Material database and prices

Every item carries two prices, and the difference between them is the most useful thing the specification gives you.

The planned price

Entered when the list is built, before buying. It is your estimate of what the item will cost.

Planned prices add up into totals for the task and the stage, so you can see the budget before any money is spent.

The actual price

Entered when the purchase is recorded — it is a required field on the form. Whether you paid more or less than planned, what stays in the system is what was on the till receipt.

Once a purchase is recorded, the totals use the actual price.

What the difference gives you

Across a few objects a picture builds up: where you consistently misjudge and by how much. The gap is usually not random — certain categories of material reliably come out above the estimate.

This is the only way to learn to price more accurately without relying on instinct.

Partial purchases

When only part of an item is bought, the remainder lives its own life: it stays in the list and is bought separately, at its own price. That is as it should be — a second batch almost never costs the same as the first.

How not to lose the data

Enter the price at the till, not that evening from memory. This is exactly where cost tracking breaks: the receipt goes missing, the amount is recorded approximately, and a month later the real cost of the job cannot be established.

Next

Adding materials

Recording a purchase

Item history