Supplier Price Comparison and Price Change Tracker

A supplier quotes AED 42 for a 10 kg bag, another AED 8.30 per kg, a third AED 45 including VAT for 12.5 kg. Which is cheapest, and which one quietly raised a price since last month? Without one place that keeps the history, price rises are found on the invoice, after the stock is on the shelf.

List your items with your monthly use and current supplier, and your suppliers with whether their quotes include VAT, their minimum order and any monthly delivery charge. Add each price you receive with date, pack price, pack size and unit, or import a price list from CSV. The Compare tab shows the cheapest supplier per item, the saving against your current supplier at your monthly quantity, and four basket plans. The Price changes tab lists every increase above your alert level with the extra monthly cost and a price history chart, and flags prices that have gone stale.

What is inside:

• Items and suppliers, Prices, Compare, Price changes and Start here tabs
• Units compared per kg, per litre or per piece with automatic conversion
• VAT treatment as a setting: you recover input VAT or you do not, supplier registered or not
• CSV import of price lists, CSV export, JSON backup, print
• A worked example with invented suppliers and prices

Who it is for: cafes, restaurants, groceries and shops that buy from several suppliers and renegotiate or switch.

What it is not: the cheapest price is not always the best supplier, since quality, reliability, payment terms and delivery times are not in the numbers. The basket plans are a simple rule-based comparison, not an optimiser, and assume each supplier can supply your full monthly quantity at the quoted price. Check your VAT position with your accountant or the FTA for your case.

How it differs: the Supplier Quotation Comparison and Award App in the catalogue evaluates one-off quotes with duty, freight and scoring. This app tracks prices over time for repeat purchases, compares per base unit and flags increases.

Tested: unit conversion, VAT treatment, cheapest-supplier choice, basket plans and price-change flags were compared with a separate Python implementation on randomised data, 969 values, with no differences. 15 scripted browser checks cover the example, CSV import, backup restore, print and the 375 and 1280 pixel layouts, with no console errors. Browser tests ran in Chromium and WebKit; Firefox, a real phone, a real printer and a real scanner were not available, so they were not tested.