Why custom items
The component catalogue and Contractors Choice cover a lot, but every company has items of its own: a made-up assembly, a supplier-specific fitting, a labour-only line. Custom Items is a company-wide price list you maintain yourself. Each item carries a material price, a discount, plant cost and labour time and rate, and can be linked to any marker group or attached to a group template so it comes through automatically.
Custom items are shared across your company. Anyone can add, edit or delete them.
The Custom Items page
With no drawing open, expand Templates in the left navigation and click Custom Items . At the top right are Import from CSV and New Custom Item.
Below them is a toolbar with a Search custom items… box, filter buttons for Category, Manufacturer, Heading, Group and Take Off, a Reset button that appears once a filter is active, and a count such as 12 of 340 items. Each filter shows how many items match each choice, and the choices narrow as you add filters.
The table lists items in code order, 50 per page, with these columns:
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Code | Your short reference for the item |
| Description | Item description |
| Category | Classification used for filtering |
| Material List Price | Price before discount |
| (Discount) | Discount percentage applied to the list price |
| Material Total | List price less the discount |
| Plant | Plant cost |
| Labour Time | Hours of labour |
| Labour Rate | Hourly labour rate |
| Total Lab Cost | Labour Time multiplied by Labour Rate |
| Total | Material Total plus Plant plus Total Lab Cost |
| Actions | Edit and Delete |
All figures are per-unit rates for the item. ZeroCount does not multiply them by the takeoff quantity on this page.
Creating an item
- 1
Click New Custom Item.
- 2
Enter a Code and Description.
- 3
Fill in Category, Manufacturer, Heading and Group. These drive the filters here and in the Database Items window.
- 4
Choose a Take Off of Unit, Linear or Area to say which kind of group the item is meant for.
- 5
Enter the Material List Price and, if you buy at a discount, the Discount (%) between 0 and 100. Material Total updates as you type.
- 6
Enter a Plant Cost if plant is needed to install the item.
- 7
Enter Labour Time and Labour Rate. Total Labour Cost and Item Total update automatically.
- 8
Optionally add Meta data tags: type a tag and press Enter. Remove a tag with its ✕.
- 9
Click Create.
The dialog closes as soon as you click Create and the item appears in the list.
How the totals are worked out
| Computed field | Formula |
|---|---|
| Material Total | Material List Price × (1 − Discount ÷ 100) |
| Total Labour Cost | Labour Time × Labour Rate |
| Item Total | Material Total + Plant Cost + Total Labour Cost |
Set Take Off on every item. When you link an item from a Linear group, the Database Items window pre-filters custom items to Take Off = Linear, so a correctly tagged list is much quicker to pick from.
Editing and deleting
Click the pencil on a row to open Edit Custom Item, make your changes and click Save changes. Click the trash to delete; the Delete custom item? prompt explains that the item will be permanently removed and offers a Don't ask again checkbox. You can turn the prompt back on under User Preferences › Confirmations › Deleting a custom item.
A marker group that is linked to a custom item keeps a snapshot of the item as it was when linked. Editing or deleting the item afterwards does not change what that group shows or prices at.
Linking a custom item to a group
- 1
In the marker sidebar, click the link button on a group row, or open the group's menu and choose Link Item .
- 2
In the Database Items window, open the dataset dropdown and choose Custom.
- 3
Use the search box or the Category, Manufacturer, Heading, Group and Take Off filters to find the item.
- 4
Double-click the row to link it.
The group row now shows the item's code and description, with its meta data tags, and the link icon turns solid . Items you have linked before also appear under the Recent dataset. To unlink, click the link button again or use Unlink custom item in the menu.
Attaching a custom item to a group template
Open Templates › Groups, open a template, and click Link on a group row. Choose Custom in the Database Items window and double-click the item. Every drawing that imports the template gets that group already linked to the item, and the link survives when you fill the group with detections or take off into it.
Common issues
An item is missing from the Database Items window
Check the filters: opening the window from a group seeds a Take Off filter, so an item tagged Unit will not show when linking from a Linear group. Clear the filter chip, or edit the item's Take Off.
The Discount field refuses my value
Discount must be between 0 and 100. Enter the percentage, not the discounted price.
Next steps
- Importing custom items from CSV — load a whole price list from your estimating software's export.
- Linking to custom items — more on how a linked custom item is shown and priced.
- The Database Items window — the datasets, search and filters used when linking.
- Group costs and totals — how linked prices roll up in the sidebar and export.
- Group templates — build templates that carry your custom items.