How to set up your price book
Your price book is the catalog of services and products you sell, and it feeds every estimate and invoice you build. Load a trade-standard set priced from your own hourly rate, then sort it into categories and add your own items.
Open your price book
Where to clickAdminPrice Book
Press Admin at the bottom of the left sidebar, then pick Price Book from the admin menu that appears. The page is headed Price Book, with Manage your catalog of services and products underneath.
Three buttons sit at the top right: Add trade-standard items, Categories, and New Item. The whole Admin area is owner only, so this is a page you set up yourself.
Load the trade-standard services
Where to clickAdminPrice BookAdd trade-standard items
Press Add trade-standard items, the first of the three buttons at the top right. In the dialog's own words, it will "Fill your price book with common services for your trade, priced from your hourly rate, plus the service types used to schedule jobs."
Pick your Trade and type your Hourly labor rate, and the panel underneath says how many services would be added and at what rate. Pillar has service sets written for 22 trades, and General Contractor and Other get a general starter set of common services.
The button names the job it is about to do: Add 12 items when 12 are missing, Add 4 service types when the items are all there, and Save rate only when nothing at all is missing. Saving also stores the figure you typed as your company's standard hourly rate.
Service types come along with the items. They set how long a job takes and suggest time slots when you schedule one, and you manage them later under Admin then Appointment Templates.
Sort items into categories
Where to clickAdminPrice BookCategories
Press Categories, the middle button at the top right, or pick Categories straight from the admin menu in the left sidebar. The page is headed Categories, with Organize your price book items and equipment into categories under it.
Press New in the tree header to create one, and drag rows to reorder them. Select any category to list its items on the right, where you can move them somewhere else.
Anything with no category sits under Uncategorized, which is a perfectly fine place to leave it. A category cannot be deleted while subcategories, price book items, or equipment are still assigned to it.
Add your own item
Where to clickAdminPrice BookNew Item
Press New Item, the last of the three buttons at the top right of the price book page. The form opens on New Price Book Item, with Add a new service or product to your catalog under the heading.
Item Code and Name are required. Under Pricing, choose Flat Rate (Fixed Price) or Per Square Foot (Rate x Area), then Use Pricing Formula (Recommended) or Manual Pricing.
Manual pricing asks you for Base Cost and List Price; a formula works the price out and shows it as Calculated List Price. Set a Category under Organization, add photos if you have them, and press Create Item.
Find and edit items later
Where to clickAdminPrice BookFilters
The Filters card at the top of the price book searches by name, code, or description, and narrows the list by category or status. It opens on Active Only, so switch to All Items if something you expected is not showing.
The table lists Item Code, Name, Category, Templates, Base Cost, List Price, and Status. Press the pencil on any row to open Edit Price Book Item, make your change, and press Update Item.
That is the payoff for the setup: every active item shows up behind Select from Catalog when you build an estimate or an invoice, at the price you set here.
Common questions
Will loading the trade-standard items overwrite prices I have already edited?
No. Items are matched on their item code, so anything already in your price book is skipped rather than replaced, and the dialog tells you the overlap before you press the button.
What if my trade is not one of the 22?
General Contractor and Other get a general starter set of common services, priced from the same hourly rate you type in. Every item is yours to rename, reprice, or delete afterward.
Where does the hourly rate I type go?
It prices every service the template adds, and it is also saved as your standard hourly rate on the company. You can change it in the same dialog later, or in the Standard hourly rate field under Admin, Company Settings.
Do I have to use categories?
No. Items with no category sit under Uncategorized and work exactly the same, but categories make a long catalog faster to filter and search.
Can my dispatcher edit the price book?
No, the whole Admin area is owner only, so a dispatcher who opens it lands back on the dashboard. Everyone still uses the catalog through Select from Catalog when they build an estimate or invoice.