Line Items & Item Categories
The priced building blocks of a quote: their types, their fields, the formulas behind them, and why prices are stamped with a year.
On this page
1What a line item is
A line item is the smallest priced thing in a proposal — “Prime walls”, “Replace flashing”, “Travel”. It isn’t just a price: it’s a small form. When an estimator picks it on the worksheet, the fields you defined appear, they fill in quantities, and the formulas you wrote turn that into money.
2The line item types
| Type | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Material | Things you buy for the job. Rolls up into the material total and material tax. |
| Labor | Time. Rolls up into the labour total and labour tax. |
| Labor Material Combo | A single item carrying both, with separate formulas for each side. |
| Note | Text on the quote with no money attached — exclusions, conditions, explanations. |
The split matters beyond presentation: material and labour are taxed separately, reported separately, and drive gross margin on the Jobs Board.
3Fields inside a line item
Each line item holds a list of fields, each with a Field Label, a field type (see Proposal Field Types), a default value, a display order, a size (Medium, Long, Long 2×) and two switches: Edit on Worksheet (can the estimator change it) and Hidden (does it exist without being shown).
4The formulas
What turns fields into a price:
- Retail formula — what the customer is charged. Combo items have separate Material Retail and Labor Retail formulas.
- COGS formula — what it costs you, again split for combo items. This is what makes gross margin real rather than guessed.
- Item Total Formula (Retail) and Item Total Formula (Sub Rates) — the line’s total as charged, and as paid to a subcontractor.
- Item Work-Order Name — what this line is called on the work order, which is often plainer than the customer-facing name.
5Prices and the product catalogue
The Products sub-tab holds the priced catalogue: Cost, Std. Cost, Preset COGS, Offers and Offer Price, all stamped with the year they apply to. Line items can be imported and exported as a file, duplicated, moved between categories and mass-duplicated — which is how a catalogue of hundreds of items gets rolled into a new year without retyping.
Change prices by year, not in place
Editing this year’s price rewrites what an open quote is worth. Duplicate the item (or the tree) for the new year and edit the copy, so signed and pending work keeps the numbers it was quoted at.
6Troubleshooting
The worksheet total is zero
The retail formula references a field that’s empty or misspelled. Field names in formulas must match the field labels exactly.
Gross margin looks wrong
COGS formulas are missing on some items, so cost is counted as nil. Check the items in the quote one at a time.