Bathroom tiles bought at a showroom, a kitchen tap the customer fell in love with online, reclaimed flooring sourced from a specialist — customer-supplied materials are common enough on higher-spec jobs, and they save the customer money on your markup. They also create a blind spot in job costing if the only costs tracked are the ones that went through your own account.

Why this still belongs in your job cost record

Job costing exists to answer two questions: what did this job actually cost, and did it go to plan? Customer-supplied materials are still part of both answers, even though no money left your account for them. If a customer-sourced item turns out to be defective, wrong-sized, or simply doesn't arrive on time, that's a cost to the job — in delay, in extra labor, in a dispute about whose fault the resulting problem is — even though it never appears on a receipt of yours.

The three things worth logging even when you didn't pay

  • What was supplied, and when it actually arrived — a simple note against the job, not a full receipt, but enough to show a delivery delay wasn't your doing if the schedule slips.
  • Any extra labor caused by the arrangement — time spent chasing a late delivery, adjusting a fitting because the customer's chosen item is a slightly different size than assumed, or coordinating a delivery window — this is real time and belongs against the job like any other cost.
  • Condition on arrival — a quick photo of anything that arrives damaged or wrong protects you if it's discovered mid-install and there's a dispute over who's responsible.

Set the terms before the item shows up

The conversation that avoids most disputes here happens before the job starts: agree explicitly that installation is contingent on the item arriving on time, undamaged, and matching what was specified, and that delays or defects in customer-supplied materials aren't on your schedule or your invoice. Put it in writing, even briefly — a line in the quote is enough.

A worked example

Say a kitchen fit-out is quoted with the customer supplying their own tap and sink. If the sink arrives two days late, and that log exists against the job, it's a straightforward, documented reason the fit-out ran two days over its planned schedule — not a vague "it took longer than expected" that leaves your timekeeping looking the problem.

How Site Wallet handles this

A job in Site Wallet isn't limited to receipts you paid for — notes, photos and delivery dates can be logged against a job alongside the receipts and cash entries you're tracking directly, so the full picture of what happened on a job — not just what you personally bought — is there if it's ever needed.

FAQ

Should customer-supplied materials be part of the quote at all?

Worth noting in the quote even at zero cost, so there's a clear written record of what was agreed to be customer-supplied versus what you were pricing to provide.

What if a customer-supplied item causes extra labor and they won't pay for it?

This is exactly why the arrangement is worth agreeing upfront — a quote that states extra labor from customer-supplied items is billable separately gives you the grounds to invoice for it without an argument later.

Do I need photos of every customer-supplied item?

Not every one — but for anything expensive, fragile, or likely to be blamed on installation if it fails, a quick photo on arrival is cheap insurance against a dispute months later.