In this guide 6 sections
A single ledger per contractor shows one total, so nobody can say which site owes it, and disputes follow when a site closes or changes hands. Tag every bill, receipt and return with a site, then keep a ledger per contractor and a statement per site, so the closed sites stay visible.
A single total tells you nothing about the site
A mason contractor runs four sites with your yard, and his ledger shows one outstanding figure that is large enough to worry about. He buys cement and TMT bar every week. Nobody chases. Nobody asks.
Ask the credit controller which site owes it. The answer is a guess. A poor one.
Bills carry the contractor’s name and nothing else. The builder, the site engineer and the contractor each hold a different version of what was supplied, in which month, and at what rate. When statements go out, the contractor pays what he thinks fair, usually the latest bills, because those are the ones he remembers.
How a dispute begins when a site closes
Site two finishes. The building owner signs off and settles with the contractor, who stops ordering for it, while a few old bills for that site stay unpaid on your ledger.
Months later he pays against the oldest bills, and those belong to a site that is still running, so the closed site’s dues sit untouched. They age quietly. The same thing happens when a builder replaces a contractor after a complaint, and your yard is left holding bills for plastering, flooring and bar bending supplied weeks earlier.
He says the closed site was paid. You say it was not. Both claims stand. Without a site on each document, you are each right in your own records, and neither can show the builder which site the money belonged to.
- Receipts adjusted to the oldest bill by default
- Returns credited to the contractor, not the site
- Site handed to a new contractor mid job
- Bills raised on a site engineer’s phone call
What changes hands and what stays behind
Sometimes a site moves to a new contractor halfway through, and the builder asks you to continue supply under the new name. Those dues do not vanish with the handover.
You need them visible as a site balance. Then you can collect from the old contractor, transfer with written consent from both, or hold supply until the builder gives an undertaking to pay.
A ledger by contractor alone supports none of those choices, because it only says that money is owed and never says which site’s work it pays for.
Tag the bill, the receipt and the return
Make site a required field on a delivery note, an invoice, a credit note and a receipt, and keep a site master holding contractor, builder, address and status. Status reads running, paused, closed or handed over.
Receipts carry a site too. If a contractor hands over one cheque for three sites, split it line by line on the receipt screen so each site balance falls by its own share. Returns follow the delivery. A bar bending return belongs to its pour, not to the contractor at large, and the credit note should name the pour and the engineer who signed for it.
The contractor’s ledger is now the sum of its sites, and each site carries its own statement, ageing and credit limit that the controller reads at a glance. A closed site stops accepting new bills.
- Site master with status and handover date
- Site credit limit beneath the contractor limit
- Receipt split across sites
- Return linked to the original site bill
Settle an argument with a site statement
When a dispute comes, print the site statement. It lists each delivery note, invoice, return and receipt with its date, so the contractor can tick every line against his own site register in one sitting.
Send site statements monthly. Disagreements then surface early, while memory is fresh, the foreman is reachable and the signed delivery slips are still in the drawer.
Your first step is simple. List your five largest contractors, write down their live sites, and check whether the billing system can show a separate balance for each of them.
Contractor site balance statement
A statement template, one contractor per page. Each site gets its own block under the names of contractor and builder, with columns for date, document type, document number, debit, credit and running balance. A status tag sits at the end of each block, followed by a signature box for the contractor’s representative, who ticks every line against his own site register.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Should credit limits be set per site or per contractor?
Both. A contractor limit caps total exposure, and a site limit stops one large project from consuming the whole line while smaller sites wait for stock.
How do we handle old bills with no site recorded?
Ask the contractor to confirm the site for each open bill, then tag them all in one pass, and do this before the first site statement goes out. Otherwise the statement starts an argument.
Can a receipt cover several sites at once?
Yes. Split the amount across sites on the receipt, with a note for each line, so every site balance falls by the right amount. Never leave it as one lump.
Who owns the dues when a site changes hands?
That depends on what was agreed in writing, so keep the old balance visible as its own line and settle it before supply continues under the new name.