Catalog items, kits and work
Your catalog is every item your shop buys and every piece of work you sell, in one list: a fan-rated box, a foot of wire, a wire cap — and "install new duplex outlet", "install recessed can light", "pull permit". Some items are kits: a ceiling fan install is the fan, a ceiling brace, the box, some wire and a few wire caps. Build the kit once, and adding it to a bid will bring everything it needs.
Work is a kit you offer at the site visit: your estimator picks it per room at intake ("8 outlets in the kitchen"), and on the bid it arrives as that kit, with its parts and its own labor. Work used to live on a separate Scope items screen; it is all here now.
Find it under Settings → Catalog. The Work (offered at site visit) and Parts filters at the top split the list in two. When there are items nobody has checked yet — fresh from an import, say — the page opens on Needs review so you see those first; otherwise it opens on All.
Add an item
Click New item, give it a name, a price and a unit (ea, ft, box), and
click Create item. The code is made from the name unless you type one.
Making a kit? Leave the price at 0. On a bid, a kit costs the sum of its parts.
Click an item's code in the catalog list to open it. Changes save as you leave each field. If you change a Price by more than half — $45.00 to $4.50, say — Flow asks before saving, in case it's a typo; Cancel puts the old price back. Save at the bottom of the page waits for everything to land and says All changes saved with the time.
Build a kit
On an item's page, under Made of, search for a part in Add a component and pick it. Then, for each part:
- Quantity: how many for one of the kit. Three wire caps per fan.
- Enter when bidding: for amounts that change every job, like wire. The estimator types the amount when adding the kit; your number is only a starting suggestion.
- Optional: the estimator can leave it out, like a ceiling brace that some ceilings don't need. Optional parts are included unless they untick them.
- Include: Always, or only when the answer to a yes/no question about the house is yes (or no). Pick New yes/no question… to add one, such as "Does the house have a white neutral wire?". The question is asked once per job and remembered for every kit on that job.
- Pick-one group: for a choice, like which of your ten ceiling fans. Give each fan the same group name, such as "Ceiling fan" (it's matched ignoring case and spacing, and names already in the kit are offered as you type). When the kit goes on a bid, the estimator picks one fan for each kit: one for one kit, or three for three kits, all the same or a mix. A part in a group can't also be optional, because the pick decides whether it's in. A group part can still have an Include question: a smart fan that needs a neutral wire is greyed out when the answer is No.
- How many per kit: once a part is in a group, a number appears under the group name. It starts at 1. Set it to 3 when each kit takes three of the group, such as three wire connectors per can light. Ten lights then ask for 30 connectors, all the same or a mix (say 20 wire nuts and 10 lever nuts). The number belongs to the whole group, so changing it on one part changes it on all of them. If every light always takes three of the same part, you don't need a group at all: put that part in the kit with a quantity of 3.
Kits can contain kits: a "bedroom" kit can hold two ceiling-fan kits.
What the estimator decides shows exactly what adding this kit will ask: questions first, then pick-one groups, then amounts, then optional parts, then anything not set up yet. Everything it brings lists every part at every level, with quantities multiplied out.
Stubs: parts you haven't set up yet
If a part isn't in your catalog, type its name in Add a component and pick Add "…" as a stub. It goes into the kit straight away, marked Needs setup and highlighted wherever it appears. You can come back for the price later. Use Needs setup at the top of the catalog list to see them all.
To finish one, open it, give it a price (or the parts it's made of), and click Done setting up.
A bid that includes a part still marked Needs setup can't be sent, because its price would be a guess.
Work: what you offer at the site visit
Open an item and tick Offer at the site visit in its Work card, or use New work item on the catalog's Work view. From then on it is in Stage 1's scope picker, and the Work card shows what only work has:
| What it is | Where it shows up | |
|---|---|---|
| Labor role | Who does the work — Journeyman, Apprentice | The bid prices its labor at that role's rate |
| Phases, in order | The steps it runs through | A bid built phase by phase opens with them |
| Ask for a location note at intake | Whether intake asks where it goes | Intake — "4 ft AFF, right of the fridge" |
| Notes | Your own nuances, in plain words | This page |
Its code, name and unit are the item's own, in Details above. Its parts are
the kit's components, under Parts it brings: one of each per piece of work
unless you say otherwise. A part sold by the foot, like wire, is Enter when
bidding instead, starting from a typical run: the sample work items suggest
50 ft for a new circuit and 15 ft for a can light or a pendant. Change the
suggestion to suit how your shop runs wire; the estimator can still change it
on any bid. When the work comes in a few versions — a 15A or a
20A device — put the alternatives in one pick-one group (call it device,
box, anything you like). The first part in a group is the one Flow reaches for
when it has to choose for you.
A piece of work can have no parts at all. An inspection walk consumes labor; a permit is a fee. It still goes on the bid, so its labor has a line.
You need at least one role under Settings → Labor rates & burden before you can offer work: work pointed at a role that doesn't exist can't be priced. The Labor role on a piece of work is the trade that does it; on the bid, the estimator can still hand its labor to a named person (see Who does the work).
Reviewed vs needs review
Your account arrives with a draft list of work and a draft phase mapping. That draft is our guess at an electrical shop, not your answer, so each piece of work is marked Needs review until somebody who knows the trade saves its phases or clicks Looks right — confirm as-is. Saving no phases counts too: "a permit runs through no phases" is a real answer.
Work a salesperson adds at the site visit with Add as new scope lands here too, marked Needs review. Give it its parts and phases and confirm it, or retire it if it was a one-off.
Tick phases in the order the work runs them, not the order they're listed in, and use the ↑ / ↓ buttons to rearrange.
What happens on a bid
- A remodel is bid room by room. When its bid first opens, every piece of work scoped at the site visit is already in its room, as that kit, at the scoped quantity — with its parts and a labor row at zero hours, priced at its labor role, waiting for you to say how long it takes. A pick-one group takes its first part and an "enter when bidding" amount its suggestion; change either by updating the kit. Work that needs an answer only you can give (a yes/no question nobody has answered on this job) is left for you to add with the kit picker.
- A new build is bid by phase. Its bid opens with the phases its scoped work runs through, one row per phase and role, at zero hours.
Neither ever changes a bid that already has lines on it.
Using a kit on a bid
In the bid builder, kits show (kit) in the part list. Pick one, say how many, and click Add kit…. Flow shows what it needs from you first, then everything the kit brings. See Building a bid.
Find an item
Type in the search box above the list to find items by code, name or part number. A search looks across your whole catalog, and the filter chips narrow it from there.
Retire an item
Stopped buying something, or stopped selling a piece of work? Open it and click Retire item. It stops being offered when you add parts to a bid, build a kit, or scope a job at intake. Nothing else changes:
- bids that used it keep it;
- kits that already contain it still bring it.
If someone tries to add it to a bid anyway, Flow says it's retired.
Retired items move to the Retired filter on the catalog page. Open one and click Restore item to bring it back. Retiring is the gentle option. Delete, below, removes the item for good.
Delete an item
At the foot of an item's page, click Delete item. Before anything happens, Flow tells you what it touches:
- the kits it's in, which it comes out of;
- the parts a kit is made of, which stay in your catalog;
- bids that already use it, which don't change. Every bid line keeps the name and price it was added with.
Sample kits
A shop that starts from the sample catalog also gets four sample kits: Duplex outlet — new work, Single-pole switch — new work, Recessed LED light — remodel and Ceiling fan install. They're built from the sample parts. Anything the sample price list doesn't carry (a wall plate, the fan itself, a fan-rated box, a brace) is a stub for you to price. Edit them, copy the idea, or delete them. They're yours.