what changed on it, when and who did it. When something changes, the supplier is told rather than left to discover it on delivery, and they can see the artwork for what they are making. Outsourced work leaves the building on the same rails as a material order.
- Purchase order history, with every change recorded
- Suppliers notified when the order changes
- Artwork visible to the supplier making it
- Outsourced production tracked like any other order
Priced, ordered and reconciled in one place
Purchase expense categories keep the bookkeeping tidy, and invoices sync two-way with Xero and QuickBooks. Sign OS is built and operated in Australia with GST-aware invoicing end to end, AUD plans from $89 a month, and a free 30-day trial with no card.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does the materials list come from?
- From the recipe that priced the job. Where the quote snapshot holds exact quantities, those are the quantities ordered; where it does not, Sign OS drafts an order for the shortfall and asks you to confirm rather than inventing a number.
- How do supplier RFQs work?
- You send your materials list to suppliers, they price it in their own portal, and the responses come back into a single side-by-side comparison. Nobody has to re-key a quote out of a PDF, and every supplier is answering the same list.
- Do you have Australian supplier prices already loaded?
- Yes — trade catalogues from a number of Australian suppliers ship with Sign OS, and for some you can connect your own trade account so the prices are the ones your shop actually pays rather than a general list price.
- Does it handle outsourced work as well as materials?
- Yes. Work that leaves the building to a trade supplier is tracked on the same purchase order rails as a material order, including the artwork they need and a record of anything that changed after the order went out.