Materials weigh heavily in a construction budget — and that is exactly where overbilling hides: inflated quantities, substituted quality, unverifiable invoices. Here is the purchasing circuit that protects your money, and the PontBat reflex at every step.
General information article: your site's actual needs are defined by your design office and your quote.
From quote to invoice, every dinar spent on materials follows a traceable path. Four stages — and at each one, a proof, not a promise.
The quantities to order come from your quote's bill of quantities: this much cement, this much rebar, this much tiling, for this work package. No inflated 'just in case', no surplus ordered 'for peace of mind' that ends up on someone else's site. The PontBat reflex: every order ties back to a specific line of the quote — anything that doesn't gets justified before, not after.
On the marketplace, prices are public and the same for everyone: you see what your contractor sees. Network discounts, negotiated by the platform thanks to volume, are displayed in black and white — not whispered. The PontBat reflex: before approving any purchase outside the network, compare it to the network's displayed price. Any gap must be explainable.
One: the order is confirmed and the amount secured by the platform — the seller knows they will be paid, you know nothing leaves without proof. Two: the delivery arrives on your site. Three: the delivery note is signed in the app, photos attached — that proof is what triggers the supplier's payment, within 48 hours. Nobody risks their money, and nobody gets paid for thin air.
A materials invoice never floats on its own: it is reconciled with the corresponding site milestone, in your escrow statement. You see which purchase serves which stage, and total purchases read side by side with real progress. An invoice matching no milestone is an invoice with a question to answer before it gets paid.
They are as old as concrete, and they thrive on distance and blind trust. Knowing them is already half of defusing them.
Suppliers on the PontBat network are admitted after the 5-step vetting — official documents, insurance, checked references. And their shops are rated only by real buyers, on real delivered orders: no decorative reviews.
The delivery note is signed in the app, on site, with photos of the goods attached. What gets invoiced is what was delivered and witnessed — it simply becomes impossible to bill for what never arrived.
Ten minutes of rigour at reception are worth weeks of dispute. These four moves — you or your project manager make them at every delivery.
Bags, bars, pallets, boxes: count what comes off the truck and tick it line by line against the delivery note. Any gap gets written on the note immediately — not 'we'll sort it out later'.
Cement class on the bag, stamps on the rebar, reference and calibre on the tile boxes: what is delivered must be exactly what was ordered. Substitution always plays out in this detail.
Torn bags, bent bars, cracked tiles: the photo is taken during unloading, while the goods are still identifiable. Afterwards, it becomes impossible to prove the defect did not come from storage.
Whatever does not match — quantity, reference, condition — gets refused in black and white, with a reservation recorded on the delivery note signed in the app. A written refusal protects you; a verbal arrangement evaporates.
Displayed network prices, payment guaranteed in 3 steps, delivery note signed in the app, invoice reconciled with the milestone: everything this article describes is already built into the platform.