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An item category is a bucket you group your items into — Insulation, Disposal, Labor, and so on. Categories are how items are organized in the Calculator: an estimator opens a category and sees the items inside it, instead of scrolling one long flat list. Every item must belong to at least one category, so categories are the foundation the rest of the Price Book builds on. This page lives under Settings → Price Book → Item Categories.
Price Book settings are Admin-only. If you can open this page, you can create, edit, and delete item categories. If you don’t see Settings or the Price Book, you don’t have the access level for it — ask an admin on your team.

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How item categories fit together

A category sits between your items and the parts of a job that use them:
  • Items — the priced building blocks that belong to the category. An item can sit in more than one category.
  • Work Areas — the parts of a job (an attic, a crawl space) that offer this category’s items to estimators.
  • Factors — the Yes / No questions that can adjust pricing for items in this category.
Because items can’t be saved without a category, this is usually the first thing you set up in the Price Book — create the categories you need, then add items into them.

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Find your item categories

1

Open the Price Book

Go to Settings, then Price Book, and select the Item Categories tab along the top.
2

Browse or search the list

Each category appears as a row showing its Name and a count of how many Items, Factors, and Work Areas are attached to it. Use Search by name… at the top to jump to one quickly.

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Create an item category

1

Start a new category

On the Item Categories tab, click Create New in the top-right. This opens the Create Item Category form.
2

Name the category

Type a clear Name — for example, Attic insulation. This is the label estimators see in the Calculator, so keep it plain and recognizable.
3

Add items (optional)

In Available items, search and tick the items that belong in this category. Selected items move up into the Selected items card so you can see the full set and remove any from there. You can also attach an item to a category later from the item itself.
4

Attach factors (optional)

In Factors, tick the Yes / No questions that should apply to items in this category. Use Select all or Clear all to set them in one click.
5

Review work areas

The Work Areas panel shows which work areas already include this category. This list is set by editing each work area’s category list, so it’s read-only here — it’s there so you can see where the category is used.
6

Save

Click Create Item Category. The category is saved and you’re returned to the list, ready to put items into it.
A category can be empty when you create it. That’s fine — make the category first so you have somewhere to file items, then add the items as you build out your Price Book.

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Edit an item category

1

Open the category

On the Item Categories tab, click the pencil icon on the category’s row (or Edit from the menu on a phone). The form opens as Edit Item Category with everything filled in.
2

Make your changes

Update the Name, adjust which items belong to the category, or change its factors. The Save Changes button stays disabled until you’ve actually changed something.
3

Save

Click Save Changes. Your updates take effect for new estimates immediately.

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The Custom item category

Your Price Book may include an item category named Custom. Menaia creates it automatically when it’s needed — for example, the first time someone adds a quick item or a from-scratch item — and files those items in it. Custom is a system category, so you can’t rename or delete it. If you try, you’ll see a message that it’s used by quick and from-scratch items.

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Delete an item category

Click the trash icon on a category’s row (or Delete from the menu on a phone), then confirm in the Delete item category? dialog. Before you confirm, the app checks where the category is used and tells you what removing it will do:
  • If nothing uses it, the category is simply removed from the Price Book.
  • If items or work areas reference it, the dialog tells you how many. Deleting it means those items will no longer belong to this category, and the category is dropped from those work areas.
In every case, proposals you’ve already created are not affected. The Delete button stays disabled until the usage check finishes, so you always confirm with the full picture in front of you. Deleting can’t be undone.

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What’s next

Items

Build the priced items that live inside your categories.

Work areas

Set up the parts of a job that offer each category’s items to estimators.

Factors and additional costs

Define the Yes / No factors and extra costs you can attach to a category’s items.

Multiplier ranges

Set the branch pricing that turns an item’s raw costs into a customer price.