The problem
Wire, fittings and equipment prices move, and supply houses don't announce it. The shop's price book falls behind, quotes go out at last year's cost, and margin disappears quietly. Checking every line on every supply-house invoice against the last one is nobody's job, so it only happens when an owner happens to notice a big jump.
What Cowork does
- A daily task reads supplier invoice emails. The Gmail connector can't read attachment contents, so this works when invoices are in the email body, or when the office saves PDFs into a Drive folder.
- It extracts item, quantity and unit price into a sheet.
- It compares each item with its last three purchases and flags increases above a threshold.
- A weekly email lists the increases and the price-book items they affect.
Where the draft lands
A purchase-price sheet and a weekly email.
What stays with you
Updating the price book and deciding whether to change suppliers.
Price increases this week (vs last 3 purchases):
12/2 NM-B 250 ft: $118 → $131 (+11%). Price-book items affected: 4.
20A AFCI breaker: $46 → $49 (+7%).
Open quotes using these items: Q-1183, Q-1190.
Watch-outs
- Supplier portals often have better data than emailed invoices. Use exports if available.
- Extraction from PDFs makes mistakes. Spot-check before changing prices.
Questions owners ask
Can it update Jobber's products and services?
Not with the official connector. Composio may cover it, if available.
What about quotes already sent?
It can list open quotes that use the items that went up, from Jobber.