Trade-Specific Pricing Memory for Tradies
QuoteMate remembers what you charged for an item last time, so your prices stay consistent across jobs without you having to look them up.
Or try it on the web →Most tradies don't have one price for a 90 mm bend. They have a price they charged on the last job, a price they think they charged the job before that, and a guess about what they'd charge today. The result is the same item going out at $42 on Monday's quote and $58 on Tuesday's, the customer noticing, and a conversation no one wants to have. Trade-specific pricing memory fixes this: every time you set a price on an item, QuoteMate remembers it as your trade rate for that item and uses it as the default next time.
Why supplier pricing isn't enough on its own
Live supplier pricing tells you what Bunnings or Reece charge today. That's not the same as what you charge. Your price builds in your trade discount (if you have one), your handling time, your bin/disposal margin on the item, and a margin that reflects how much of a hassle that item is to fit. A retail Bunnings price for a hot water unit is $1,189, your trade rate at Reece might be $940, but your price on the quote is $1,150 because that includes the hour you spend organising freight. Pricing memory captures that final number, per item, so it stays consistent.
How memory builds over time
Every time you set or override a price on a line item, QuoteMate writes that price against the item as your trade rate. The next quote that includes the same item prefills with your trade rate, not the retail rate. After 30 quotes most tradies have a personal price book covering their top 200 items — fasteners, fittings, sheets, fixtures, fixings — that's built passively while you work, not by sitting down on a Saturday morning to make a spreadsheet. The personal price book lives in your favourites with notes, coverage rates, and stock notes.
Per-customer vs across-the-board pricing
Pricing memory operates per item, not per customer — your trade rate for a 90 mm bend is your trade rate. For per-customer adjustments (a repeat commercial customer who gets a 10% mate's rate, a strata client on net-30 with no margin to cut), use the customer record. The combination — a clean personal price book plus per-customer rules — keeps quotes consistent without removing the flexibility tradies need to win or hold specific clients.
What happens when the supplier's price changes
Live supplier pricing keeps moving in the background. Your trade rate doesn't move with it automatically — that's deliberate, because your price isn't a markup on retail, it's a number you've set. When supplier pricing changes meaningfully (more than 8% in either direction since you last set your rate), the materials list flags it so you can choose to update your rate or hold it. That's the difference between a price book that drifts on its own and a price book you control.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Live supplier pricing is still shown for reference. Your trade rate is the default on new quotes, but you can switch to live pricing per item if you want to.
Open the item in your favourites and tap 'Reset to supplier price'. Your trade rate is removed and live supplier pricing takes over until you set a new rate.
Yes. The price book is per business account. Multi-trade businesses (a builder who also does landscaping) build up one personal price book covering both.
Yes. When an invoice syncs to Xero, the line items go across at the prices on the invoice (your trade rates), not retail.
A supplier price list is wholesale. Your trade rate is what you actually charge the customer for that item, including your margins. Pricing memory captures your rate, supplier import captures the supplier's. Most tradies use both — supplier rates for costing, trade rates for the customer-facing quote line.