Blog · Wallet share and penetration · Construction and building materials
The ten questions the managing director of a builders' merchant puts to the branch managers, which trade accounts buy below their trade's norm, which accounts were opened and never used, which good payers are stuck at their credit limit, which contractors won projects nearby and have no account, which accounts lapsed against their own cadence, what is category share per branch, which branches have not typed their accounts, which counter customers deserve an account, what is contribution per account after drops and returns, and what changed, each with the table from the ledger, the account master, the credit file and the project data, and the answer to send back.
A builders' merchant managing director asks the branches how the month went and hears about the weather and the big contractor. The ledger, the account master, the credit file and the project data hold the branches as tables. This guide is the ten questions, the tables, and the answer to send back.
| # | The question | The table | Identity | Send back |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Which branches have typed their accounts? | Trade confirmed, inferred, untyped per branch; value at norm on typed | Every account typed or untyped | Assumed |
| 2 | Which accounts buy below their trade's norm? | Category share by trade against the trade norm; gaps valued | Category spend sums | Branch average norm |
| 3 | Which accounts were opened and never used? | Funnel per branch and opener: opened, first purchase, six months | Opened in one state | Accounts opened |
| 4 | Which good payers are stuck at their limit? | Credit headroom; constrained test; split by payment history | Balances sum to receivables | Sales report alone |
| 5 | Which contractors won projects nearby with no account? | Project overlay: matched, not buying; unmatched; valued at rate | Kept separate from ledger measures | A planning feed nobody reads |
| 6 | Which accounts lapsed? | Dormant by run rate against own cadence; seasonal flagged | Accounts in one state | Days-silent list |
| 7 | What is category share per branch? | Penetration per branch against the norm | Same as 2 | Branch revenue |
| 8 | Which counter customers deserve an account? | Repeat walk-ins by token; value at account norm | Counter revenue in three classes | Counter sales as noise |
| 9 | What is contribution per account? | Margin less drops, returns, lines at stated rates | Margins sum to ledger | Revenue ranking |
| 10 | What changed? | The movements page | Every line cites | Narrative |
MD: How is branch B-04 doing? Response: 41 percent of accounts trade-confirmed, 21 percent untyped; £410,000 of value at norm on the accounts it has typed. Account 2207, a confirmed builder at £84,000, buys no aggregates and a third of the timber a builder buys. Tables 1 and 2. MD: And the new accounts there? Response: Forty opened a month, fourteen bought within thirty days, nine still buying at six months. One opener accounts for two thirds of the openings and a fifth of the purchases. Table 3. MD: Credit? Response: Account 2207 again: at its £40,000 limit for a quarter, pays within terms, four orders held, £110,000 a year constrained. A limit review, not a collections call. Table 4.
Three tables, one branch, one account with three findings.
Branch feel as the report. The weather and the big contractor.
Trade field empty. The norm applied to nobody in particular.
Credit and sales never joined. The good payer at the limit blamed on a competitor.
Accounts opened as the measure. Records, not customers.
Covirage produces the ten tables from the ledger, the account master, the credit file, the point-of-sale export and the project data, with the identities checked. The construction page describes the setup, and the category share by trade guide covers the second table.
The trade field's data quality per branch, because the trade norm is what makes every category gap right, and a branch with a fifth of its accounts untyped is building its list on four fifths. Typing the rest is a morning at the counter, and the value at norm on the typed accounts says what it is worth.
Credit headroom does; it is the credit file joined to the ledger. The funnel, the dormant list, category share and contribution come from the ledger and the account master. Counter customers from the point-of-sale export; the overlay from purchased project data. All exports.
Accounts equal active plus dormant plus lost plus insufficient history; opened accounts equal never purchased plus purchased within thirty days plus later; outstanding balances sum to the receivables ledger; every account has a trade or is untyped. A category gap measured against the branch average is sent back.