Adding Parts and Materials to Jobs

Adding materials directly to a job

Open any job and scroll to the Materials section. Click Add item and fill in the following fields:

• Description — the part name or a brief description (e.g. “22mm compression elbow”)
• Unit cost — what you paid for the item
• Sell price — what you charge the customer
• Quantity — how many units were used

Trade2Base calculates your margin per line item as you type, so you can see immediately whether your sell price is covering your cost.

Searching from your parts catalogue

If you have a parts catalogue set up, click Search catalogue instead of entering details manually. Type the part name or SKU and matching items appear instantly. Select a result to pre-fill the description, unit cost, and sell price — you only need to enter the quantity.

This keeps your pricing consistent across jobs and saves time when the same parts come up repeatedly.

Setting up your parts catalogue

Go to Settings → Parts & Materials. From here you can:

• Add individual parts by clicking New part and entering the name, SKU, unit cost, and default sell price
• Organise parts into categories (e.g. Pipework, Electrical, Fixings) for easier searching
• Bulk import from a CSV file — see below for the required format

Any changes to catalogue prices apply to new jobs only — existing job lines are not retroactively updated.

Billable vs non-billable items

Each material line has a Billable toggle. When enabled (the default), the item appears on the customer-facing quote and invoice with the sell price. When disabled, the item is recorded internally for cost tracking but is hidden from the customer.

Use non-billable items for consumables you absorb into your labour rate, or for materials covered under a service contract where you don't itemise parts.

How materials appear on quotes and invoices

Billable material lines flow automatically into any quote or invoice generated for that job. They appear as individual line items beneath your labour charges, each showing the description, quantity, unit price, and line total.

If you prefer to group materials into a single “Parts & Materials” lump sum, go to Settings → Invoice preferences and toggle Group materials. This keeps the itemised detail visible internally while showing the customer a single combined figure.

Tracking material costs and margin

Trade2Base calculates your gross margin for every job by comparing total revenue (labour + billable materials) against total costs (labour cost + all material unit costs, including non-billable items). You can see this in two places:

• Job detail page — a margin summary card shows revenue, cost, and margin % for that job
• Reports → Revenue — filter by date range or job type to see aggregate margin across your business

This helps you spot job types where material costs are eating into your margin and adjust your pricing accordingly.

Bulk importing parts from CSV

To import a large parts list, go to Settings → Parts & Materials → Import CSV. Download the template file to see the required column headers:

• name, sku, category, unit_cost, sell_price, vat_rate

Fill in your parts, save as CSV (UTF-8), and upload the file. Trade2Base validates each row and shows a preview before importing. Any rows with missing required fields are flagged for correction.

After import, your parts appear immediately in the catalogue and are searchable from any job.

Still need help?

Contact our UK support team via live chat or email support@trade2base.com.