Table of Contents
Purpose
Having a well-organized item catalog is essential for efficient project planning and estimation.
The item catalog in Aspire is a detailed catalog of materials and products used in your company’s projects. This includes plants and materials like pavers, rocks, mulch, and more! Each item should have detailed descriptions, pricing information, and supplier data.
Aspire’s Advanced Search gives you the ability to locate specific items based on various criteria, such as plant characteristics, material properties, or brand names.
Accurate pricing information for each item in the catalog is necessary for generating accurate cost estimates and proposals. Aspire offers easy management of pricing data, including supplier costs, and markup percentages based on project scope or client type. This article provides recommendations on how to get the most out of keeping your Item Catalog organized!
Requirements
✅ In order to add items to the items catalog, you need to have System Admin or Branch Admin added to your user role with Enhance Branch Admin Security selected for your system.
Filters For Item Catalog Management
You can filter your item catalogs as needed, but below are some recommended filters that might help you get organized!
Group Filters | Item Type, Category Name |
Display Filters | Assigned Branches, Category Name, Item Name, Item Type, Purchase Unit Type, Allocation Unit Type, Item Cost, Purchase Unit Cost, Avg 12 Month Purchase Cost, In Kit, Inventory, Takeoff Group Name, Takeoff Item name, Updated By, Updated Date, Vendor Catalog |
📌Note: The filter of Avg 12 Month Purchase Cost gives you a good idea to make the decision to know if you really need that specific item; if the field for this filter is 0 then you have never purchased the item.
Naming Conventions
It’s a good idea to make sure your company uses standard naming conventions for items. You could also enter differentiating factors for items towards the beginning of the item name.
A good example of this is Brown Mulch instead of Mulch Brown. Another example is labeling your item 2" Elbow instead of Elbow 2".
The reason for this is related to the character limit when it comes to displaying items in Aspire’s mobile app. Adding your unit details at the beginning of the item name helps with long item names while your crews are in the field!
Updating Your Item Catalog
Export Item Catalog Lists to Update Pricing
If you're interested in a mass item catalog export and cost update, Aspire has the capability of exporting certain Item Categories for your team to accelerate this process!
You could build a list in your item catalog and save it as Item Pricing Export. You could then submit an AspireCare ticket to get the item saved list fields exported. AspireCare would then export the list with pricing for you to make price adjustments on a spreadsheet.
You’d be able to make your price changes and then resubmit the spreadsheet to AspireCare so they can complete a bulk import update for your item pricing!
Updating Your Kits
If you need to make edits after items are created in the item catalog, as long as it's not an inventory item and not previously used you are able to make edits. This includes editing kits!
Take the time to make sure you have all your kit pricing and factors up to date.
If pricing or factors are updated for labor and that labor is in a kit, Aspire does not show the updates in the catalog for the kit. The changes do update in New estimates for that kit. Existing estimates are not affected.
Reviewing Item Allocation Units
🧠Reminder that if no allocation unit is specified on an item, the unit defaults to the first active Unit Type set up in the Administration ▶️Lists ▶️ Unit Type.
If you discover incorrect allocation units on your items and they are not in use yet, you should delete the item.
If the items with the incorrect allocation units are in use, create or clone a new item, then deactivate the incorrect items.
Cleaning Up Deactivated Items
Aspire has a unique way to handle items that need to be deactivated. If you had items in an opportunity that needed to be deactivated, there are a few things to know moving forward:
The opportunity will still earn revenue correctly.
Deactivated items won’t be able to be used on Aspire’s mobile app.
If inactive items are on an opportunity, they will still be displayed within the opportunity. You won't be able to use the inactive items on opportunity bids moving forward.
If an inventory item has been made inactive in the item catalog and it was on an estimate, it will still be able to be allocated for the opportunity’s work tickets.
If it wasn't on the estimate, your crews will not be able to find it in Aspire’s mobile app and use it for allocations.
If an item is marked inactive, but not removed from its kits, it will still work within an estimate, tickets and costing and reporting. You would not be able to use the kits on new estimates.
Aspire treats the inactive item or service as if it were active if it has not been deleted from the kit or the template.
Review Item Branch Assignments
🧠Remember that if one or more branches are assigned to an item, the item is only available to bid with on the assigned branch estimates.
It’s a good idea to build a saved list organized by branch so you can see if any of your items should be assigned to another or added to an additional branch.
📑 To learn more about information regarding system cleanup done on an annual basis and tips regarding items, read this article!