Set pricing rules in Pricing Builder

Overview#

Pricing Builder holds the rules that price your Cost plus markup and Flat rate items: what a labor hour sells for, what it costs you, how much to mark up parts by cost range, and how to round. When a supplier cost or a rule changes, every rule-priced item that depends on it reprices at the next publish. Fixed-price items are never touched by these rules.

Before you start#

• You need pricebook.write. Only owners and admins can open this page. Other roles are sent to the home page.

• Until you save your own rules, TradesWork uses defaults: labor at $150.00 per hour, rounding up to whole dollars, and this markup table:

Steps#

Open Pricing Builder#

1. Go to Pricebook › Pricing Builder, or click the Pricing rules tab on the pricebook page.

2. The header shows the published pricebook version and date, for example "Published version 7 · 2026-10-01".

Set labor#

In the Labor card:

• Labor rate per hour (required): what one sold labor hour bills at. Flat rate = labor hours × rate + materials at markup.

• Labor cost per hour (optional): your wages and burden. With it, service cost includes labor, so service margins are honest. Without it, a service's cost is its materials only.

Set the markup table#

In the Markup by cost card:

1. Each row has Cost up to and Multiplier ×.

2. Fill rows from the lowest cost to the highest. Each limit must be bigger than the one above.

3. Leave Cost up to blank on the last row. It covers everything above ("and above").

4. You can use up to seven rows on the page. The table applies to cost-plus items and to materials inside flat-rate services, unless the item has its own Markup × or its category has its own table. A cost exactly at a limit uses that row: a $10.00 part uses the "up to $10.00" row.

Under the table, Examples with today's rules shows what $4.50, $20.00, $120.00, $600.00 and $2,500.00 of cost turn into, after markup and rounding, using your saved rules.

Set rounding#

In the Rounding section:

• Round:

  • Don't round.

  • To the nearest step: for example, to the nearest $5.

  • Up to the next step: always rounds up.

  • Up to a price ending: the smallest price at or above the raw price that ends in your ending.

• Step: the step size. 1.00 means whole dollars.

• Ending: used with "Up to a price ending". Step 10.00 with ending 9.00 gives prices like $189 and $199.

Rounding applies to cost-plus and flat-rate prices. Fixed prices are never rounded.

Save and publish#

1. Click Save rules. You'll see "Saved. New prices go live when you publish the working draft."

2. Saving creates the working draft if there isn't one. Open it from the Not live yet: strip on the pricebook page.

3. Review every price the new rules move, then click Publish.

Settings that change this#

• Pricebook › Categories: a category's own markup table overrides this one for its items.

• Each item's Markup × overrides both tables.

• Settings › Operations › Memberships: the repair discount that sets default member prices. Member prices are calculated from the rounded price.

Tips#

• Change one thing at a time and look at the draft review before publishing. The Avg. margin tile tells you the impact.

• If you buy most parts from one distributor, import their price file after changing the markup table. See Supplier catalogs and price files.

• Set Labor cost per hour even if you don't use flat rate. It makes margins on services meaningful.

Troubleshooting#

• "Enter the labor rate per hour." The labor rate can't be blank.

• "Cost ranges must go up, and the last one must have no upper limit." Check your rows are in order and the last Cost up to is blank.

• "Enter the markup as a multiplier, like 2.5." Multipliers are numbers greater than 0 and up to 100. Don't type a percent.

• "The ending must be smaller than the step." With step 10.00, the ending must be under 10.00.

• The examples don't match what I typed. Examples use the saved rules. Click Save rules first.

• Prices didn't change. Rules apply when a draft is published.

FAQ#

Q: Do new rules apply right away? No. They apply at the next publish of any draft. That includes a supplier price file draft, so check the review before publishing.

Q: Is there a separate price for members here? No. Member prices come from each item's member price setting and your membership plans.

Q: Can I have a different labor rate per trade? No. There is one labor rate per company. Use a category markup table for parts, or fixed prices for services that need a different rate.

Coming from ServiceTitan#

• This is TradesWork's version of ServiceTitan's Pricebook Pro rules: labor rate, material markup tiers and rounding.

• Different: changes are previewed item by item in a draft before going live.

• There is one labor rate per company, not one per business unit.