Are we paying more for windows than last year?

What the purchase history holds

Purchases by Vendor Detail and the open and received purchase orders are QuickBooks reports. Together they carry every line you ever bought, the date it was ordered, the date it was expected, the date it arrived and the price. Average unit cost by year is in there. Late by supplier is in there. Neither is a report QuickBooks prints.

What the price list adds

The supplier’s sheet has the unit cost, the pack size and the lead time, and a new sheet arrives once or twice a year with a letter. Loaded as they send it, one row per item per sheet, it sits next to the purchase lines. Then the question about last year is answered from what you paid, and the question about next year is answered from what they are about to charge, before it hits the cost sheet.

Three questions from a fictional company

Which supplier is late, whether windows cost more than last year, and what the supplier’s new sheet says is coming.

select vendor, year,
       count(distinct po_num) as orders,
       round(100.0 * sum(case when received_date > expected_date then 1 else 0 end)
             / count(*)) as late_pct
from v_purchase_lines
where received_date is not null
group by vendor, year
having count(distinct po_num) >= 15
order by vendor, year

select year,
       sum(qty) as windows_bought,
       round(sum(amount)) as spend,
       round(sum(amount) / sum(qty)) as avg_unit_cost
from v_purchase_lines
where category = 'Windows'
group by year
order by year

select effective_date, count(*) as items, round(avg(unit_cost)) as avg_cost
from vendor_catalog c
join vendors v on v.id = c.vendor_id
where v.name = 'Vantera Window Mfg'
group by effective_date
order by effective_date

Northgale Building Products is a fictional company. Every name, figure and supplier on this page is made up, built to behave like a real three-and-a-half-year QuickBooks Desktop file so we can show real screens without showing anyone’s real numbers. Data as of the 2026-07-27 refresh; the last invoice in the file is dated 2026-07-24.

Short answers

• Can QuickBooks Desktop report on-time by vendor?No. It has the expected date and the received date on each purchase order. Comparing them is not a report it prints.
• What format does the supplier price list need to be in?Whatever the supplier sends. A spreadsheet loads as is. A PDF is read into a table once and checked against a few known prices.
• Does the price list update QuickBooks item costs?No. Nothing we build writes into QuickBooks. It shows you what the new sheet does to margin so you can decide what to change.

Related questions

• Write a purchase order from what you’ve used
• What should I reorder this week?
• Your systems, joined