What to ask a vendor before buying software for a design-build firm

Send a BOQ ahead of the call, and choose one with messy rows such as merged cells, a lump-sum carpentry line and a provisional sum for lighting. Type the units three ways. Then watch the screen.

A clean sample proves nothing. Your files carry the habits of several estimators: hidden columns, rates pasted as values, a skirting line priced per running metre beside a flooring line priced per square foot. The import has to survive them all.

Ask about the row it cannot read. It might reject the whole file, skip the row quietly or flag it for a person to fix, and quiet skipping is the worst answer. A missing line becomes a site loss. Ask who fixes it and how long that takes, because some vendors write a custom mapping for each file layout and bill for that work. Get the answer before you sign.

Design-build work changes weekly. The client moves a partition, swaps a veneer or adds a wardrobe with a loft, and each change touches the GFC drawing, the BOQ and the price.

Have the vendor open revision three of a quote beside revision five, and look for which lines moved, who approved the change and on what date. A system that overwrites the old figure leaves you arguing from memory at final billing, with no dated approval to point to. Can the client approve on a phone? A chat reply saying yes is weak.

Then ask the harder question. When a variation is approved, it should flow into the purchase list and the stage invoice, not wait for someone to retype it three times.

Pick one item, say 18 mm marine ply for a kitchen, and have the vendor trace it from the BOQ line to a purchase order with the plywood supplier.

Look for what your buyer needs: a quotation comparison across suppliers, the delivery date, the target site and a goods receipt when the sheets arrive. A system that stops at the quote leaves your purchase team in Excel, retyping every line by hand for each supplier and each site. That is the whole problem.

Test a short shipment from the supplier as well. You should be able to receive part of an order, keep the balance open and still see which site holds the sheets. Laminates, hardware and tiles bought for one flat often end up in another without a record, so a site-wise stock sheet matters when you compare cost with the quote.

Your supervisors work on staircases in plaster dust with one hand free, so hand the vendor a phone and ask one of them to upload three photos. Tie each photo to a room and a task, such as the master bathroom waterproofing test, and see how many taps it takes.

Check the date, location and photographer on each photo, then ask whether it uploads later when the stairwell has no signal, so walk into one and test it. A snag list built from photos helps only when each picture points to a room and a trade, such as tiling or electrical.

Photos also settle disputes. When a client says the false ceiling was never inspected, a dated photo with a sign-off is the only reply you need. Ask whether photos can be grouped into a handover album for the client by room and trade, which saves an evening of copying files.

Vendors sound confident until the exit question. Then listen. Ask for the full export in writing, covering projects, BOQs with every revision, purchase orders, photos at original size and client sign-offs.

Ask which format each record comes in. A PDF of every quote is not a usable export, because you want CSV or Excel for the numbers and the original image files for the photos.

Finish with a pilot. Run one live project for a month, name one person on your side to own it, and decide on that evidence rather than on the demo. Write each vendor’s answers on one sheet. If a demo promise fails in month three, you then hold the date and the speaker’s name instead of a vague memory of who said what.