Materials are the billable items your team uses to charge tenants for goods, supplies, and flat-fee services tied to work orders. Every material you add to a work order starts with a record in your materials library. The library is where you define the name, base cost, and billing behavior for each item once, so your team does not have to re-enter or recalculate that information every time a work order is closed.
Materials also carry cost code rules that map charges to your accounting system. If your billing workflow includes exporting data to a system like Yardi, cost codes need to be configured on each material before your first billing run.
Only Building Admins can create and manage materials. Building Engineers can adjust material details at the work order level.
Add a Material
- Navigate to Work Orders > Work Order Setup > Materials.
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If the relevant category does not yet exist, click + Create Category, enter a name, and save.
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Click + Create Material and a drawer will open on the right. Fill in the following:
- Material Category: Select the category this material belongs to. Categories organize materials in the library and on work orders.
- Name of Item: The name of the material as it will appear on work orders, invoices, and tenant statements.
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Cost / Item: Your internal cost per unit before markup or tax.
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Under Defaults, configure how the material behaves when added to a work order. These settings pre-load on each entry but can be adjusted at the work order level.
- Billable: Check if this material should be billed to the tenant. Uncheck for internal materials that should never appear on tenant-facing billing.
- Apply Tax: Check if this material is subject to tax. Actual tax application also depends on your site tax settings and tenant tax-exempt status.
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Apply Tenant Markup: Check to apply your site or tenant-level markup rate. To set a rate specific to this material, configure it in Item Markup instead.
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Under Item Markup, set a default markup type for this material. It carries through automatically when the material is added to a work order. Building Engineers can override it on individual work orders as needed.
- $ Fixed Amount: Adds a flat dollar amount per item. For example, a $20.00 material with a $5.00 fixed markup bills at $25.00 per item.
- % Percentage: Applies a percentage of the item cost. For example, a $20.00 material with 15% markup bills at $23.00 per item.
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Note: A custom markup rate configured here will override the tenant markup rate. To use the tenant rate instead, leave Markup Rate at 0.00 and rely on Apply Tenant Markup in Defaults.
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Optionally add Cost Code rules. Cost code rules map this material's charges to your accounting system and drive the billable breakout in custom reports and batch exports. Click Add Rule to create a rule. Each rule includes:
- Cost Code: Required. The cost code for this portion of the charge.
- GL Account: Optional. The GL account number if your accounting workflow requires it.
- Amount: Which portion of the charge this rule applies to. Options are Base Cost (No Markup or Tax), Markup Only, Total Pre-Tax Cost (Base + Markup), and Total Cost (Base + Tax + Markup).
- Make Negative Amount (Uncommon): Multiplies the Amount by negative one in billing reports. Used when a charge needs to post as both a positive debit to one account and a negative credit to another, for example for variable costs like vendor invoices or electric meter charges.
- You can add multiple rules per material to break out different portions to different cost codes. Each rule appears as a separate row in your billing reports.
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Click Save. The material is now available to add to work orders.
Edit a Material
- Navigate to Work Orders > Work Order Setup > Materials.
- Click the edit icon next to the material you want to update. The same drawer will open with the material's current settings.
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Make your changes and click Save.
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