Menu path
Set-Up > Set up Pay Rates > Quote Groups
🧾 What Quote Groups do
Quote Groups are a powerful tool for controlling how much detail you supply prospective clients in your quotation or proposal. A quote group is a list of roofing items you want to group together on a quotation under a single price, effectively 'hiding' individual line item prices.
For example, you might provide one price for roofing components (roof, ridges, hips and gables) and another price for fascia and gutter (which may include valley and downpipes).
🔧 How to create Quote Groups
Go to Set-Up > Set up Pay Rates > Quote Groups
Enter a group name
Enter a key text string (automatically generated as ###QGROUP1-n where the number refers to the group number)
Decide your display options:
Whether to show the group name and price
Whether to display tax amounts
Whether final price includes or excludes tax
Whether to include mark-up percentage
Whether to include labour
Select roofing material categories by clicking the button to the right of the category name (toggles to [Yes] with asterisk)
Enter descriptions for categories as you want them to appear on quotations
Click [Add] to save the group to the system database
🛠 Viewing Quote Group results
To see Quote Group results:
Go to Reporting > Supply+Install
Click the [Quote-Groups] button
Review the calculated totals for materials and labour
Edit the bottom line price if needed
Set whether the price includes or excludes tax using the button next to the price field
🧾 Key Text Strings for Quote Groups
Quote Groups automatically create Key Text Strings for report templates:
Key text string | Description |
###QG"QGName"-MatSubTotal | Sub-total of Materials for specified Quote Group name |
###QG"QGName"-LabSubTotal | Sub-total of Labour for specified Quote Group name |
###QG"QGName"-Total | Total of Materials and Labour for specified Quote Group name |
For example, a Quote Group named "Roofing" creates:
###QGRoofing-MatSubTotal - Material Subtotal
###QGRoofing-LabSubTotal - Labour Subtotal
###QGRoofing-Total - Total price
🧾 Preformatted table Key Text Strings
Key text string | Description |
###CostingDetailsTableQG | Costing details table grouped by Quote Group definitions |
###CostingDetailsTable1QG | Category, description and quantity only, grouped by Quote Groups |
###CostingDetailsTable2QG | Full format costing table with tax, grouped by Quote Groups |
🔧 Customising Quote Groups
The standard Quote Group items list can be customised by creating a QuoteGroups.DAT text file using Notepad or similar text editor.
To create a custom list:
Use items from the original list or from Alternate Categories
Include key items individually
Use 'Remainder' as the final list item to include everything else, and Note the use of END at the bottom of the list.
Save the file as QuoteGroups.DAT in your User folder
🛠 Editing Quote Groups in Excel
Quote Groups are stored in QuoteGroups.csv which can be edited in Excel or text editors. The file structure allows creative quotation building within system limits.
🔧 Using Alternate Categories
Alternate Categories allow you to define different category groupings for materials. This fine-tunes reporting by letting items appear under different groups in Supply Only or Supply and Install summaries.
Example: Snow retention bars can be included in a Fascia and Gutter Quote Group by setting their Alternate Category to "Snow".
⚠️ Important limitations and notes
Maximum of 20 Quote Group definitions
Maximum of 50 items per quote group
The Quote Group containing "Remainder" must be the last quote group, otherwise remainder calculations fail
Items not specifically listed in Quote Groups automatically go to a group called "Remainder"
When adding new categories to the DAT file, add them to the end rather than trying to alphabetise:
