Item Units

Price an item by the square foot, the hour, the cubic yard - or by the item. Units are chosen on the item itself while you build an estimate or invoice, and can be cleared again at any time.

Choosing a unit

Units are set on the item, not in your settings. You pick one while adding or editing an item on an estimate or invoice.

  1. Add or edit an item

    On your estimate or invoice, add a new item or tap an existing one to edit it.

  2. Go to the quantity step

    The Unit button appears next to the quantity. It is only shown on that step.

  3. Tap Unit

    The Select Unit window opens, listing the units grouped under Default, Length, Area, Volume, Weight and Time.

  4. Tap the unit you want

    It is applied straight away and the window closes. The unit currently in use is highlighted when you reopen the list, so you can always see what is selected.

Note: if the item comes from your catalog and already belongs to a unit family, only units from that family are offered - an item measured in area will not offer you hours. The items entry is always available.
Tip: to leave the window without changing anything, use Cancel at the bottom. Closing it that way keeps whatever unit was already set.

Clearing the unit

There is no separate remove button - you clear a unit by selecting the plain items entry under the Default heading at the top of the list. That takes the item back to being priced per item, exactly as it was before any unit was chosen.

Selecting and unselecting

Tapping any unit under Length, Area, Volume, Weight or Time selects it. Tapping items under Default unselects whatever was there. You can switch back and forth as often as you like while building the item.

Available units

Group Units
Default items
Length m, cm, mm, km, mi, ft, inches
Area sq m, sq ft, sq in
Volume cu yard, cu ft, cu m, gal, l
Weight lbs
Time hours
Hours behave a little differently: choosing hours also marks the item as a service rather than a product. That is usually what you want for labour lines.

How it reads on the item

Once a unit is set, the item shows the rate and the resulting total in plain language. A tiling line priced at $12.50 per square foot with a quantity of 120 reads:

On the item

@ $12.50 per sq ft
120 sq ft ($1,500.00)

Without a unit, the same item simply shows the price per item and the line total. Nothing else about the estimate changes - taxes, markup and discounts all work the same way either way.

Default unit on a catalog item

If you use the same unit for a product every time, set it once on the catalog item instead of picking it on every estimate. Open the product in your catalog and set its Default Unit.

From then on, adding that product to an estimate or invoice starts with that unit already selected. You can still change it on any individual item without affecting the catalog entry.

Tip: this pays off most on materials you quote constantly - flooring in square feet, concrete in cubic yards, labour in hours.

Turning units off

Units are switched on for everyone by default. If you never price by measurement and would rather not see the button at all, turn off Allow Item Units in your profile settings. The Unit button then disappears from the quantity step and every item is priced per item.

Watch for this: the Unit button is also hidden on items whose quantity is hidden. If you expected to see it and it is not there, check whether that item is showing a quantity at all.