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Create your item library

Taking some time to plan how you want items logged and then proactively adding them to your library will save you precious time during your busy season. You will be able to create projects faster and maintain consistency, which keeps your business running smoothly.

Summary of Essential Steps

Decide how your estimates and projects will be itemized

Building a plan before you begin will make sure your library is useful and efficient.

  • Will project items be high-level or detailed? Consider your customer base and what they would prefer. High-level is simple, fast, and straight-forward whereas a detailed breakdown offers more transparency and helps track job expenses.
  • Do you need to group items by category? If so, what are your categories?
  • Do you need to track specific product ID numbers?
  • Do you use budget codes for financial reporting?

Take some time to make a plan before you start adding items to avoid having to go back and make significant changes later.

Select items used in most jobs

Identify base rates for all services offered. If project details will include products, make a list of frequently used materials. We highly recommend keeping items generic to streamline your library. Any item can be customized after it is added to a project without changing how it appears in your library.

Decide how you want to organize your library

  1. Create standard formatting for names to help group by category and prevent duplicate items with similar names. 
  2. Create clear descriptions so it is easy to find among similar items.
  3. If you use product ID numbers and/or budget codes, have them ready.

Add an item

  1. If you are on desktop, go to the left sidebar. If you are in the mobile app or in a web browser on a mobile device, go to the hamburger menu in the upper left corner.
  2. Click on Item Library.
  3. Click the Add Line Item action.
  4. Create a short but unique name for your item.
  5. Fill in a description if you would like to add more details for your customer. This is an optional field. When viewing a project or invoice, your customer will click an expandable field under the item to see the description. Most people leave description blank in their library. After the item is added to a project, you can edit the item in the project to add detail specific to that job without updating your library.
  6. Add the price per unit and define the unit. For example, $5.00 per square foot or $50.00 per hour.
  7. If your business uses item IDs and/or budget codes, add them to the item to help with internal reporting. These are optional fields.
  8. If the item is taxable, change the toggle to Taxable and add the percentage rate.
  9. Click Create.
  10. Repeat this process to continue adding more items.