How material prices have moved by market, from sourced and dated records.
Costing and commercial control. 5 questions answered below, each with the arithmetic behind it and the limits of what the tool decides. Open the Live Material Price Index tool.
Material prices move, and an estimate that uses last quarter's figure without saying so is an estimate that will be wrong in a way nobody can see. The price index shows what the system holds for each material, when it was recorded, and how it has moved, so a rate in a quote can be traced to a figure and a date. It is a record rather than a market feed. Prices come from the market price book for the market you select, with their dates, and they are only as good as the recording behind them. What the index adds is visibility: a contractor can see whether cement has moved since the last job, and a client can be shown why a reissued quote differs from the one they held.
Cement recorded at one figure in March and a higher one in June is a movement of a few percent, which on a job using three hundred bags is a real sum. The index shows both dates, the difference, and which estimates used the March figure. A quote issued in April can therefore be explained without anyone having to remember what happened, and a client querying a reissued price gets a dated answer rather than an impression.
The recorded price for each material, the date it was recorded, the market it applies to and the movement since the previous figure. It is a record with dates rather than a live feed, which is why the age of a figure is shown as prominently as its value. A price without a date is a number, and a price with one is evidence. Where a material has never been recorded, the page says so, which is more useful than a figure someone will later assume was recent.
From the market price book for the selected market, with each figure carrying the date it was recorded. Where a material has no recorded price, the index says so rather than showing an old figure as if it were current. That distinction matters more than it sounds: an old price presented as current is the most common way an estimate becomes quietly wrong.
With care, and with the date in view. A price from six weeks ago may still be accurate and may be worthless, depending on the material and the market. The index is designed to be used alongside an estimate rather than instead of one: you see the figure, you see its age, and you decide whether to use it or replace it with a supplier quote.
Because materials are the part of an estimate that moves fastest and is least under the contractor's control. A tender priced on cement from last year is a tender that loses money silently, and a client asking why a reissued quote is higher deserves a dated explanation rather than a shrug. An index turns both of those into a record. It also settles the internal argument, which is usually the harder one: two people pricing the same job from memory will disagree, and both will be confident.
No. It covers the materials in the price book for the markets the system serves, which is a useful core and not a complete catalogue. Anything outside it is priced by you, and the tool is explicit about that rather than filling the gap with a typical figure that would look authoritative.