ForemanFOREMAN

Cost items

Build a reusable library of priced cost items — unit, cost, margin, and cost code — so new budgets come together fast and stay consistent.

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.

Don’t see this?

If you don't see Cost Database in the sidebar, your role may not include cost database access. Ask your organization owner to grant it.

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), or leave it blank if you are waiting for a quote. An entered zero means a known $0 cost. Add a Margin % if needed (profit as a percentage of the client price, not markup on cost).
  7. Click Create Item.

Note

Unit Price is calculated for you from cost and margin — it's what the client sees. You don't enter it directly.

Edit items inline

The cost items table is a spreadsheet — click once to select a cell, then double-click to edit it in place. Arrow keys move the selection, and Enter opens the selected cell. Edits stay in your local draft until you click Save changes in the toolbar. Discard restores the saved values. Leaving the page with unsaved edits prompts you to save or discard them. Clear Unit Cost to leave an item unpriced; its derived Unit Price also stays blank in the catalog. You can even type into the Markup % column and Foreman back-calculates the margin for you.

Cost Code, Cost Type, and Unit are pick-one cells: double-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

Double-click Cost Type to choose a type for the item. An inherited type appears muted; after choosing your own type, Use cost code default clears that override and restores the inherited value. Click Save changes to keep the selection.

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.

Note

Import and Export live in the toolbar on desktop. To remove items, select rows by clicking their number in the left-hand # column (Shift-click for a range, ⌘/Ctrl-click to add one at a time), then use the red Delete N selected button that appears in the toolbar. Click a normal cell or empty sheet space to clear the row selection; ⌘/Ctrl-click a selected row number to toggle it off.

Don’t see this?

Creating, editing, importing, or deleting cost items requires cost database editing access. Being able to view the catalog does not necessarily include those actions.
NextCost groups & budget templates