Construction materials generally take up a third of total construction costs, which is why it's essential that they're stored and managed properly. Once purchased, stored materials can be kept onsite or offsite. This distinction is important because, depending on the location of the materials, a cost may be associated and be reimbursed by a general contractor or project owner. Stored materials are items purchased ahead of their planned use in a construction project. Purchasing all construction materials on a day-to-day basis would be logistically impossible in most cases and exceedingly expensive. This is why many materials are commonly bought in advance and stored for later use.
From the perspective of a project owner, purchasing materials in advance (and commonly in bulk) is beneficial because it reduces costs and enables a smooth, uninterrupted construction process. While it may seem that lower costs and efficient construction are in the best interest of all involved parties, the project owner or general contractor will wish to minimize the risk of any damages and losses to the stored materials and the resulting financial implications.
Major construction hurdles today, including labor shortages and material delays, which forces contractors to try to stay ahead of building materials to prevent further delays. This often means to have materials delivered early to each job site. This requires payment related to storing materials becoming increasingly necessary and more custom as well.
Within GCPay, the Require contractors to manually move stored material amounts to "$ this Period" column setting (i.e. “manually move stored materials”), when enabled, will require subcontractors to manually deduct materials installed from the Material Stored column (column F) and add them to the $ This Period (column D) when installing material on the job site. When unchecked, all stored material will automatically move from column F to column D the following pay period. This allows for flexibility in billing for stored materials given the uncertainty of when the payments will be needed throughout the contract.
