Adding items

There are four ways to get an item into the bill. Which you use depends on whether the work is standard for you.

Method	Use it when
Add New Item	A one-off you have no rate for
Import from Price Lists	Work you do regularly and have rates for
Import Assembly	A group of items that always go together
Duplicate selected	Another item on this job is nearly the same

If you find yourself using Add New Item repeatedly for the same kind of work, that work belongs in your price list.

Typing a few letters into + Item searches your price lists as you go, each match showing its unit and rate. Pick one and it is imported; type a name nobody matches and you get a blank item to fill in. If the match lives in a different cost code to the one you are in, you are asked where to put it first.

The Item window

Open an item with its pencil in the BOQ, or add one with Add New on the ribbon. The window has two tabs.

Item has everything about the item:

Field	What it is
Name	Short name, shown in the grid
Description	The full wording, used on orders and reports
Cost code	New items only: the cost code it goes under. It starts on the one the BOQ is showing
Quantity	Typed here, or worked out another way. See Getting a quantity
Unit	m, m², m³, each, hour, item, sum
Price	Cost per unit. Tick I typed it including GST and the project’s GST comes off
In the estimate	Switched off, the item stays in the bill but counts as nothing
Product	Which of the item’s products sets its price. None uses the item’s own price
Row no.	Where it sits in the bill
Item code	The item’s code, usually from the price list
Item size	How much one covers (2.88 m² a sheet), for the “by size” roundings
GST	Whether GST applies
Markup	The project’s markup, or its own percentage
Provision	Provisional sum or prime cost allowance
Cost type	Labour, material, subcontractor and so on
Progress	Incomplete, Completed, Outstanding Quote, RFI
Purchase order note	Printed on the order sent to the supplier
Internal note	Never leaves your office

When the quantity comes from somewhere other than typing (a calc sheet, another item, a formula, a take-off field), it says where from, and Change… opens Calculate quantity.

Cost codes shows the job’s cost code lists and where the item is filed in each. Pick one to move it; type to find it. Changes save straight away. Taking an item out of its only cost code asks first: it would count in the job’s total but in no cost code’s (see Items not in a cost code).

Duplicate makes a copy under the same cost codes and opens it. Ctrl+S saves.

A closed job, or an item under a Completed cost code, opens read-only with the reason at the top. Prices and markup only show to people allowed to see them.

The two note fields

They go to different places, and mixing them up is how internal margin commentary ends up on a subcontractor’s order:

• Internal Note — never printed on anything that leaves your office. This is where “check this rate, looks light” belongs.
• Purchase Order Note — prints on the order. This is where “deliver to rear lane, no crane access” belongs.

In the bill, the Item column shows them under the item name so you can tell them apart at a glance: the description in grey, the internal note in pink, and the purchase order note highlighted in yellow.

Wastage

Wastage (%) is added on top of the measured quantity. Measure 100 m² of tiles with 10% wastage and the item carries 110 m².

Put wastage here rather than in the measurement. The measured quantity stays an honest record of what is on the drawing, the wastage stays visible and adjustable, and neither is buried in the other.

Tip

Wastage on the item also means you can change your allowance across a trade without re-measuring anything — useful when a tiler tells you their cutting waste is nearer 15% than 10%.

Importing from a price list

Import from Price Lists opens a window over the bill with your price lists in it.

• On the left, pick the price list, then a cost code. Type in the box above the tree to find one; All items shows the whole price list.
• On the right, switch between Items and Products (the supplier products on those items), and search by code, name, description, SKU or supplier.
• Click Add, or double-click a row, to put it in the bill.

The window opens on the cost code you are working in, when that cost code came from a price list. Each row tells you what you need before you pick it:

You see	It means
In BOQ (or In BOQ ×2)	It is already in this estimate — once, or that many times
Yours under the price	Your company’s own price, set in Price lists. It takes the place of the standard rate
A boxes icon and a number	The item has that many supplier products to choose from
A green tick by the cost code	It belongs to the cost code you have selected
Superseded	The supplier has replaced that product

Where it goes works exactly like + Item: it goes to the cost code it belongs to, and if you have a cost code selected and the item belongs somewhere else, you are asked which you want.

After you add an item that has supplier products, the product picker opens so you can choose one straight away. To add several things in a row instead, tick Keep this window open to add more: each one is confirmed at the bottom of the window, and the product picker is skipped.

On a job that is Under Construction or Finished, items can’t be added: the estimate is locked (see Locking). Add the work through a variation instead.

Changing the price list as you go

If you have access to Price lists, the pencil on a row opens that item in Price lists in a new tab, and New item opens the new-item form there, filed under the cost code you are browsing. When you come back to the BOQ tab the window refreshes itself, so your change is already there.

Rows that came from SmarteBuild’s own price list have no pencil. They are shared with every company, so they are not yours to change — bring one into the bill and edit it there, or duplicate it in Price lists to get a copy of your own.

Swapping an item

The swap button on a row of the bill opens the same window, headed Swap item. Pick the replacement and click Swap: the item takes its name, description, unit and price, and keeps its quantity and cost code. Swap from the Products view to take a particular supplier product as well.

The link to the price list

Imported items keep a Link to Pricelist, which is what lets you refresh rates later — see Suppliers and products.

An item you typed by hand has no link, so it will never pick up a price update. If the work is going to recur, add it to the price list and import it instead.

The price in the list is the price you get. It is your company’s price — including any price you have set yourself in Price lists, which takes the place of the standard rate — and that same figure is what lands in the bill. That holds for all three ways of using the list:

• Importing an item — the item comes in at the price shown.
• Importing a product (switch the list to Products) — the item comes in with that product attached and selected, at the product’s price shown.
• Swapping an item — the replacement takes the price shown, and in the Products view, the product you picked.

Adding with + Item

Type into + Item and matching price list items appear as you type. Each one shows the cost code it belongs to — for example Concrete Supply — so you can see where it will go before you pick it.

If you have a cost code selected and the item belongs somewhere else, you are asked which you want:

• Add to the selected cost code — it goes into the cost code you are working in.
• Add to where it belongs — it goes into its own cost code. If that is under a different heading, the item is added under that heading instead, and won’t show in the cost code you are looking at; the message afterwards tells you where it went.

There is no question when the item already belongs to the selected cost code, or when no cost code is selected — then it simply goes where it belongs.

Only price list items filed under a cost code appear here, the same as in Import from Price Lists. An item with no cost code has nowhere to go; give it one in Price lists first.

Importing an assembly

An assembly is a group of items that always go together. A slab assembly might carry excavation, formwork, mesh, concrete, pump hire, and the labour to place and finish it.

Import Assembly brings the whole group in at once, so you add a slab rather than seven separate lines. Assemblies are also what take-off fields group under, so an assembly and its measurements line up naturally.

Worked example: adding the slab

For the Hendricks extension, under cost code 310 Slab:

1. Import Assembly → Concrete slab — waffle. Six items arrive.
2. Set the quantity on the concrete item from the take-off field Slab concrete.
3. Set the mesh and membrane quantities from Slab area.
4. Add 5% wastage to the mesh.
5. The pump hire is a fixed call-out — leave it at 1 item with a typed rate.

One assembly, two take-off fields, and the slab is priced and will follow any change to the drawing.

Duplicating

Duplicate selected copies items complete with rates and descriptions. Faster than re-importing when a job has several near-identical items — three bathrooms with the same fitout, say.

Duplicate, then change what differs. Watch the descriptions: a duplicated item that still says Ensuite while sitting in the main bathroom is the kind of thing that reaches a subcontractor’s order.

The quantity comes with it however it was worked out — including a formula, which keeps reading the same fields and items the original read. See Bulk operations.