Your Catalog is your company's price book. When you build a proposal, Riffle connects it to that price book so you are not retyping the same products, vendors, and prices on every bid. This article covers how the Catalog shows up while you work in the Estimate Builder and Change Order Worksheet.
Note: Catalog features apply to material line items only. Labor, freight, section discount, and section escalation lines do not connect to the Catalog.
Related: How to Build an Estimate in Riffle
Related: How to Build a Change Order Proposal
The Catalog Status Icon
Every material line shows a small Catalog icon on the far left, in the same area as the line's other quick actions. The color tells you at a glance whether the line is tied to your Catalog:
Green, In catalog: the line is linked to a product in your Catalog. Press it to view that product's details.
Orange, Possible match: your Catalog has one or more products that look like this line. Press it to review and confirm.
Purple, Not in catalog: nothing in your Catalog matches this line yet. Press it to add the line to your Catalog as a new product, if you want.
The section header also shows a running count, such as "3 of 5 linked," so you can see how much of a section is tied to your Catalog.
Searching the Catalog From a Line Item
On a material line, three fields search your Catalog as you type: Vendor, Part/Model, and Manufacturer Description.
A short list of matches appears below the field. Press a match and Riffle fills the line from your Catalog, including the vendor, product, description, unit, unit cost, and any per unit labor and freight tied to that product.
Vendor: searches the companies in your Catalog by name. If you type a company that is not in your Catalog yet, you can add it as a new Vendor right from the field.
Part/Model and Manufacturer Description: search the products in your Catalog. If the line already has a vendor, that vendor's matches move to the top of the list, but you still see the rest.
When you fill an empty line from the Catalog, Riffle brings in the Catalog price. When you confirm a possible match on a line where you already typed a price, Riffle keeps your price and simply links the product to it.
Confirming a Possible Match
When a line shows the orange Possible match icon, press it to see the products your Catalog thinks could be the same item. For each suggestion you will see the description, manufacturer, part number, vendor, unit, price, and how old that price is.
You will also see whether it matched on part number or on name.
From here you can:
Press a suggestion: links that product to your line.
Add as a new product: saves the line to your Catalog as a brand new product instead.
Search the full catalog: opens the materials search panel to look for something else.
Leave as typed: closes the list and keeps the line exactly as you entered it.
Adding a Line That Is Not in Your Catalog Yet
When a line shows the purple Not in catalog icon, you can save it to your Catalog as a new product without leaving the estimate.
Press the icon (or press Add as a new product from a match list or the search panel) and fill in the product details, such as the unit, part number, manufacturer, category, and vendor. Riffle creates the product and links your line to it in one step.
If the product already exists in your Catalog, Riffle will let you know so you do not create a duplicate.
Browsing the Catalog With Add Materials
If you would rather start from your Catalog, press Add Materials in the button row at the top of the estimate, or press the browse icon in any section header.
This opens a search panel beside your estimate where you can search by part number, name, or manufacturer. Your favorites appear first.
The panel works two ways, depending on where you opened it from:
Adding new lines: pick the section you want to add to, then press products to drop them into your estimate as new lines. A running count shows how many you have added, and you can press Undo to remove the last one.
Filling one line: if you opened the panel from a single line using Search the full catalog, pressing a product fills that one line. The line keeps its quantity and notes.
You can also press a product to open its full details before you add it.
Note: Once you compile an estimate, that version is locked, so the add and edit options are not available on it. Start a new draft to keep building.
Keeping Your Prices Current
While you're still drafting the estimate, if a line is linked to a Catalog product and vendor, Riffle keeps an eye on that Catalog price.
If the price in your Catalog changes, the line flags the difference so you can decide what to do:
Update line: takes the new Catalog price. Riffle shows you how much the line total would change before you accept it.
Keep: leaves your price as it is. This clears that one flag. If the Catalog price moves again later, the line will flag it again.
A price you typed or negotiated by hand is never treated as a change and is never overwritten. Updating a price in your Catalog does not reach into a live estimate on its own, and a compiled estimate is not affected until you start a new draft.
Related: Understanding the Catalog