How to Set Up Materials & Services

🧾 Setting Up and Managing Materials & Services

Within Inspect Point, you can add fixed-price items which are Materials & Services which can then be used on proposals, work orders and invoices. This is managed in your Price Book. 

The Price Book is where you create and manage all the materials and services available throughout your Inspect Point instance.

These items can be used in proposals, work orders, and invoice., Materials & Services can be added by technicians in the field while completing work orders, and — if enabled — can be added to inspections as Completed or Proposed. 

Maintaining an organized and up-to-date Price Book ensures consistent pricing, clear descriptions, and faster quoting.

This article covers how to use Materials & Services within the Inspect Point Price Book, including how to add new items manually, import materials and services in bulk, and edit or update existing items. You’ll learn how to manage your Price Book efficiently to keep pricing and descriptions consistent across proposals, work orders, and invoices.

⚙️ Ways to Add Materials & Services

You can add materials and services to your Price Book in two ways, depending on your needs:

Option 1: Manually

Best for adding or editing a few individual items directly in the backend.

You’ll add the details for each Material or Service, specifying the category, type, description, and pricing.

Option 2: Import

Best for initial setup or bulk updates.

This method allows you to select fields in your spreadsheet and map them to fields within Inspect Point.

Types can be defined directly in the import file — they will automatically be created if they don’t already exist.

➕ Adding Materials & Services Manually 

1. Go to Settings → Price Book → Materials & Services 
2. Click ➕ New Item

2. Under Category, choose Material or Service 
   • This selection determines the detail fields below
3. Complete the item detail fields 
   • Name and Item Type are required 
4. Click Create to save

After saving, the new service appears in your Materials & Services list and becomes available for use.

⚠️ Important - Price Levels

• Inspect Point is in the process of retiring Price Levels, and it is recommended not to rely on this feature for new setups.

• Price Levels allow you to define alternate price points for a single Material or Service. These levels are not visible to customers — they appear only to backend users. 

• If you are on Platinum, or upgrade to Platinum, Price Lists will automatically be enabled, and Price Levels will be removed.

• Please see the Price Lists documentation for more information on managing tiered pricing. — Price Lists

📥 Importing Materials & Services

For larger setups or batch updates, importing is the most efficient option. You can use the Inspect Point template or import your own file.

Both methods support CSV, XLSX, and XLS file formats.

🧾 Using the Template

1. Download the Material Import Template or Service Import Template below.
2. Fill out the fields and save your file.
   • Name and Type are required.
   • Do not delete or alter the ID column — leave it blank.
   • Ensure the Active column is included and marked Yes for all items you want available in the system.
3. Save your completed template.

If using your own spreadsheet, you can still import it — you’ll just need to map your fields to Inspect Point’s supported columns during the import.

🚀 Importing the File

1. Go to Settings → Price Book → Materials & Services
2. Click Import, then choose whether you’re importing Materials or Services

⚠️ You cannot import both at the same time.

3. A modal will appear where you can either:
   • Drag and drop your file into the upload box, or
   • Click to upload and locate the file on your device
   • You may also copy and paste table data manually (not recommended for large files)

Once uploaded, your data preview appears. You can adjust:

• Text encoding format (default: UTF-8)
• Row/column orientation (if needed)

Click Next to continue.

🔠 Mapping the Columns

On the next screen, map the columns from your file to the corresponding Inspect Point fields.

• If you used our template, the fields should map automatically (1:1), confirm the Service or Material Type field is mapped to Inspect Point's Type field.
• Always double-check that each field maps correctly.
• Required fields are marked with a red asterisk — only these must be mapped to proceed.

Once you’ve reviewed the mappings, click Next to continue.

✅ Validating the Data

The next screen allows you to review and validate your data before importing.

• All rows display by default — filter to Invalid Rows Only to quickly identify issues.
• Invalid cells appear highlighted in dark red.
• Click any invalid cell to see why it’s invalid and enter corrections directly.

If your file has a large number of invalid rows, use the Remove All Invalid Rows button to exclude them in bulk.

Once your data is validated, click Submit to import the finalized file.

You’ll see two prompts:

1. Processing Data — your file is being verified
2. Uploading Data — your file is being imported

When complete, a success message will appear. Depending on file size, data may take a few minutes to display in your instance.

Note: Importing via QuickBooks Desktop *This is covered separately in our QuickBooks documentation, see here: QuickBooks Online | QuickBooks Desktop

🔁 Updating in Bulk

To update multiple items at once (for example, if a manufacturer increases prices):

1. Go to Settings → Price Book → Materials & Services
2. Click Export to download your list
3. Filter and adjust the necessary fields (e.g., raise prices by 2%)
4. Save your file and reimport it

Your Price Book will automatically update to reflect the new pricing.

✏️ Editing Existing Items

Once your materials and services are added, you can edit them as needed:

• Inline Editing: Update prices directly from the list view by clicking into the field.
• Edit Modal: Hover over the three dots at the end of the row and select Edit to open all editable fields.

Your updates will apply immediately across proposals, work orders, and invoices using that item.

📂 Import Templates

Below are the downloadable importing templates for Materials and Services.
Download the template you need, fill in the required fields, and follow the steps outlined in the Importing Materials & Services section above.