This page centralizes all approved materials and budget codes so teams order consistently, track costs accurately, and reduce errors across procurement workflows.
Purpose
The Material Database plays a central role in SubBase by serving as the single source of truth for materials and budget structure used throughout the entire procurement and accounting lifecycle.
Overview
The Material Database is where companies define and maintain the materials and cost structure that power all downstream workflows in SubBase. This is not a transactional workspace. Instead, it supports consistency, accuracy, and reporting by ensuring that everyone is working from the same approved list of materials and codes.
Users typically land on this page to review material standards, confirm cost coding structure, or maintain the data that feeds material requests, RFQs, orders, and invoices. By centralizing this information, SubBase reduces duplicate materials, mismatched units, and reporting inconsistencies across projects.
Who Can Do This
This tab is typically available to Admins and Purchasers, though visibility and edit access depend on company configuration.
Before You Start
Your company’s cost code and material governance rules are defined in Company Settings. What you see in the Material Database reflects those configurations and your role permissions.
What You Can See and Do in the Material Database Tab
When you open the Material Database, you see a structured workspace organized into clear sub-tabs that represent your company’s material and cost framework.
From this page, you can:
View and manage materials in the Material Database sub-tab, which lists all approved items available for use across SubBase
Review and maintain budget structure through the Cost Codes and Phase Codes sub-tabs, when enabled by your company’s configuration
Search across records by name or identifier
Scan attributes such as units of measure, cost codes, phase codes, and classifications
Review which records are active or inactive
Download database records for reporting or auditing
This page is designed for clarity and consistency, not speed of transaction. It supports decision-making and standardization rather than day-to-day ordering.
Materials and Cost Structure
The Material Database is more than a list of items. It reflects how your company organizes cost and scope.
Within this page, materials may be tied to:
Units of measure used during ordering and receiving
Cost codes and phase codes used for financial tracking, when enabled
Optional classifications that support reporting and filtering
This structure ensures that when materials are requested or ordered elsewhere in SubBase, they align automatically with your company’s financial and reporting standards.
Cross-Page Consistency
Materials shown in the Material Database are the same materials users search for when creating material requests, RFQs, and orders. Visibility in those workflows mirrors what is defined here and what the user has access to based on role and company settings.
Changes to the Material Database impact availability and consistency across the rest of the platform, making this page foundational rather than isolated.
FAQs
Is the Material Database project-specific?
Is the Material Database project-specific?
The Material Database is company-wide by default. Project-specific behavior depends on company configuration.
Does this page place orders or requests?
Does this page place orders or requests?
No. This page supports ordering workflows but does not create or send requests or orders itself.
Why is this separate from the Materials tab?
Why is this separate from the Materials tab?
The Material Database defines what materials exist. The Materials tab shows what has been ordered or requested.
Best Practices
Keep material names standardized to avoid duplicates downstream
Use consistent units of measure to support accurate receiving and invoicing
Periodically review inactive materials instead of deleting them
Treat the Material Database as a long-term system of record, not a temporary workspace