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Build your price book

Your price book is a catalog of flat-rate services and materials you can quickly add to estimates and jobs. Organize items by category and trade (HVAC, plumbing, electrical, or general), then use them to speed up quoting and invoicing. Set your flat price (what you charge customers) and cost (for tracking profit margin) on each item.

All guides

Before you start: You must be logged into your Servtide account with back-office (web) access. Owner or admin permission required to edit the pricebook.

1

Go to Pricebook

Main navigation → Pricebook (BookOpen icon)
  1. Click the Pricebook link in your left sidebar (on desktop) or in the top navigation (on mobile/tablet)
  2. You'll see the page titled 'Pricebook' with subtitle 'Flat-rate catalog used to build estimates and jobs'

Watch out

  • On first visit, you'll see an empty state: 'No categories yet' with the hint 'Add a category, then add items to it.'
2

Add your first category

Pricebook page → New category section (at the bottom)
  1. Scroll to the bottom of the Pricebook page to find the 'New category' card
  2. In the Name field, enter a category name (e.g., 'HVAC Service', 'Plumbing Repairs', 'Electrical Diagnostics')
  3. From the Trade dropdown, select the trade type: hvac, plumbing, electrical, or general
  4. Click 'Add category' button

What to enter

  • Name: Required. Max 120 characters. Examples: 'Standard AC Service', 'Emergency Plumbing', 'Electrical Panel Inspection'
  • Trade: Required dropdown. Choose: hvac, plumbing, electrical, or general. Helps organize items by trade type.

Tips

  • Create 1-2 categories per trade to start (e.g., 'HVAC Service', 'HVAC Maintenance').
  • You can have as many categories as you want — add more as your services expand.
  • The category name appears as a header on the Pricebook page and in estimate/job dropdowns.
3

Add items to your category

Pricebook page → Inside each category card
  1. Find the category card you just created on the Pricebook page
  2. Below the category header (or in the form at the bottom of the card if the category is empty), fill in the item fields
  3. Press Tab or click the next field to move through: SKU → Name → Price → Cost → Unit → Add item button
  4. Click 'Add item' button to save

What to enter

  • SKU: Required. A unique short code for the item (e.g., 'AC-FREON', 'PL-TOILET-REP', 'EL-BREAKER'). Max 64 characters. Must be unique across your entire price book — no duplicates.
  • Item name: Required. Display name (e.g., 'Freon Recharge', 'Toilet Repair', 'Circuit Breaker Replacement'). Max 200 characters.
  • Price: Required (or leave blank for $0). Your flat rate in dollars and cents that you charge customers (e.g., 150.00 for $150). Leave blank or enter 0 for no charge.
  • Cost: Optional. Your cost in dollars and cents (e.g., 25.00 for $25). Used to calculate your profit margin. Leave blank for $0.
  • Unit: Optional. Defaults to 'each'. Describes the unit of measure (e.g., 'each', 'hour', 'lb', 'visit', 'ft').

Tips

  • Start with 5-10 common items per category (your most frequent services).
  • Use consistent, short SKU formats (e.g., TRADE-SERVICE-VARIATION: AC-FREON, AC-REPAIR-LEAK).
  • Set accurate Cost values so you can see your true profit margin on jobs and invoices.
  • If an item is a material (e.g., copper pipe), use a unit like 'ft' or 'lb' instead of 'each'.

Watch out

  • SKU (stock keeping unit) must be unique — you'll get an error like 'SKU "AC-FREON" already exists' if you try to duplicate one.
  • Price and Cost accept decimals (e.g., 99.99). The system stores prices in cents internally and displays them as dollars.
  • Items are marked taxable by default — this affects invoice calculations.
  • Items are sorted alphabetically by name within each category.
4

View and manage your catalog

Pricebook page
  1. Each category displays as a card with the category name, trade label, and a table of all items
  2. The table shows: SKU (monospace font) | Name | Price (right-aligned) | Cost (right-aligned, muted) | Unit
  3. Scroll through the table to review pricing and costs

Tips

  • Print or screenshot this page periodically to audit your pricing.
  • Use the Cost column (muted text) to spot profit-margin items; if Cost is close to Price, you have low margin.

Watch out

  • Once an item is added, the UI does not show edit or delete buttons — items are permanent. Plan carefully before adding.
  • Categories are ordered by sort order (internal field); the order you see depends on creation order and any manual sorting by the backend.
  • If a category has no items, it shows 'No items in this category.' and an empty add-item form.
5

Use your price book in estimates and jobs

Estimates page or Jobs page → Add item form
  1. When creating an estimate or adding a line item to a job, you'll see a dropdown to choose a pricebook item
  2. Click the dropdown and select any item from your price book by name or category
  3. The system will auto-fill the price, cost, and tax status from your pricebook entry
  4. Adjust quantity if needed, then save

Tips

  • Using pricebook items is much faster than entering custom prices manually.
  • The price pulled from the pricebook is authoritative — if you update the pricebook, future estimates use the new price, but existing estimates keep their historical price.
  • You can also enter a custom one-off item without using the pricebook if you need to — it won't save to the pricebook.

Done when

  • Created at least 1 category for your primary trade (HVAC, plumbing, electrical, or general)
  • Added 5-10 core service items to your first category with accurate prices and costs
  • Verified all SKUs are unique and follow your naming convention
  • Reviewed the Price book page and confirmed items display correctly in the table
  • Added a pricebook item to a test estimate or job to confirm it auto-fills correctly
  • Set aside time to add more categories and items as you expand your services

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