Van inventory: stop losing parts (and margins)

Ask any contractor what the stock in their vans is worth: the honest answer is "no idea." And the question that hurts more: how many parts installed last month were never billed?

The silent leak

The classic scenario: the technician installs an $85 check valve from the van, notes it "on a paper," the day overflows, the invoice goes out without the part. Nobody sees it — there's no visible discrepancy anywhere. At 3 or 4 misses a week across a team, that's $10,000 to $15,000 a year, plus the stock replacement cost.

The minimal system that works

• One inventory per van, not a grand total: each vehicle has its list and quantities.
• Consumption at install time: the technician scans or taps the part onto the work ticket, on their phone, in 10 seconds. Not in the evening, not on Friday.
• The part follows the ticket to the invoice: what's consumed on a job automatically appears as an invoice line, at sale price — forgetting becomes structurally impossible.
• Reorder thresholds: below minimum, the part joins the order list. The van no longer leaves on Monday missing essentials.

The virtuous side effect

Once consumption is tracked, you discover your true material cost per job type — and your quotes get sharper. In MainteQC, per-van inventory, consumption from the technician app and automatic carry-through to invoice lines are built into the workflow. See the features page.