Knowledge Base
Price Verification
Price verification is the process of confirming what an item should cost by checking the price paid against the current price of the exact same item from a real, available supplier.
What makes a price verified
A verified price meets four tests: it is for the same item (the exact SKU or a confirmed equivalent), from a real supplier the property could actually buy from, available now rather than quoted from an old catalog, and complete — including shipping or delivery to the property. Miss any test and the comparison is an estimate, not a verification. List prices fail the availability test. "Similar item" comparisons fail the sameness test. A price that meets all four is one a vendor cannot argue with, and one an operator can act on immediately.
Why verification matters to the P&L
Unverified savings estimates do not survive contact with reality — the substitute item is wrong, the price expired, the supplier does not deliver to the market. What reaches the P&L is only the savings that survive verification, so verifying first is what separates a savings report from a savings number an owner can budget against. Stilwell's approach is built on this standard: every price in a supplier comparison is checked against a real, available source before it is reported, and the money-back guarantee is written against verified potential savings, not projections.
Common mistakes in price checking
Three errors dominate. Comparing to list prices, which few buyers actually pay in either direction. Comparing to a different item that shares a description but not a spec, which the incumbent vendor will dismantle in one email. And ignoring landed cost — a cheaper unit price loses if freight erases the gap, which happens often at multifamily order sizes. The fix for all three is the same: anchor every comparison to the exact SKU, a named supplier, current availability, and the full delivered price — the method a proper vendor invoice audit applies line by line.
Related terms
Start with one property and one quarter
Send us a quarter of invoices and we will show you what it should have cost. If there is nothing there, we will tell you that too.
