Receiving.
Parts come in, get priced, get binned. The shelf knows what arrived and where it went — not a packing slip in a pile.
Inventory
Plumbing inventory software that follows the part.
Shelf to van to job to invoice — every movement on one card. This isn't an inventory tab; it's an inventory system that knows where the part went and makes sure it gets billed.
The card
Every item: quantity, bin, photo, companions.
Shop stock and van stock live on the same card — how many, which bin, what it looks like. Associated items remember what always goes with a part: a T fitting already knows it needs three rings, so the ticket stops forgetting the small stuff.
Set the companions once, quantity included. When the part goes on a job, the companions are ready — rings, inserts, the pieces that used to come off the total.
A stock card with sample items. Not a live catalog.
The movements
Stock moves. The record keeps up.
Restock.
Vans restock from the shelf on the same record — what left the shop for which truck, so the van's count stays honest.
Field buys.
The tech grabs a part at the supply house and logs it on the job — the buy, the cost, and the ticket it belongs to.
Van returns.
What comes off the truck comes back into stock — returns close the loop instead of becoming garage inventory.
Showroom.
Fixtures and install prices for the tech on site and the counter — special order when it isn't stocked, and a draft estimate that moves into the field report.
Takeoff linkage.
Link a line on the drawing to a shop item and the count becomes orderable — see the dollars before you buy the list. Takeoff →
The point
Missed items are quiet money.
The valve that went on the job but never made the invoice — every shop has the story, nobody has the number. On one record, the part on the job card is the part on the bill. Materials and labor are already attached when the crew closes the stop, so the billing queue sees the real cost of the work.
That's the whole argument: inventory deep enough that the invoice can't forget what the van already knows.
See your own stock
Bring your worst bin to the walkthrough.
We'll walk a real item through the loop — receiving, a van, a job, an invoice — with your shop's actual parts, not sample SKUs.