New capabilities help contractors establish predictable equipment charges and stop inventory discrepancies before they happen.
ToolWatch has introduced Calendar Flat Rate Billing and Block Negative Inventory, two new capabilities that give contractors greater control over equipment billing and inventory accuracy. The updates enable teams to set fixed charges and prevent transactions from pushing inventory below zero.
Construction teams manage a constant flow of equipment, materials, and transactions across warehouses, job sites, vehicles, and crews. When equipment charges fluctuate, or inventory quantities are inaccurate, teams spend valuable time explaining invoices, reconciling records, and determining what happened after the fact.
These new ToolWatch capabilities help teams prevent those problems at the source.
Create Predictable Equipment Charges with Flat Rate Billing
Standard calendar billing can generate a different charge from one month to the next, even when nothing about the equipment or job has changed. Because each billing cycle contains a different number of hours, the final cost can fluctuate—and teams may have to repeatedly explain why.
Calendar Flat Rate Billing fixes that..
Available as a new calculation method within ToolWatch Rate Sheets, it allows teams to assign a fixed dollar amount to three tiers:
- Daily Tier
- Weekly Tier
- Monthly Tier
As equipment remains on a job, it moves through the established tiers. At the end of the billing cycle, the amount charged is based on the tier the equipment reached.
These tiers represent flat prices, not recurring daily, weekly, or monthly rates. If equipment remains on a job for two weeks, for example, you don't charge the weekly amount twice. The flat weekly price remains the total charge until the equipment reaches the monthly tier.
With Calendar Flat Rate Billing, contractors can:
- Quote equipment costs with confidence by giving customers and crews a clear price before work begins.
- Manage capped contracts more easily by setting rates that align with contractual limits.
- Reduce billing questions caused by changes in the number of hours from one billing cycle to the next.
- Simplify Rate Sheet setup with fixed amounts for each billing tier.
Why We Built It
Contractors need equipment billing to be accurate, but also predictable.
When the same equipment produces different charges from month to month, accounting teams have to explain the difference, project teams have less certainty around costs, and customers may question invoices—even when the calculations are correct.
Calendar Flat Rate Billing closes the gap between accurate billing and clear expectations. It gives teams a straightforward way to set equipment costs before a job begins and communicate them with confidence.
The new method appears alongside every existing ToolWatch Rate Sheet calculation method. No separate tool to implement or new workflow to learn, and all current billing methods will continue to work exactly as they do today.
Strengthen Inventory Accuracy with Block Negative Inventory
Maintaining accurate inventory requires the right controls at the point of transaction. Block Negative Inventory gives contractors an added safeguard by preventing Pick Tickets and Transfers from reducing an item’s recorded quantity below zero.
When the company-level setting is enabled, ToolWatch checks the available quantity as transactions are processed.
What happens next depends on the user’s permissions:
- Users with Inventory Adjustment permission are prompted to review and correct the quantity before completing the transaction.
- Users without Inventory Adjustment permission cannot complete the transaction until someone with the appropriate permission updates the count.
This helps teams address quantity mismatches in the moment, keeping inventory records accurate as materials move between warehouses, job sites, vehicles, and crews.
With Block Negative Inventory, contractors can:
- Add another layer of inventory control to Pick Ticket and Transfer workflows.
- Resolve quantity mismatches immediately instead of carrying them into future transactions.
- Improve inventory accuracy across the field, warehouse, and office.
- Give teams greater confidence in the quantities available in ToolWatch.
Why We Built It
Contractors process a high volume of inventory transactions every day. With materials constantly moving between locations and teams, even a small quantity mismatch can affect purchasing decisions, project planning, and confidence in inventory records.
Block Negative Inventory gives organizations more control over how those transactions are completed. By validating available quantities before a transaction moves forward, ToolWatch helps teams maintain cleaner data and address discrepancies while the details are still fresh.
Chat with the ToolWatch team to learn more about these updates and how they can support your operation.