Copper price adjustment checks, with every mismatch listed for a person.

An invoice arrives or a line comes up to ship. Someone pulls the quote, finds the metal base and the date it was struck, works out which terms govern, finds the published price those terms point to, multiplies it through the copper in each line and decides whether the number holds. Often that lives in one person's memory and a spreadsheet.

In the test, AI reads copies of the quote, the invoice or open order and the terms they cite, and writes out the check: the clause it read, the price and date it used from the figures you supply, the pounds of metal on each line, the result and the difference from what was billed. Any line where the terms or dates don't agree is listed for a person with both sides quoted. Nothing is changed or sent.

First, which terms are even in force. When the Florida Municipal Power Agency wrote up its wire and cable bidders, some offered a choice of firm or adjustable pricing. Two makers required base metal figures of their own in place of the American Metal Market or Wall Street Journal figures its terms called for. One maker wanted prices adjusted at time of shipment, and one bidder's items were good only through December 21, 2022, short of the bid's February 2023 end. The agency listed each as an exception and left some to each utility's discretion. So the check starts by quoting the terms it is using and the document they came from, and a quote and acknowledgment that disagree go on the list for your team.

Then which published price, over which days. That memo records one maker's formula as daily Metals Week U.S. transaction pricing from the previous month plus its own calculation. A published wire supply contract instead resets on the first of each month to the prior month's spot COMEX average for high grade copper cathode. Those are different numbers on different days, and a quote that only says copper names neither. The check names the source, the period and the figure it used from what you sent, and holds the line when your papers don't show which one applies.

The arithmetic runs on copper pounds, not cable pounds. One maker's data sheet for 600-volt control cable lists copper weight and approximate total weight side by side, both per thousand feet, and that supply contract puts the copper weight for each construction in an exhibit. So each line of the check shows its pounds of copper per thousand feet and where that number came from, the footage actually shipped and not the footage quoted, the base and the price used. An aluminum line on the same order needs its own base and its own source.

Buyers write their own calendars. Tacoma Power's 2026 cable RFQ, for a three-year contract with two optional renewals, considers price changes only on set quarterly dates, with each request due two weeks ahead, written support from the manufacturer or wholesale distributor, and nothing for vendor margin. Its schedule lists one date out of sequence, likely a typing slip. The check lists it and doesn't assume, which is the whole job in small: the math is easy once someone has settled what the words say.

A duty is not a metal adjustment. The presidential proclamation of July 30, 2025 on copper imports applies its duty only to the copper content of semi-finished and intensive derivative products entered from August 1, 2025, and it left refined copper out at the time. Tacoma's RFQ separately says pricing gets a review before the contract starts, tariffs included. Where an invoice carries a duty or tariff line, the check keeps it apart from the metal charge and lists it. It gives no opinion on how either rule applies, and this is not legal advice. Your reviewer, usually whoever reconciles supplier invoices or signs off open order pricing, will watch the terms quoted, the source and its date, copper pounds on each line, the footage used and every line held.

A yes from your reviewer starts the same check on incoming supplier invoices or open orders, for about 30 days.

A person reviews every check and approves each item before it posts anywhere. Nothing is paid, short-paid, billed or disputed on a draft.

The live job carries a fixed price agreed before you sign, with monthly support after it. The next job is decided on its own.