Tracking Steel Across Eight Trucks: A One-Week Inventory Build

If you run a crew, you probably know where the money leaks. It's usually not the big jobs. It's the pier stock nobody counted, and the estimate that went out before anyone checked the shelf.

That's where a growing foundation-repair company here in the Upstate was. Steel, jacks and pier stock rode around on eight trucks. The count lived on paper and in one person's head. Material walked off jobsites, and the office never knew the real number.

It started as a $15,000 project

The first plan was a full custom software build, around $15,000. That's a lot for a crew-sized business to spend before the tool has proven anything.

So we cut it down to what they needed: know what's on every truck right now, and stop guessing on estimates. That became a one-week build at my flat $300 an hour. It went live in under two weeks.

What got built

An inventory system made for the jobsite. The crew logs material from a phone on site, and the office sees the count change the same minute. Every item is tied to its manufacturer, its vendor and the truck it's on, so whoever writes an estimate can see what's actually in stock.

I kept it plain on purpose. It does what they needed and nothing they didn't.

Where it stands

It has been running since March 2026. It launched with 136 items across 8 trucks and 30 manufacturers.

They own it. The code and the database are theirs, and it runs on a hosting account in the business's own name. There's no monthly platform fee on a tool they use every day.

Why I build it this way

A lot of software for trades is rented by the month. Stop paying and you lose your own records. For a crew on thin margins, I think that's backwards.

My work is bought outright at $300 an hour. When the job is done, you have the keys.

If your count lives in somebody's head

If your trucks are tracked on a clipboard or in a group text, that can be fixed, and it usually doesn't take a $15,000 project. Tell me what you're tracking. We can start with a free 15-minute call if that helps, and I'll tell you straight whether a build makes sense or a spreadsheet will do.

The full case study has the details.