Project setup
Questions, setup rules, and pricing rules: start here
Three tools work together: ask the right questions, show the relevant questions, and apply the right pricing.
Understand the three tools
Project Setup Questions collect information about the job, such as the service, selected finish, or an entered measurement. You decide which questions your company needs.
Project Setup Rules control which questions appear when specified answers match. For example, a tub-removal question can appear for a bathroom project while remaining hidden for painting work.
Pricing Rules adjust the price of matching costbook items when their conditions match. They are separate from question visibility: hiding a question is not itself a price adjustment.
Build in this order
Start with your costbook: agree on item names, units and base costs before adding rules. Then add the project questions and their answer choices.
Add visibility rules to keep the questionnaire relevant. Add one pricing rule at a time, with a clearly defined condition and affected items.
Use a fictional customer to test the setup in the Apple app. Save company changes on the web, synchronize the app while connected, then check the questions and estimate. The web configuration screen is not a substitute for checking the actual estimating workflow.
Use a small example
Suppose a base item is $100 per unit and its quantity is two. With no pricing adjustment, its line total is $200.
For a simple 10% increase rule that targets that item, the adjusted unit price should be $110 and the line total $220. Use no other rules, discounts, tax or fees for this first check so you can isolate the calculation.
Now choose an answer that does not match. Confirm that the increase stops applying for newly priced items. Review the pricing guide for how existing estimate lines and later configuration changes behave.
Keep existing estimates safe
A question label is the wording people read. Its saved key and answer values connect it to rules and existing project answers. Changing a label is different from changing those identities.
Test matching and nonmatching answers, unanswered required questions, quantities and the final PDF before using a configuration with customers.
Sync before editing company setup from another device. If the app reports a save or sync error, resolve it before assuming another device has received the changes.
Ask AI to explain its proposal
Through AI Setup (MCP), ask your assistant to inspect the company setup before proposing changes. Explain which answers should affect visibility and which should affect prices.
Ask it to describe each proposed rule in plain English and show one matching and one nonmatching fictional example. Review the proposal in your account before approval.
AI can help prepare the setup. Your company still needs to check its rates, units, scope and arithmetic against the way you actually estimate.