Contractor guides

Know what the job cost. Bill every dollar. Get paid.

Straight-talk guides for trade contractors — the supply-house paperwork, permit deadlines, and billing habits that decide whether a job actually made money, written from the sub's side of the counter.

Featured·Materials

Five Supply Houses, One Ledger: Keeping Materials Straight When Graybar, Ferguson, CED, Home Depot, and Your Local Winsupply All Bill Differently

Most subs buy from four or five houses, and every one of them formats the ticket, structures the account, and sends the statement its own way. How to run one per-job materials ledger across all of them without a bookkeeper.

Read the guide September 10, 2026 · 7 min read
Materials

How to Get a Copy of a Supply-House Invoice — Graybar, Ferguson, CED, City Electric, Winsupply — and How to Stop Needing One

You'll need the copy at the worst possible time. Where it comes from — and the habit that means you already have it.

Read 6 min read
Materials

Job Accounts at the Supply House: How to Get Graybar, Ferguson, CED, and Your Local Winsupply to Print the Job on Every Ticket

Ten seconds at the counter versus an hour of archaeology at billing time. Ask for the job account.

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Materials

Home Depot Pro Xtra and Lowe's Pro Receipts: Filing Big-Box Runs to the Job Before the Thermal Paper Fades

The register doesn't know your job. Here's how to make the receipt know it anyway.

Read 5 min read
Materials

Winsupply, Johnstone, CED, Hajoca: Why Your Accounts at the Same Brand Don't Talk to Each Other (and What That Means at Month End)

Same sign over the door, different company on the ticket. Here's why — and how to reconcile it.

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Materials

New England Electrical Supply Houses: Granite City, Needham Electric, Standard Electric, Northeast Electrical, Graybar — Keeping Tickets Straight Across Branches

Quincy in the morning, Canton after lunch, Graybar for the gear. One ledger for all of it.

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Materials

The HVAC Equipment Invoice You'll Need in Year Five: Serial Numbers, Warranty Claims, and Filing Johnstone, Carrier Enterprise, and Ferguson Tickets to the Job

The claim in year five starts with the ticket from year one. Here's how to have it.

Read 5 min read
Permits

How Pulling an Electrical Permit in Massachusetts Actually Works, Step by Step

One statewide form, a different counter in every town — the whole path from application to sign-off.

Read 6 min read
Permits

Open Permits: Why They Surface Years Later at Closings — and How to Clear Them

The permit you never closed is somebody's closing problem now — and your phone call.

Read 6 min read
Permits

Rough vs. Final: Scheduling Electrical Inspections So the GC Never Waits on You

The rough holds up the walls, the final holds up the money — here's how to schedule both so nobody waits.

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Permits

Same State, Different Counter: Keeping Permits Straight Across Massachusetts Towns

The form is statewide; the process is whatever your town says it is. How multi-town subs keep it straight.

Read 6 min read
Materials

How to Read a Supply-House Invoice: Account Numbers, Job Numbers, and the Field That Matters Most

Every field on the ticket, decoded — and why the job reference is the whole game.

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Materials

Materials Markup for Electricians: How Subs Actually Price the Parts

Markup isn't greed and it isn't a magic number — it's covering costs most subs forget they have.

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Materials

Stop Losing Receipts: A Field Workflow That Files Every Counter Ticket to Its Job

Snap the supply-house ticket before it hits the dashboard floor — the whole workflow in one habit.

Read 5 min read
Materials

Job Costing Materials Without a Bookkeeper: What a Per-Job Ledger Catches

One ledger per job catches the four leaks that quietly eat a sub's margin.

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Materials

Supplier Statements vs. Invoices: What the Monthly Statement Is For (and How to Reconcile It)

The statement isn't a bill — it's an audit. Here's how to run it in twenty minutes a month.

Read 6 min read

Stop tracking permits on a whiteboard.

RevnuPros keeps every permit on every job in one list — applied, pulled, rough passed, signed off — and warns you before a quiet one goes stale. Try the free permit calculator, or start in five minutes.