In this article:
Before You Begin
Before you build out your Price List, make sure the foundational settings are in place so your catalog pricing calculates correctly.
Confirm your default budget is set up.
Configure your Default Taxes first, since catalog pricing depends on them.
For full setup guidance, see the Price List Overview & Setup article.
Set Taxes
Configure the taxes that apply to your work before you begin estimating.
Navigate to: Price List > Taxes
Click + Add New
Enter the Name and Description of the Tax. For example - HST, PST
Add each applicable tax and its rate.
Use Setup Defaults to apply your standard taxes automatically.
Click “Update my catalog” before you finish so your saved items reflect the correct tax treatment.
💡 Setting your default taxes first prevents rework later, since it flows through to every item you price.
Key Distinctions when setting Defaults:
Purchasing Tax | Sales Tax |
When you’re purchasing goods or services, do you pay tax on Hardscapes, Softscapes, Subcontracting or Other? | When you’re charging your customers on goods or services, do they get charged sales tax on Labor, Equipment, Hardscapes, Softscapes, Subcontracting or Other? |
Set Equipment Items
Add the equipment you use on jobs so its cost is captured in every estimate.
Open your equipment settings in the Price List.
Add each piece of equipment (for example, a truck and trailer).
Enter the cost-per-hour for the item.
Apply overhead and profit as needed.
Set Material Items
Part 1: Material Categories
Build out your material catalog so materials are ready to drop into estimates.
Now that you set up an Equipment item, navigate to Price List > Material Categories
Click the + Add New button and add a Material Category called (example) Seasonal Cleanups.
If materials in this category have a shipping or warranty factor (additional markup percentages to cover assumed shipping and warranty costs), enter those on this screen as well. For our example, leave both set to 0%.
If you pay a purchasing tax for materials used in Seasonal Cleanups like mulch, compost, fertilizer, or yard bags, add that here. For this example, we’re going to use your default purchasing tax.
Make sure the materials in this category use the profit margin from your budget to determine pricing.
Part 2: Adding Materials
Now that you have the material category added,
Navigate to the Price List > Materials.
Add a few sample items that would be used in a Seasonal Cleanup. Confirm that Materials look correct from the material import done on their behalf.
Click the + New button to create a new material item. (Example setup below)
Set the Category to Seasonal Cleanups.
Add the Material Name, in this case, Topsoil.
For Size, leave this blank for soil.
For Units, enter "Yard".
For Type, select Softscape.
If you have a SKU from a vendor you regularly purchase from, you can enter it here for quick reference; if left blank, LMN will generate one.
For Round to Nearest, set this to 0 for simplicity. If you did have a material you would prefer to round up to the nearest 1, you just need to enter 1 here.
Min Quantity is the minimum amount you need to purchase—I'll set this to 1. The Description and Internal Notes fields are for internal reference, helpful for your sales team or estimators. It’s a good idea to put your most common Vendor name in the Internal Note.
Now adjust the Sales Tax if needed.
Next, enter the Unit Cost for this item as $30.00.
💡For a material like Soil, a shipping and warranty factor wouldn’t be needed. This would be used more so for plant materials or items that could have defects. This way you’re working those plant defects into your pricing automatically.
Once all this information is entered, the system will automatically calculate a Breakeven Price, then apply your Profit Margin to generate a Final Price
Part 3: Subcontractors & Other Items
The next two item types are fairly simple to manage.
Subs tab | Other tab |
You’ll notice most of these are set to a price of $0.00 - that’s because they’re usually customized on the estimate itself since it will change from job to job. | Other items are things used on a jobsite or project that don’t include any overhead recovery, they’re simply marked up using your budget’s profit margin. Common examples include permits, equipment rentals, and portapotties. |
To add one of these items, click + New
Enter the details
Click OK to save just like a Material.
Set Production Rates
Production Rates help you estimate how long labor tasks take.
Production Rates can only be applied to Labor items in an Estimate. They do not apply to materials.
To build your rates, you can:
Add from Industry Standard Rates.
Add from a Templates Library.
Add to your own rates.
💡 Keep your calculator types straight: green (material) calculators estimate material quantities, while brown (Production Rate) calculators estimate labor hours. Using the right calculator for each item keeps your estimates accurate.
Set Work Area Templates
Work Area Templates let you group related items so you can estimate common work areas quickly. Within a template, use the correct calculator for each type of item:
Material (green) calculators to estimate material quantities.
Production Rate (brown) calculators to estimate labor hours.
Put Your Measurements to Work
You can feed measurements directly into your labor estimates. Both manual Jobsite Measurements and Beam AI measurements can be used with a labor item's Production Rate calculator.
Open the Production Rate calculator on the labor line item.
Enter or apply your measurement.
Click Update Estimate to write the calculated labor hours to the line.
💡 Measurements do not convert to labor hours automatically end-to-end—you need to open the calculator and click Update Estimate to apply them.
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