LBM-specific sales, quoting & invoicing tools
Paladin Data Corporation® delivers a set of lumber and building materials (LBM) tools and features refined since 1980 and purpose-built for board-foot pricing math, contractor quoting, staged fulfillment, yard workflows, and construction bundling. Compare this comprehensive breakdown of LBM-relevant features to those of other LBM POS software providers, and we think you’ll see Paladin is the clear leader for independent lumberyards.
1.1 Lumber industry calculators
- Thousand Board Foot (MBF) Calculator: Converts “mill unit” pricing to “customer each” pricing and computes costs in MBF.
- Thousand Square Foot (MSF) Calculator: Same conversion logic for sheet goods sold in MSF.
- Ton Pricing Calculator: Handles bulk materials priced by ton or multiples.
- Lineal Foot Tally / Footage Calculator: Creates a tally of items by defining pieces of different lengths in feet and inches; ideal for lumber and metal roofing sold in mixed lengths. Available for purchase orders as well as invoices/quotes.
- Square Footage Calculator: Calculates square-foot quantities from width × length × pieces; results recorded in a note.
1.2 Buy/sell unit-of-measure conversions
- Buy by MBF and sell by the stick: MBF calculations factor into inventory; the stick cost auto-calculates from the MBF cost, and the retail price can auto-update to a target margin when POs are received.
- Show MBF, MSF, and Ton prices on quotes/invoices: An inventory checkbox switches the displayed unit to MBF, MSF, or Ton.
- Extended precision on numbers (Board-Foot Precision): Up to 6 decimal-point precision on price and 4 on quantity, with a real-time extension value that updates as you edit. When special circumstances dictate, the number of decimal points on pricing and quantity can be increased to support bulk purchases or mixed unit-of-measure sales.
1.3 Quote & invoice power tools
- Profit Analyst: View invoice cost, profit, and margin in real time while building quotes/invoices, including average and market-cost profits and margins for each line and the total. Allows careful “tuning” of lumber quotes by reducing contractor pricing on price-sensitive items while increasing pricing on blind items and displaying the actual (final) margin and profit on the quote. Gated by employee access level.
- Weight Analyst: Allows insertion of complex weight-based SKUs into invoices and quotes.
- Discount Analyst: Clearly displays the current pricing/discounting plans applied to any selected line so sales associates can see exactly why a price is what it is.
- Subtotals on quotes/invoices: Insert dynamic subtotals anywhere in the customer’s quote to allow grouping of major project sections; subtotals auto-recalculate when line prices change.
- Insert items, notes & pre-existing quotes anywhere: Add a line item or note above any selected line; delete any line item; insert a pre-existing quote into the middle of an invoice or new quote, saving time and energy from manually recreating common groups. Ability to add, insert, or delete any line or groups of inventory items in the invoice/quote process.
- Detailed notes, descriptions & special order instructions: Invoices and quotes can include detailed notes, descriptions, special order instructions, etc. and become a permanent record of the customer’s activity.
- Auto-update prices on recalled quotes: Stored quotes are recalled highlighting any line item with a current price different than when the quote was created (blue text) and show the new correct price. One-click “Update to Current Price” for a single line, or “Update All to Current Prices” for every stale line.
- Search for any part or value within an invoice or quote.
- Sophisticated item search / family display: Advanced item search that displays the content of an entire family of product at once (e.g., the entire list of white plastic gutter material), allowing the user to choose quantities of several items that are transferred back to the invoice/quote.
- View images on anything in the invoice/quote/advanced lookup: Product images render inline so associates can visually verify SKUs.
- Hide itemized pricing on quotes (“Print Unpriced Quote”): Prints total only, discouraging price-shopping.
- Stored quotes/orders/on-holds: Configurable Customer Stored Transactions window auto-appears for a customer with saved work.
- Stock visibility on every quoted line: Always shows stock on hand, on order, and on hold for every item quoted.
- Auto Quote Numbers: Sequential numbering flows onto on-holds and orders and shows on the invoice; optional in the emailed subject line.
1.4 Lumber Order Manager (staged/partial-fulfillment orders)
- Convert quotes into orders: Recall the quote and press F5/Order Manager; all items become order items, tracking sold vs. remaining quantities.
- Order Manager: Carefully and accurately deliver/supply partial quantities of items quoted to a customer while protecting store margins by limiting quantity sold to the quoted prices before reverting to current prices.
- Sell partial orders over time: Auto-fill Quantity to unsold amount; two display modes (Displaying Open vs. Displaying All); Item History per line.
- Auto-close on completion: Orders close automatically when all items are sold, or manually when needed.
- Automatically put items On Hold when in Order Manager: Converts quoted quantity to on hold in stock on hand.
- On Hold feature: Sales personnel may “commit” inventory to a customer without billing the project to a job.
- Buy Down Quote Pick List Report: Excel export of open quotes and buydown quotes/orders, plus per-order pick lists.
1.5 Special orders
- Sophisticated special-order system: Includes a margin and price calculator built in to ensure proper retail pricing. Search and find products in stock and in the catalogs, with auto-completed fields and unique part numbers that don’t disrupt ordering algorithms.
- Force special orders to a large sheet, set a percent deposit, add freight cost, and exclude from rewards by class.
- Numerous special-order deposit options presented to the salesperson for each special order.
- Automatic PO generation from special order event: Automatically create a PO based on the content from a quote or invoice/special order event.
- Optional setting to allow special order modifications (File>Setup, Company tab)
1.6 Yard order forms & delivery order forms
- Yard order forms: Print at the register or in the yard; up to 4 sizes/types (½ page, full page); optional second printer tray; limit to yard-order items only or print the entire invoice.
- Confidential pricing at the yard: Yard orders protect confidential contractor prices while ensuring vehicles are loaded accurately: the yard form includes all sale details except pricing and payment method.
- Delivery order forms: Hard copy delivery form including the delivery schedule; includes “Received by:” and “Delivered by:” fields with date/time.
- Yard-only oversold warning: Filter oversold warnings by Yard Order Inventory location.
1.7 Construction bundles & kits
- Construction bundles: Group large products with relevant add-on items under a single item to boost average invoice, save time at checkout, and keep inventory counts accurate.
- Full kit taxonomy: Simple kits, complex kits, dynamic kits, kits with line items priced, and kits with only the kit trigger priced.
1.8 Return Wizard
One-scan recall of the full transaction from the receipt barcode; optional lookup by customer or product; supports serial numbers for protection plans or warranty claims.
2. Mobile operations with PaladinGo™
2.1 PaladinGo Delivery
- Runs on iOS or Android phones/tablets.
- Mobile checkout (“line-busting”) to break up long checkout lines.
- Inventory counts, receiving, yard orders, and other mission-critical tasks.
- Extends full PaladinPOS features onto mobile platforms; free to Paladin clients; syncs with the store database.
- Supports sales in the aisle, remote selling, yard/garden center selling, and starting/saving invoices, for LBM checkout scenarios where a single register can’t reach the customer.
- Product delivery scheduler with the ability to manage numerous trucks.
- Schedule time windows in adjustable 5-minute increments, sort by time, and attach photos of completed deliveries.
- Schedule deliveries in the payment wizard before payment is taken, so the delivery is committed on ring-up.
- Project information auto-fills delivery address values.
- Attach the invoice to the customer’s automated delivery notification email.
- View deliveries on the mobile device sorted by date and time, watch status change live, and open the delivery scheduler and detailed report.
- Delivery module includes instructions to the driver, photos of delivered goods, real-time quantity verification; any unaccepted product is instantly credited back to customer and to saleable inventory, eliminating accounting work with truck returns.
- Real-time status tracking, job-site invoice changes, instant POS updates from the field, and auto-reconciliation from truck back to the store.
2.2 PaladinGo mobile invoicing
- Add customers from the store’s Paladin customer database
- Scan and add items using the device camera
- Search and add items from Paladin inventory or by part number
- Modify invoice item quantity and price; add invoice notes
- Calculate sales tax using the store’s settings.
- Accept cash, credit card, and charge payments.
- Process item returns.
- Store a transaction for later processing (useful for applying pricing plans on a POS terminal afterward).
3. Contractor & Job Account Management
3.1 Job and project management
- Job account management: Build contractor relationships by tracking purchases per project; historical invoices for any job are created upon request.
- Every quote and invoice is managed under a specific project, vastly simplifying accounting requirements for the store and the customer.
- Child (project) accounts: Contractors may set up job accounts as “child” accounts of their main account. This allows individual project billing while maintaining overall billing control from store management.
- Per-project credit limits: Stores can limit their financial exposure by assigning each project a specific credit limit.
- Contractor reports by project/job/address: Invoice summary reports exportable to MS Excel; invoice detail reports exportable to PDF.
- Add, edit, remove, restore a customer project; create/select a new project at checkout; add project descriptions.
- Assign a project to an invoice for all payment types: Spawns the Invoice Info box on any payment type to add PO/Memo, Authorized Signer, and Project Name (not just for AR charge sales).
3.2 Authorized signers verification
- Authorized signers may be recorded to reduce risk of unauthorized purchases.
- Add authorized signers on charge accounts; verify signers at checkout; print the signer name on the invoice/receipt; optionally make it a required field.
3.3 Custom discounts & pricing plans for the trades
- Incredibly capable contractor pricing options eliminate manual pricing confusion; everything is protected by a department-level minimum-margin declaration.
- Create customized trade discounts and specialized pricing plans by trade.
- No more haggling: Entering the customer automatically applies the correct discount to ensure consistent prices across cashiers and shifts.
- Custom pricing for individual accounts and volume-based specials.
3.4 Project payment management & accounts receivable
- Apply payments to specific projects on charge accounts set to Open Item.
- View all paid and unpaid invoices for each project; associate payments with the appropriate charge invoice; Applied Payment History per project.
- Contractor discounts may be given at time of sale, or carried into their monthly statement and presented as a prompt-payment discount (significantly improves AR collection).
- Generate AR statements to the printer or email them automatically; detailed transaction reports behind the statements; generate transaction reports by project/job.
- Tailor each account for prompt-payment discounts, service charges, past-due hold, etc.
- Past-due balance alert/limit features protect stores from runaway AR balances.
- Enhanced Month-End Statement: Automatic process, Account Summary Report, and reversal capability.
- AR features now available on the right click menu.
4. Point-of-sale checkout & payments
4.1 Checkout Workflows
- Layaway, hold item, easy returns/Return Wizard, multiple payment types, price overrides, inventory lookup, create/save/recall invoices, and round up transactions for charity.
- Quick checkout for fast transaction completion; rapid price and inventory lookups to answer customer questions on the spot.
- Enhanced voiding of invoices: Including Account Payments, balancing across revenue types, and traceability for fraud detection.
- Nickel rounding: Automatically rounds cash sales to the nearest nickel and tracks rounded amounts for accurate reporting (U.S. penny shortage response).
- Tax holiday: Sell an item with a partial tax-free amount; itemized on the Comparative Revenue Report.
- Oversold warning: Insufficient SOH warning during invoicing that can be filtered by Yard Order inventory location.
4.2 Payment types & processing
- Cash, credit cards (EMV / E2E / P2PE), checking, ACH.
- Fast, secure options for credit card processing and cash discounting.
4.3 Cash discounting program
Lower price on all items when the customer pays cash; a service fee is added to invoices paid by credit card to offset merchant fees; capped at 3% (Manager Acknowledgement required).
5. Inventory management & automation
5.1 Signature inventory tools, analytics and controls
- Market Driven Inventory Management: Forecasts which products customers will purchase using proprietary algorithms.
- PaladinNsight™ dashboard & business analytics: Take control of your inventory investments and assets: Real-time dashboard provides instant visibility into store performance for faster, smarter decisions on margins, ordering, and pricing.
- Suggested Order: Automates PO creation from sales history and forecasts.
- Order Analyst: Automatically finds the lowest-cost EDI supplier for each item, lowering cost of goods and increasing margins.
- Inventory valuation • Slow mover analysis • Overstock analysis • Advanced stock info • Negative SOH management • Margin control • Bin tag labeling and shelf tags • Shrinkage control • Advanced lookup • Alternate SKUs / cheat codes • Unlimited suppliers per SKU • Unlimited pricing levels.
- Additional controls:
- Serialization: Serial numbers for high-value items (power tools, chainsaws, appliances) with Missing Serial Numbers Excel report.
- Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL): Integration with Vusion; prices auto-update when changed in Paladin.
5.2 Location & multi-store Inventory
- Location codes for departments and product mapping.
- Store-to-store stock check (multi-store transfer feature).
- Automatic month-end statement with multi-store setup and requirements.
6. Purchasing, supplier EDI & receiving
6.1 EDI integrations
- EDI (Electronic Data Interchange): Sends POs directly to suppliers, saving time and money each week.
- Safeguards: EDI processing tied to open POs, EDI lock on unit of measure, ability to prevent EDI updates on specific items, EDI processing safeguards, duplicate EDI invoice safeguard.
- Dual EDI functionality for stores that source from multiple suppliers.
6.2 Remote Stock Check (RSC)
- Real-time remote SOH direct from the supplier’s warehouse.
- Sort POs by availability and adjust order quantities before buying.
- Currently available for Ace Hardware, Buttery, Do it Best, Emery-Jensen (EJD), Orgill, True Value, and Wallace Hardware.
- Works from Invoice/Quote, Inventory, and PO modules; press F7 Stock Check.
6.3 PO management
- Emailable purchase orders.
- Stored quotes/orders/on-holds appear in the Customer Stored Transactions window on checkout.
- Automatic PO creation from quote/invoice/special-order content.
6.4 Supplier catalog support
Ace Hardware, Cencora (formerly Amerisource Bergen), Associated Food Services (AFS), Benjamin Moore, Blish-Mize, Bostwick-Braun, Buttery, Cardinal Health, Do It Best, Emery Jensen Distribution (EJD), House Hasson, McKesson, Orgill, SynTech, and others.
7. Pricing, promotions & margin protection
7.1 Pricing plans
- Custom trade discounts and pricing plans by trade.
- Pricing plans by sale items, supplier, class, sub-class, date range, or percentage.
7.2 Promotions
- Configurable price promotions, instant savings, and BOGO / BOGA.
- Sale lists: Create, activate/inactivate, filter, and export/import sale-list items via Excel; separate sale lists distinct from pricing plans.
7.3 Margin protection: minimum margin management
- Minimum margin management: All automatic pricing AND manually entered pricing can be limited by department-level minimum-margin allowance values. Manager override is required to sell a product below the dept min-margin declaration.
- Minimum margin protection stops selling below profitable levels across manual price changes, F4 discounts, promo sales, loyalty points, and prompt-payment discounts.
- Global min margin with department-level override; Excel export of department list.
- Line-item profit visibility (Profit Analyst) ensures every sale — even complex quotes — is profitable.
8. Customer management & loyalty
8.1 Customer profiles
- Centralized customer data: Single profile with purchase history, preferences, loyalty, and marketing data across touchpoints.
- Customer categorization, trade discounts, prompt-payment discount, service-charge options, and accounts receivable.
8.2 Loyalty & rewards
- Multiple rewards programs: Multi-store businesses can offer more than one rewards program.
- Optional built-in rewards program: Royalty-free sales and rewards program.
- Discounts based on spending, customizable rewards amount, customizable card design, and use of cards or phone numbers.
- Custom pricing and loyalty programs: Personalized pricing/rewards for regulars build trust and loyalty.
8.3 Customer communications: Automatically email quotes, invoices, purchase orders, or statements.
9. E-commerce: PaladinShop™
9.1 Storefront
- Digital storefront with live inventory, pricing, and customer data from your Paladin database.
- Detailed product information provided by Paladin — images, long descriptions, features, and specifications.
- Add logo, promote your digital store on receipts and invoices, manage featured products, and customize product info.
9.2 Customer self-service portal: Make account payments, print invoices and view purchase history 24/7.
9.3 Order fulfillment inside POS: Every online order is highlighted in POS, with tools to help pull and set aside products for in-store pickup.
9.4 E-commerce integration options
- PaladinShop: $0 setup, monthly fee based on percentage of total online sales
- Ace AOS/In-Store Pickup for Ace Hardware retailers.
- Do It Best eCommerce (SOH, promos, retail prices upload)
- Orgill Impact e-commerce solution
- True Value EzAd daily inventory & pricing feed
- United Hardware Ecommerce inventory and price upload
- Google Local Inventory / Product Reader: Automatically showcases in-store products on Google Search & Maps.
10. Reporting & business intelligence
10.1 Report catalog
- Automated Suggested Order report enables smart PO creation based on live and historical inventory data
- Month-end statement (automatic, multi-store, manual, reversible; Account Summary Report)
- Accounting summary, transaction reports, sales analysis, reports by payment type, customer reports, inventory reports
- Base reports on SKU, supplier, class, subclass, location, date range and much more
- Contractor reports by project/job/address (Excel summary, PDF detail)
- Missing Serial Numbers report
- Buy Down Quote Pick List report (Excel + per-order pick list)
- Comparative Revenue Report (itemizes Tax Holiday amounts)
10.2 Report distribution & scheduling
- Schedule recurring reports and backups through configuration.
- Email statements, invoices, quotes, and POs on demand or automatically.
11. Security, configuration & system reliability
11.1 Security & compliance
- Easy backups, cloud backup option, employee permission levels, auto-logout option, PCI compliance, margin protection.
- Enhanced Voiding of invoices with fraud-detection traceability.
11.2 Configuration
- Receipt design options, employee permission levels, schedule recurring reports, schedule recurring backups.
- Configurable Invoice(Store) settings: Enable Quote Numbers, Enable Tax Holiday, Enable Oversold Warning, delete stored quotes after N days, Require Manager Approval for TAX checkbox change, automatically put items on hold when in Order Manager, Full Sheet Format
11.3 User interface
- Large icons, mouse/keyboard/touchscreen input, and easy navigation
- Automatic updates always running the latest version
11.4 Business model & support
- Employee-owned since 1980; month-to-month contracts with support, updates, and upgrades included
- 100% US-based support: Phone, email, chat, client portal (Knowledge Base, Webinars, New Features); 24/7 emergency support
- Dedicated account manager guides implementation and go-live
12. Managed services & IT (PaladinMSP™)
- Managed Security: Shields systems from viruses, phishing, ransomware, and identity theft with always-on protection.
- Managed Network: Network management including remote monitoring and cloud-based tools.
- Managed Updates: Paladin technicians test Windows updates on multiple Paladin systems before release; only stable updates reach your store.
- Managed Backups cloud backup service
- Microsoft 365 licensing
- Paladin Pilot™ remote access
13. LBM integrations highlights
- Accounting: Support for Microsoft Dynamics GP, QuickBooks Online & Desktop and Sage 50. Nightly GL summary transfer, auto AP invoice from POs. Simplifies bookkeeping for lumberyards.
- Supplier EDI: Ace Hardware, Cencora, AFS, Benjamin Moore, Blish-Mize, Bostwick-Braun, Buttery, Cardinal Health, Do It Best, Emery Jensen (EJD), House Hasson, McKesson, Orgill, SynTech, and more. (Sends POs directly, supports supplier warehouse Remote Stock Check.)
- E-commerce: PaladinShop; Ace AOS; Do It Best eCommerce; Orgill Impact; True Value EzAd; United Hardware; Google Local Inventory.
- Tax: Avalara
- Peripherals & PC: Dell, Cisco, Zyxel, N-Able Elite, Trend Micro, Microsoft
- Delivery orchestration: PaladinGo; Saberis (Paladin partner). Yard/job-site delivery scheduling and estimation workflows relevant to LBM.
