Five Brothers vendor portal
Working Five Brothers
One of the more straightforward portals on our book, and among the stronger performers for getting a well-written bid through.
Getting a bid approved
- 01
Among the better portals for getting a bid through
Five Brothers sits at the stronger end of our book for approval rate. We would not read that as generosity — it more likely reflects the mix of work that comes through — but it does mean a well-written bid here is worth the effort of writing it well.
- 02
The standard shape applies
Measured quantity, the standard being breached, the scope defined so it cannot be trimmed, and the promise of before, during and after photographs. Nothing exotic; it just has to actually be there.
Submitting and invoicing
- 01
Strip the leading letter to match your order
The invoice reference carries a leading letter that is not part of your work order number. Remove it and the rest matches cleanly.
- 02
The property column is their own reference
It refers to their internal asset identifier rather than anything on your side, so reconciliation runs off the invoice reference instead.
Getting paid
- 01
The remittance file has its own format
The .xls opens normally in a spreadsheet application but is structured differently underneath, so automated tools need to expect that. The cheque number is carried in the filename, so it is worth keeping the originals rather than renaming downloads.
In practice
A straightforward portal. Write the bid properly, keep the original remittance filenames, and it runs cleanly.
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