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The Items Catalog

Create items, set their defaults, and keep the catalog tidy with search, filters, and archiving.

Items are the building blocks of every estimate and invoice. Each item carries a name, a category, default pricing, units of measure, and a set of behavior flags that control how it acts on jobs, documents, and purchase orders. Set an item up once, and every proposal that uses it starts with the right price, cost, and tax treatment.

Find your way around the Items tab

Open Items from the main navigation. The Items tab lists your catalog with columns for Image, Name, Category, Subcategory, Operation, Price, Cost, Margin %, and Active.

  • Use the search box (Search items...) and press Enter to search by name.
  • Filter by Category, Operation, or Subcategory.
  • Turn on Show inactive to include archived items.
  • Members without financial visibility see (redacted) in the money columns.

Create an item

  1. On the Items tab, click + New.
  2. In the Identity section, enter a Name, pick a Category, and optionally add a Subcategory, a Description, and an image (PNG or JPEG, up to 2 MB). Chemical products can also record an Active Ingredient and EPA Reg #.
  3. In Units & Operation, choose a Default Operation and select at least one Unit of Measure. If the list is empty, create units on the Units of Measure tab first.
  4. In Pricing, enter a Default Price and Default Cost. The Margin % is calculated for you from price and cost. Toggle Taxable to control whether the item is included in sales-tax calculations (choosing the Material category turns it on automatically — you can change it).
  5. Click Save.

Note: Discount items must not have a positive default price — the form will stop you with "Discount items cannot have a positive default price."

Optional settings on the item form

  • Production Rate — attach a formula that computes quantities from measurements. See Production rates.
  • Quantity Based Pricing — tiered pricing by quantity, customer type, and operation. See Pricing tools.
  • Purchasing flags — Subcontracted, Billable on Purchase Orders, Reimbursable, Inventoried, and Include in Inventory Tracker control purchasing and stock behavior.
  • Route Planner — pick a Route Planner Icon (house, tree, truck, snowflake, and more) for the item's visits on the map, and toggle Include in route capacity to count its quantity toward route capacity totals.
  • Proposal Level — set the default level (Included, Recommended, or Optional) for lines created from this item. Recommended and Optional lines can be accepted or declined by the customer.
  • Show on documents, Show quantity on work orders, and Include in renewals fine-tune how the item's lines appear on documents and whether they carry over when jobs are duplicated or renewed.

View and edit an item

To change an item, open the Actions menu at the end of its row and choose Edit. Each item also has a detail page showing its settings, pricing, and an Activity history of every create, update, archive, and restore, with an Edit button of its own.

You can also create a lightweight item without leaving an estimate: in the item picker on a job, click + Create new Item, give it a name, category, and at least one unit of measure, and it lands in the catalog immediately.

Archive or delete items

BranchSite protects your history: an item that appears on existing jobs cannot be permanently deleted.

  • Archive marks the item inactive. It disappears from the list and pickers but stays on existing jobs. Archived items can be restored from the Actions menu with Show inactive turned on.
  • Delete permanently removes an item — but only if it isn't on any jobs. If it is in use, BranchSite archives it instead and tells you so.

To act on many items at once, select rows with the checkboxes; a bar appears with Archive selected, Delete selected, and Edit Price/Cost.