One Man Orders, and He Orders Off the Takeoff

The problem in one breath

You've got a takeoff that says exactly what that roof needs, down to the foot. What actually got ordered was a phone call somebody made from a truck at a red light. The confirmation came back that afternoon by email, nobody opened it, and you find out on tear-off morning.

Why it happens

Placing an order feels like a two-minute job, so it gets done in two minutes, standing up, out of somebody's head. Then the branch emails back what it heard, and that email lands in an inbox with forty other things in it. Reading it is nobody's job. A confirmation nobody opens is a receipt for a mistake you haven't found yet.

The play

Write the material order on one page, place it once, and read the answer.

1. One name places the job order, once, off the takeoff. Not the salesman on Monday and the office on Tuesday. This doesn't touch the calls your foreman already makes once the roof is open — how much more to order, the small swap. Those stay where they already are, on your authority sheet (Module 1, Play 5) and on the undo-it-cheap sort (Module 5, Play 5). The authority sheet is where you write down who may buy what: add the ordering line there, and don't start a second list.
2. The order is a copy of the takeoff, not a new list of numbers. The takeoff sheet already did the counting and already prints the lines you order against (Module 10, Play 1). Carry them across as they stand. If a quantity turns out wrong, it gets fixed on the takeoff and the order is rewritten off it — never patched on the order alone. Two sets of numbers on two pieces of paper is how a job gets ordered twice and delivered once.
3. Put all of it on the page. Job and address. The product word for word off the page she signed (Module 6, Play 18), and the color off her signed selection. Quantity, line by line. The price you were quoted on each line. The delivery day, the window, and the drop spot. Your job number. The name that placed it, and the day he placed it.
4. The confirmation is the play. One name reads it — the same man who placed it, or your office manager, but written down. He sits with the confirmation and the takeoff side by side and reads it line against line before the truck ever loads: quantity, product, color, price, date. Ten minutes. Nothing else you do all month is that cheap. Caught Tuesday, a wrong color is a phone call; missed, it's a tear-off you do over on Thursday. Later it shows up as one clean tick on the roll list (Module 14, Play 2), where somebody checks the afternoon before that the material is actually there.
5. Extra work somebody else pays for is a signed change order first and an order second. Not the bundles your foreman calls for when the waste runs heavy — that's still his call, step 1. This is scope nobody priced: the rot, the second layer, the sheets nobody could see from the ground. That page gets signed at the price you set before the season (Module 6, Play 17), and only then does anybody call the branch. On a storm job that extra goes to the carrier as a supplement first, and only becomes a page she signs if the answer comes back no — step 7 of that play has the order of it.
6. File the order and the confirmation in the job folder together. When the load lands, the man counting it counts against that page, and when the invoice shows up it gets held against the same page (Play 6). Months later that folder is what you close the material line out of (Play 2).

Do this this week

Pull up the last order confirmation and read it line by line against that job's takeoff. Ten minutes. If it landed in your office manager's inbox, text her tonight to forward it. Whatever you find on one is riding on every job you've got out right now.

The tool

One page per job, filled in once, printed or saved into the job folder. The top block is the order you place; the bottom block is what you tick off when the branch answers. Anything on the confirmation that doesn't match the takeoff gets circled and called in that day, while it's still a phone call — not written on a sticky note for later. The page stays in the folder after the job rolls.

THE MATERIAL ORDER — one page, off the takeoff, one name on it

Job / address: __________________________  Job number: __________
Placed by: ______________  Date: ________  Branch: ____________
Delivery day: __________  Window: __________  Drop spot: _______

WHAT WE ORDERED - copied off the takeoff, line by line
  Line / product         Color / spec       Qty       Price
  1 ___________________  ______________  _______  ________
  2 ___________________  ______________  _______  ________
  3 ___________________  ______________  _______  ________
  4 ___________________  ______________  _______  ________
  5 ___________________  ______________  _______  ________
  6 ___________________  ______________  _______  ________
  7 ___________________  ______________  _______  ________
  8 ___________________  ______________  _______  ________

  Product read word for word off her signed page [ ]
  Color off her signed selection [ ]

THE CONFIRMATION - read it against the takeoff before it loads
  Came back on: ________  Read by: ____________  Time: ______
  [ ] Quantity matches, line by line
  [ ] Product matches the signed page
  [ ] Color matches what she picked
  [ ] Price matches what we were quoted
  [ ] Delivery day, window and drop spot match
  [ ] Job number on it

  Anything off? What: ____________________________________
  Called in: ______  Who I spoke to: ____________________
  Fixed confirmation back on: ______  Checked again [ ]

NOTHING GOES IN THE FOLDER UNTIL THE CONFIRMATION IS READ.

If your crew is 1099

Who buys what on a sub job is already settled on the job ticket, line by line, before his men touch the roof (Module 12, Play 2). Read that split before you write the order, and order only your own side of it. Ordering material his company already priced into its number is how you pay for the same bundles twice.