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16. Help Articles

Focused walkthroughs for advanced features. Each article is self-contained and can be linked directly to clients or team members.

16.1 Setting up Commissions (Sales Team & Dealers) (Pro)

Track who sold what and how much they earn — for both internal sales reps and external dealers — directly from the quote.

Overview

Stone Project supports two commission models that can coexist on the same quote:

Model Who it applies to Where it is calculated
Sales Team Internal users (team members of your company) Quote totals page
Dealer / Margin External resellers (clients flagged as dealer) Quote totals page, deducted as a markup

Setting up a Sales Rep

  1. Go to Settings → Team.
  2. Open the team member you want to mark as a sales rep.
  3. Enable "Eligible for commission".
  4. Set a default commission rate (percentage) — this can be overridden per quote.
  5. Save.

The user now appears in the Sales Rep dropdown on every quote.

Setting up a Dealer

  1. Go to CRM → Clients.
  2. Open or create the client and set Client Type = Dealer.
  3. Set a default margin (percentage) on the client — used to calculate the markup applied to your prices when this dealer resells to the end customer.
  4. Save.

Applying commissions on a quote

On the Quote Summary screen:

  1. In the Sales Rep field, select the team member who handled the sale. The default commission rate is pre-filled and the commission amount is calculated against the quote subtotal.
  2. If the client is a Dealer, the dealer margin is automatically applied and shown on a separate line ("Dealer markup").
  3. Both values flow into the PDF, the invoice, and your financial reports.

Reporting

  • Analytics → Financial → Commissions shows a breakdown by sales rep and by dealer for any date range.
  • Each row links back to the source quote so you can audit how the commission was calculated.

Best practice

Set default commission rates at the team member level so you don't have to remember the number every time you create a quote. Override only when a special arrangement applies.

16.2 Adding Material Brands & Colors (Pro)

Build a structured catalog of the materials you actually sell, with brand-level and color-level pricing.

Concept

The pricing catalog is organized in three layers:

Material Type  →  Brand (Manufacturer)  →  Color
   (Granite)         (Caesarstone)        (Pure White)
  • A Material Type is the broad family (Granite, Quartz, Marble, Quartzite, Porcelain, …).
  • A Brand is the manufacturer that produces a specific line of that material type (Caesarstone, Silestone, Cambria, …).
  • A Color is the actual SKU sold — with its own price per square foot or per slab.

You can sell colors directly under a Material Type (no brand), or organize them under a Brand. Both styles work in the quote selector.

Adding a new Material Type

  1. Go to Financial → Price Lists (on a phone: More → Financial → Price Lists), open your price list and pick the Material Types tab.
  2. Tap + New Type.
  3. Enter a name (e.g., "Sintered Stone") and pick an icon.
  4. Save. The new type is now available in all quote selectors.

Adding a Brand

  1. In that same Material Types tab, open the type you want to add a brand to.
  2. Tap + New Brand.
  3. Enter the brand name (e.g., "Caesarstone") and optionally upload the brand logo.
  4. Save.

Adding a Color

  1. Open the Material Type or Brand where the color belongs.
  2. Tap + New Color.
  3. Fill in:
  4. Name (e.g., "Pure White")
  5. Price per sqft or Per-slab price (toggle "Sold by the slab")
  6. Color swatch image (optional but recommended — it appears in the quote selector)
  7. Save.

Cascade selector in quotes

When designing a quote, the material selector follows the catalog hierarchy:

  1. Pick a Material Type → the Brand dropdown opens automatically.
  2. Pick a Brand (or skip if not used) → the Color dropdown opens automatically.
  3. Pick a Color → pricing is filled in.

This auto-open cascade also works inside additional Color Options (see 16.3).

Bulk import

For large catalogs:

  1. Go to Settings → CSV Import → Pricing.
  2. Download the template.
  3. Fill in material_type, brand, color, price, price_unit columns.
  4. Upload — the import creates missing types/brands automatically.

Avoid duplicates

The importer matches by name (case-insensitive). Use consistent spelling for brand names across rows.

Fixing many colors at once

A whole brand imported with the wrong slab size — or a price change that hits every color in a group — does not have to be typed color by color.

  1. Go to More > Financial > Price Lists and open the list.
  2. Open the Materials tab and the brand you want.
  3. Tick the colors to change (or the header checkbox to take the lot).
  4. Pick the bulk action from the bar that appears:
Action What it changes
Set slab size Length and width, in inches, on every selected color. Leave one field blank to keep the current value
Set cost Cost per sqft and cost per slab on the selection. A blank field is left unchanged
Assign price tier Moves the selection into a pricing tier
Activate / Deactivate Whether the colors can be picked on a quote
Delete selected Removes the selected colors

A brand that only ever ships one slab size — Vicostone at 130 × 65, say — is a one-minute job this way: select the brand's colors, Set slab size, 130 and 65, save.

16.3 Using Color Options for Quote Comparisons (Pro)

Offer your client two or three material choices in the same quote and let them compare prices side-by-side.

When to use it

  • The client is undecided between a premium quartz and a budget granite.
  • You want to upsell from a base color to a designer color.
  • A designer/architect wants to evaluate the cost impact of different stones on the same layout.

Adding a Color Option to an area

In the Drawing Tool, on the area sidebar (right panel):

  1. Scroll to the Material section. The primary material is already configured.
  2. Tap + Add Color Option to add a second alternative.
  3. The cascade selector opens — pick Material Type → Brand → Color (each step auto-opens the next).
  4. Optionally give the option a label ("2nd Option", "Designer Choice", "Budget"). If left blank, the app uses an ordinal label.
  5. Repeat for up to 3 alternatives per area.

You can add Color Options on multiple areas — each area keeps its own list.

Switching between options

  • The active option for each area is the one that drives the quote totals.
  • Tap any option card to make it active. The summary totals refresh instantly.
  • The original primary material is always preserved — you can return to it at any time.

Comparison Grid (Quote Summary)

When any area has 2+ options, the Quote Summary screen shows a collapsible "Compare Material Options" card. It contains a grid where:

  • Each column is one option (Primary, 2nd Option, …).
  • Each row is one area.
  • Cells show the material cost for that area under that option, plus the delta (Δ) vs. the active selection — colored red if more expensive, green if cheaper.
  • The footer row shows the total cost for each option across all areas.

The grid fills the available width and scrolls horizontally on small screens.

Comparison in the PDF

When you generate a Quote PDF, an additional "Material Options Comparison" table is rendered between the line items and the totals. It shows:

Column Meaning
Option Name of the alternative (or "Current Selection" for the active)
Subtotal Quote subtotal under that option
Tax Tax amount under that option
Total Final total under that option
Δ vs Default Difference vs. the active total (red = more, green = less, — = 0)

To keep the PDF readable, the table renders the active selection + up to 3 alternatives. If you have more, a small footnote indicates the count of options not shown — consider trimming the list before sending.

The comparison section is hidden when Show Price Details is disabled on the quote.

One PDF per option (separate proposals)

A comparison table answers "how much would the other stone cost" inside one file. When you'd rather send one proposal per material — three stones, three attachments, each showing a single price — export them from the Drawing Tool: Export Estimate PDF > Material Option.

  • All options (comparison) — the default, and what the app has always done: the drawing's own active material, plus the comparison box.
  • Primary (…), 2nd Option (…), 3rd Option (…) — prices the whole document with that stone. Line items, totals and the drawing's colors all change together, and the comparison box is dropped, so the client sees one material and one price. An area that has no alternative keeps its own material.

On desktop, the button next to Print reads N PDFs (1 per option) and renders every option in one go. Each file is named after its stone (estimate_kitchen_2nd-Option-Taj-Mahal.pdf), so the three land in your downloads folder ready to attach. Your browser asks once whether to allow multiple downloads.

Still want the two-column comparison?

Leave the picker on All options and export normally. The two are not exclusive — a single comparison PDF for the first conversation, three separate proposals when the client wants to show them to someone else.

Sharing with the client

Three places the client will see the comparison:

  1. Quote Summary screen (in the Stone Project app, if you screen-share or invite them).
  2. PDF attached to the quote email (table format described above).
  3. Client Portal — when the quote is opened in the portal, each option appears as a selectable radio button. The client can pick their preferred option and the quote total updates accordingly.

Naming options well

Use descriptive labels like "Premium — Calacatta" or "Budget — Black Galaxy" instead of "Option 2". Clients are far more likely to engage with a comparison when each line tells them what they are looking at.

Need a topic we don't cover yet? Email support@stoneproject.app and we'll add it.