Customer Story / Construction
Large construction organisation in the UK
Materials ordering and price checks that keep every pound visible, from estimate to invoice
A large construction organisation in the UK spends about two-thirds of each contract's value on materials, yet every material price was set and re-checked by hand at several stages, in separate spreadsheets, months apart. Multibot built an ordering automation that reads supplier documents, tracks every material line from estimate to invoice and flags any difference from the agreed price, so suppliers honour the prices they agreed, together with a price finder agent that compares the organisation's own supplier price lists to find the best buy. Together they save 15% on materials. Both run inside an administration portal where the team reviews, approves and controls every step.
- Every price is tracked across the order lifecycle. Estimate, quote, contract, purchase order, order confirmation and invoice prices sit side by side for each material line, each linked to its source document.
- Invoices are checked automatically. Invoices are matched to the right order and confirmation, including orders billed across several invoices, and any difference from the agreed price is shown in pounds, so suppliers honour the prices they agreed.
- The price finder compares suppliers in about a minute. A list of nearly 500 materials is priced against every loaded supplier price list, with the cheapest option, a single-supplier total and close alternatives.
- People approve every change in the administration portal. Anything the agents are unsure of is held for review, and nothing is written to a project without a person's approval.
15%
Lower material spend from buying at the best available price and holding suppliers to the prices they agreed.
43,000+
Prices from 14 suppliers loaded into one searchable catalogue.
24-27%
Difference between merchants for identical products, found when invoice lines were checked against supplier price lists.
About a minute
To price nearly 500 materials across every loaded supplier, down from about four minutes in the first build.
Included in every solution
Every Multibot solution comes with its own administration portal
The agents do the routine work in the background. The portal is where your team sees every item they handled, reviews the exceptions, approves changes and adjusts settings, with a full history of who did what.
- Live status of every item, from intake to completion
- Exceptions queued for your team's review and approval
- A full history of agent and team actions
- Users, rules and settings managed by your team
Material prices were re-keyed and re-checked by hand at every stage
Materials make up about two-thirds of a contract's value, but no one could see estimate against invoice in one place
Each material price was set four times, months apart, by different people in different spreadsheets: in the estimate taken off the drawings, again when the contract was agreed, again when orders were raised and sent to merchants, and finally when invoices arrived.
Order confirmations were checked by eye and invoices were matched to purchase-order lines by hand, sometimes with one email covering several sites. Small price drift was accepted because there was no easy way to see it, and nobody had a rolled-up view of what was estimated against what was invoiced.
- Estimate, contract, order and invoice prices lived in separate spreadsheets and systems.
- Order confirmations and invoices were checked line by line by hand.
- Identical products could be priced very differently by different merchants.
- There was no single view of estimated cost against invoiced cost per project.
Automation Flow
How ordering and price checks now run
Multibot connects the documents the team already receives to one record per material line, so prices, orders and invoices are compared automatically and only the exceptions reach a person.
Capability Stack
What Multibot built for the construction organisation
Two connected agents, for ordering automation and price finding, working from one record of every material line and the organisation's own supplier data.
Document reading in every format
Spreadsheets, PDFs and saved emails from merchants are read into structured lines, with the source document kept alongside.
Order tracking from quote to invoice
Quantities ordered, confirmed and invoiced are visible for every material line on every project.
Automatic invoice checks
Over- and under-billing is calculated in pounds and can be exported to Excel or CSV for the accounts team.
Price finder agent
Finds the same or an equivalent product across supplier price lists by code and description, and explains why any line could not be priced.
Rule-based pricing
The AI identifies products; prices and account terms are applied by fixed rules, so the agent cannot change what gets priced.
Cross-project dashboard
One view of estimated against ordered and invoiced cost across projects.
Administration Portal
An administration portal where the team stays in control
Both agents run inside an administration portal built for the organisation's purchasing, contracts and accounts team. Each person has their own login, and every action is recorded in a plain-English history that can be exported.
The team manages suppliers, account terms, discount bands and price-list versions, adds new price lists with a guided wizard, and is warned when a price list is out of date. Settings such as users, AI cost limits and price-list freshness are controlled by the organisation.
- Review each document reading beside the original before it is saved.
- Approve price finder results before they reach an estimate, quote or contract.
- Manage suppliers, account terms and price-list versions in one place.
- See who did what in a full history, with undo and redo.
- Control users, AI cost limits and price-list freshness in settings.
Outcomes
What the construction organisation got back
Material costs are now visible from estimate to invoice in one place, the organisation saves 15% on materials, suppliers are held to the prices they agreed, and invoice discrepancies surface automatically instead of relying on line-by-line checks.
Visibility
One record per material line
Estimate, quote, contract, order, confirmation and invoice prices sit together, each linked to its document.
Savings
15% saved on materials
Buying at the best available price and holding suppliers to agreed prices cut material spend.
Speed
Supplier prices compared in about a minute
A list of nearly 500 materials is priced across every loaded supplier price list.
Control
Only exceptions reach people
Uncertain matches and billing differences are held for review in the administration portal.
Build your own procurement workflow
If material prices are still checked by hand at every stage, savings are slipping through.
Multibot can map your estimates, supplier price lists, orders and invoices into ordering and price finder agents, with an administration portal where your team reviews and approves every step.