# Itemized line items

> Build contractor-style estimates with short items, quantities, units, your cost and a markup on each item, grouped into sections.

- URL: https://tillage.ai/docs/quotes/itemized-line-items
- Section: [Quotes](https://tillage.ai/docs/quotes)
- Updated: 2026-11-03

Quotes and invoices can use one of two line item styles:

- **Detailed** suits agencies, consultants and other scoped work. Each line has a title, a rich description and is priced as hours × rate, with variance and a profit margin. See [Line items and pricing](https://tillage.ai/docs/quotes/line-items-and-pricing).
- **Itemized** suits [contractors and trades](https://tillage.ai/for/contractors). Each line is a short item with a quantity, a unit such as each, square foot or linear foot, your cost and a markup. It reads like a materials-and-labor estimate.

Both styles use the same quotes, invoices, templates and price book. The style changes how lines are entered and how they appear to your client.

## Choose a style

Your team has a default style, set under **Line Item Style** on the **Quotes** tab of **Team Settings**. New quotes and invoices start with it. See [Quote and invoice settings](https://tillage.ai/docs/account/quote-and-invoice-settings#line-item-style).

To switch a single quote or invoice, use the **Detailed** / **Itemized** switch in the header of the **Line Items** card. Your items stay as they are; only the columns and the client view change.

When you switch a quote or invoice to **Itemized**, its profit margin is set to 0%, because itemized documents price each item with its own markup instead. If you switch back to **Detailed**, the margin stays at 0% until you change **Profit Margin**.

Documents you've already created keep the style they were created with when you change the team default.

## The itemized columns

| Column | What to enter or read |
|---|---|
| **Item** | A short name, such as "Drywall, 1/2 in." |
| **Qty** | How many units. Decimals are allowed, such as 16.5 hours. |
| **Unit** | What one quantity means. See [Units](#units). |
| **Cost** | Your cost for one unit. New items start at 0. |
| **Markup** | The percentage added on top of your cost for this item. New items start at the quote's **Default Markup**. |
| **Amount** | Qty × Cost plus markup. Calculated for you. |

If **Show Line Item Tax Column** is on in your tax settings, a **Tax** column appears before **Amount**.

When you edit an invoice that's already been created, items show **Rate** in place of **Cost** and **Markup**.

The item menu (**⋮**) has **Add note**, **Duplicate**, **Save to library**, **Move to section** and **Delete**.

## Units

Pick a unit from the list on each item. Type to search by the short form ("sq ft") or the full name ("Square foot"), or choose **No unit**.

| Unit | Shown as |
|---|---|
| Hour, Day, Week, Month, Year | hr, day, wk, mo, yr |
| Each, Lot, Job, Visit, Session, Seat, Page | ea, lot, job, visit, session, seat, page |
| Square foot, 1,000 square feet, Square yard, Acre | sq ft, 1k sq ft, sq yd, acre |
| Linear foot, Cubic yard | lf, cu yd |
| Sheet, Box, Bag | sheet, box, bag |
| Gallon, Pound, Ton, Mile | gal, lb, ton, mi |

The list is fixed, so you can't add your own units.

### Common units for your industry

The **Industry** on your **Business** settings decides which units appear first, under **Common**, with the rest under **More**. It also sets the unit new itemized items start with. For example:

| Industry | Common units | New items start with |
|---|---|---|
| Construction & Contracting, Home Services & Trades | ea, hr, lot, sq ft, lf, sheet, cu yd, day | ea |
| Landscaping & Gardening | visit, ea, hr, acre, 1k sq ft, sq ft, cu yd, bag, lot | ea |
| Cleaning Services | visit, hr, sq ft, ea, mo | visit |
| Web & Digital Agency, Marketing & Advertising, Business Consulting, Accounting & Finance, Legal Services, and industries without their own list | hr, day, mo, ea, job | hr |

## Cost and markup

Enter what the item costs you per unit in **Cost**, and the percentage you add on top in **Markup**. Don't build markup into the cost.

For each item:

**Amount** = Qty × Cost × (1 + Markup ÷ 100)

Then, as with detailed quotes, the amounts add up to the subtotal and any discount comes off. There's no profit margin on top.

### Example

14 sheets of drywall at a cost of $16 a sheet, with a 20% markup:

| Step | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | 14 × $16 | $224.00 |
| Amount | $224 × 1.20 | $268.80 |

Your client sees 14 sheets at a rate of $19.20, for $268.80.

### Default markup

**Default Markup** in the **Line Items** card header sets the markup new items start with on this document. Click **Apply to All** to copy it onto every item. Your team default is **Default Markup (%)** under **Quote Defaults** in settings. It's the same setting as **Default Variance (%)** in the detailed style.

The quote summary shows **Base Subtotal** (your cost) and **With Markup**, followed by any discount and the total.

## Item notes

An item can carry a one-line note, shown under the item name on the client's copy, such as "Includes haul-away".

1. Click the pencil at the end of the item's name field (**Add a note**). You can also choose **Add note** from the item menu.
2. Type the note under the item.
3. Press **Enter** or click away to save it.

If you leave the note empty, it folds back into the pencil.

## Fast entry

Itemized rows are built for keyboard entry:

- Press **Enter** in an item's name, quantity, cost or markup field to save it and start a new item below, in the same section. The cursor moves to the new item's name.
- Paste rows from a spreadsheet into an item's name field. Each line becomes an item, with columns read in the order item, quantity, unit, cost. Units are matched by name or short form, including common spellings like "sf", "lf", "ac" and "msf". If the item you pasted into was blank, the pasted rows replace it.
- Drag the handle on the left of a row to reorder items.

## Sections

Sections group items under a heading such as "Demo", "Kitchen" or "Phase 1". Each section shows its subtotal. Sections work in both styles.

### Create and organize sections

1. In the **Line Items** card, click **Add section**.
2. Type a name and press **Enter**. Click the name later to rename it.
3. Add items with **Add item to** *section name* under the section, or press **Enter** on an item in the section.

To move an existing item, choose a section under **Move to section** in its item menu, or **New section…** to start one. **No section** takes it out. You can also drag items between sections, drag a whole section by its handle, and collapse a section with the arrow beside its name.

The section menu (**⋯**) has **Add item**, **Rename**, **Duplicate section**, **Ungroup (keep items)**, **Save as template** and **Delete section**. Deleting asks whether to **Keep items** or **Delete section and items**.

### Show clients only section totals

Once a document has a section, a **Client sees section totals only** switch appears in the **Line Items** card header. Turn it on and your client sees one line per section, with its name and total, instead of each item. Items outside any section still appear in full.

The individual item prices aren't sent to the client at all, so they can't be found in the page.

### Save a section as a template

1. In the section menu, choose **Save as template**.
2. Check the **Template name**. It starts as the section name.
3. Add a **Category** if you like.
4. Click **Save template**.

The template keeps each item's name, note, quantity, unit, cost, markup and the section name. To reuse it, click **Template** on any quote or invoice. Saved sections are marked **Section** in the picker, with the item count and an estimate, such as "Section · 6 items · ~$1,253". The estimate uses each item's cost, quantity and markup.

The section is inserted as its own block. If the document already has a section with that name, the new one is numbered, such as "Demo 2".

For more on templates, including setting a template's **Line item style**, see [Quote templates](https://tillage.ai/docs/quotes/quote-templates).

## What clients see

On an itemized quote or invoice, the client's document and PDF show **Item**, **Qty**, **Unit**, **Rate** and **Amount**, with section headings and subtotals if you use sections. Notes appear under the item name.

- **Qty** and **Rate** always show on itemized documents, whatever your **Display Settings** say. The **Unit** column appears when at least one item has a unit.
- The **Rate** is the amount divided by the quantity, so Qty × Rate always equals the amount. Your cost and markup are never shown.

Quotes in the detailed style now work the same way: when **Rate** is on, the client sees the line total divided by the quantity, not your base hourly rate.

### Per-1,000 sq ft quantities

The **1k sq ft** unit is priced per 1,000 square feet. Where quantity and unit are shown together, such as on detailed documents, PDFs and your own quote and invoice pages, Tillage folds the unit into the number: 12 of them show as "12k sq ft", not "12 1k sq ft". In a separate **Unit** column, the unit stays "1k sq ft".

## AI assistants

Claude, ChatGPT and other assistants connected through Tillage's MCP server understand both styles, and can draft itemized quotes with sections, units, cost and markup. See [Claude, ChatGPT and other AI assistants](https://tillage.ai/docs/integrations/claude-and-chatgpt).

## Related

- [Line items and pricing](https://tillage.ai/docs/quotes/line-items-and-pricing)
- [Price book](https://tillage.ai/docs/quotes/service-library)
- [Client rates](https://tillage.ai/docs/clients/client-rates)
- [Quote templates](https://tillage.ai/docs/quotes/quote-templates)
- [Quote and invoice settings](https://tillage.ai/docs/account/quote-and-invoice-settings)

To start from a sample, use a free [estimate template](https://tillage.ai/tools/estimate-templates) or [invoice template](https://tillage.ai/tools/invoice-templates) for your trade. The [markup calculator](https://tillage.ai/tools/markup-calculator) shows what a markup does to your price.

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