Working with Your Catalog
Your Catalog (Settings → Item catalog) is the single list of every item your estimates use — materials, labor, equipment, fees. Each row has a type, unit, price, and price source, and can sit in any number of component packages. There is one copy of each item: edit it anywhere and every package that includes it updates.1. Browse the catalog
Four columns: Item, Type, Price, Source. Filters: Search items by name or SKU; Type pills All / Material / Labor / Misc; Price source Any price source / My price / Supplier price / XBuild price; Scope All / My company (items you created or edited) / XBuild catalog (built-in defaults). Click a header to sort or flip. The count beside the filters shows items in view and, once a supplier is connected, when prices were last refreshed. The catalog is per Location (switch atop the Settings sidebar). Untouched items carry an XBuild default badge; until you add or edit your own, only those show and the AI estimates from them.2. What an item holds
Click a row to open the item drawer:- Item name, optional description — what search, packages, and the estimate editor match on.
- Type: Material, Labor, Equipment, Fee, Other.
- Price, Unit: per-unit price; unit from a fixed list (Each, SQ, LF, Bundle, Roll, Hour…). Reads Default price when the item has options — their fallback.
- Price source: step 4.
- Margin: adds your default margin to the Client price, math shown beneath. Fees default off, other types on. Shown when your default margin is a percentage (Pricing and profit).
- Options: step 5.
- Estimation instructions: quantity rules the AI follows, e.g. “qty = roof squares × 1.10 waste, round up to full squares.”
- Included in component packages: each package carrying the item, with Remove and Add to package….
3. Edit an item — anywhere, once
Drawer edits autosave (Saving… → Saved, Undo for the last change); close with Done or ×. Add item in the page header opens an empty drawer; click Create. New items always land in your own catalog.- Edits apply everywhere — “Used in 3 packages — changes apply everywhere.”
- An XBuild default becomes yours on first edit. Your copy replaces it, keeps the XBuild default badge, and also appears under My company. Other companies’ catalogs aren’t affected.
- Names are unique, ignoring capitalization and extra spaces (“3 Tab Shingle” = “3 tab shingle”); inactive items count. The drawer flags Name already in use and won’t save until changed.
- Estimates keep their own numbers. Prices are captured at generation; catalog changes affect future estimates, not saved proposal versions (Editing estimates and proposals).
- Edit: opens the drawer.
- Rename: in place; same uniqueness rule.
- Deactivate: confirms, lists the packages it’ll leave, then retires it — listed muted as Inactive, unused by the AI.
- Reactivate: immediate, but doesn’t rejoin the packages it left; use Add to package….
- Refresh price: supplier-priced items only (step 6).
- Delete: only items you created from scratch (defaults and your copies can only be deactivated). Removes the item from your catalog and every package; existing estimates keep their copies.
4. Price sources and supplier links
Fallback. A supplier-linked item also keeps your own price, “used whenever the supplier has no price”: if the supplier returns none, XBuild uses it and flags that estimate line. Items with options can carry several sources; the Source column lists each.
Linking needs a supplier connected in this Location (Settings → Connectors, per Location — see ABC Supply). Open the item, choose Supplier on Price source (or Link product…), and type at least two characters of product name or SKU; results come from your connected supplier only, grouped by supplier, with branch and stock status where reported. Pick one; the SKU and supplier price appear on the row. The × by the SKU unlinks, back to My price at your fallback number. Options link and unlink the same way from Linked product; No link — keep this option manual closes the search unlinked.
5. Options
Options are variants of one item — colors, sizes, grades — each with its own price and optional supplier link, chosen per estimate line. In Options:- Add option and name it.
- Set Pricing: Supplier (link a product), My price (type a number), or Item price (inherit the item’s default).
- Mark one Default — what a line gets when nothing else is chosen.
- Drag or use the move arrows to reorder; the trash icon deletes.
6. Refresh or edit prices in the list
Supplier prices are fetched and stored, not looked up live. Refresh price (item ••• menu) toasts the new price, or that the supplier had none. Refresh pricing (page header, shown once a supplier is connected) refreshes every supplier-priced item you own and reports how many updated and how many couldn’t be priced. The “prices refreshed” stamp updates either way. My price values edit inline — tinted in the Price column; click, type, Enter. Supplier prices are plain text; refresh instead.7. How the catalog feeds estimates
The AI estimates from your active component packages: it computes quantities from measurements using each item’s Estimation instructions and the package’s Construction logic, prices lines from their source, and applies your default margin (Pricing and profit). Company-wide rules go in Estimate preferences. In the estimate editor, typing in a line’s description searches the catalog and fills in type, unit, price, and source (Editing estimates and proposals).8. Troubleshooting common issues
- I changed a price and my package still shows the old one. A package shows the item, not a copy — reload the package page; if it still disagrees, contact XBuild Support with the item name.
- A supplier-priced item used my price on an estimate. The supplier had no price when the estimate ran; the fallback applied and the line is flagged. Refresh price to retry, and check the linked SKU is one the supplier still carries.