Cost items

Your cost database is your company's reusable price book. A cost item is a single line you sell over and over — "Framing Labor," "2x4 Stud," "Excavation" — saved once with its unit, cost, and margin so you can drop it into any project's Budget without retyping the numbers.

Open your cost items

1. From the sidebar, click Cost Database.
2. You'll land on the Cost Items tab.

Add a cost item

1. On the Cost Items tab, click Add Item.
2. Enter a Name (required) — e.g. Framing Labor.
3. Pick a Cost Code to tie the item to your project-costing structure (optional).
4. Add a Description for any notes.
5. Set the Unit (Each, Linear Feet, Square Feet, Hour, Lump Sum, and more) and a Default Qty if it's usually the same.
6. Enter the Unit Cost (what it costs you) and a Margin % (profit as a percentage of the client price, not markup on cost).
7. Click Create Item.

Edit items inline

The cost items table is a spreadsheet — click any cell to edit it in place. Name, Description, Qty, Unit Cost, and Margin % save as soon as you move off the cell. You can even type into the Markup % column and Foreman back-calculates the margin for you.

Cost Code and Unit are pick-one cells: clicking opens the full list right there, and typing filters it inside the cell — Cost Code matches the code number as well as the name, and only leaf codes are offered. If nothing matches, the list offers assign to Uncategorized.

Cost type

Each item shows a Cost Type (Material, Labor, Subcontractor, etc.). It's display-only here — resolved from the item, otherwise from its cost code's default — so set it on the Cost Codes tab (see the Cost codes article).

Import and export

1. Click Import to bring in items from a CSV (matched by column headers like Name, Unit, Unit Cost, Margin %).
2. Click Export to download your current items as a CSV.