Categories and markups

When to use this

Use this page to set up the categories in your Library. Each category has its own markup and says what happens to leftovers. This page also explains how you tell BloomBoard how you use each item, and how each event uses your markups.

The model in short

• Each category has one markup. Your studio starts with five categories: Flowers, Foliage, Décor, Mechanics and Miscellaneous.
• Each item says how you use it: you use it up, your studio owns it, or you rent it from a supplier.
• Each new event copies your markups. You can change them for one event.
• Your client never sees categories or markups. Proposals look the same as before.

Your categories

Open Business → Categories and markups. The page says: “New events copy these markups. Change them for one event in Edit pricing rules.”

The list has four columns:

• Category: the name. The Library shows each category in its own color.
• Markup: what you add to the cost of the items in the category.
• Leftovers: what happens to the part of a bunch or box that an event does not use. See Leftovers.
• Items: how many Library items are in the category.

Your studio starts with these categories:

Add a category

1. Open Business → Categories and markups.
2. Choose Add category.
3. Type a name, such as Fruit. A name can have up to 40 characters.
4. Set its markup and its leftovers choice.

A new category starts on Keep for later. BloomBoard gives it the next color from a fixed set. You cannot choose the color.

You can use each name only once in your studio. Capital letters do not make a different name: “Fruit” and “fruit” are the same name.

Rename, move or remove a category

Open the ••• menu at the end of the category’s row. It has Rename, Move up, Move down and Remove.

• Rename changes the name everywhere. No price changes.
• Move up and Move down set the order. Recipes and Edit pricing rules list your categories in this order.
• Remove works only when the category has no items. Otherwise the page says, for example, “Move its 13 items to another category first.” Open each item in the Library, choose another category, and then remove the category.

A removed category is not deleted. Past events keep its name, so nothing is lost.

Markups

A markup is what you add to your cost to get your client’s price. Use the Enter markups as switch at the top of the page to choose how you type it:

• Multiplier: ×3.0 means that the client pays three times your cost. The page starts on Multiplier.
• Percentage: 200% means that the client pays your cost plus 200%.

The two are the same markup: 200% is ×3.0.

The switch applies to every category, and to Services and Operational costs. Edit pricing rules has the same choice.

There is no markup on a single item. If some items need their own markup, such as fruit, add a category for them and move the items into it.

Other markups

Other markups holds the two markups that are not item categories:

• Services (team and labor): the markup for your Services section. It was called Labor before.
• Operational costs (transport, travel): the markup for your Operational costs section. It starts at 0%.

New events copy these two markups too.

Leftovers

The info icon beside the Leftovers column explains the choice: “You often buy more than an event uses, because suppliers sell whole bunches and boxes. This setting tells BloomBoard what happens to the rest.”

• Add to event cost: “Flowers, foliage, fruit. What you do not use is lost, so it counts as this event’s cost and lowers your margin. Your client does not pay for it.” For example, you need 42 roses and buy 2 bunches of 25. The 8 spare roses ($16.00) count as this event’s cost.
• Keep for later: “Candles, foam, ribbon. What you do not use stays with you for the next event, so it does not count against this event.” For example, you need 6 candles and buy a box of 12. The other 6 stay with you.

Leftovers apply only to items that you use up. You do not buy the items that you own or rent, so they have no leftovers.

The same choice decides the word for an item’s versions. In a category set to Add to event cost, an item has varieties, such as Rose · Quicksand. In a category set to Keep for later, it has types, such as Vase · Cylinder 30 cm.

It does not decide the units. Flowers and Foliage start on By the stem, every other category and every hired or owned item start on By the item, and More units always lists the rest. See Add and price library items.

See Stems, bunches and leftovers for how Orders round up and show leftovers.

How you use each item

In the Library, each variety or type card asks How will you use this item? before the units and the price. There are three answers:

Used up or left with client

Use this answer for things that you use up or that your client keeps, such as flowers, foam and ribbon. Type the Price that you pay. Under the price, the card shows what your client pays, for example “$1.50 each. Client pays $3.00 each at your Décor markup ×2.0.” Choose View default markups to see your markups. You can also choose a Usual supplier · optional.

Studio-owned and reusable

Use this answer for things that your studio owns and uses again, such as your own vases and candle holders. Type the Client hire price: “What you charge for using your own item. Never marked up.”

• The event pays nothing for an item that you own. The hire price is all profit.
• Purchase details · optional keeps What you paid: “For your records. It does not change event costs.”
• Orders do not include the items that you own. Production lists them under From your stock, with the quantity that each event needs.

Rented from a supplier

Use this answer for things that you hire for the event and give back, such as hired vases or an arch. Type the Supplier hire cost: “What the supplier charges you.” The card shows what your client pays, for example “Client pays $3.00 at your Décor markup ×2.0.” You can also choose a Usual supplier · optional. Orders put the hire with its supplier.

Owned and rented prices can be per event, per day or per week. The Library list shows this with the price, for example “$3.00 hire per event” for an owned item and “$1.50 hire per event” for a rented item.

When you change an item later

An ingredient keeps the category and the use that its item had when you added it, so the prices in your recipes do not move. A change in the Library applies to the ingredients that you add after it.

If one event then uses an item in two ways, for example bought in one recipe and hired in another, Orders follow the item’s use in your Library. If your studio owns the item now, Orders do not order it, and Production lists it under From your stock.

How an event uses your markups

• New events copy your markups. Every new event copies your category markups and your Services and Operational costs markups. This includes events from your enquiry form, a client brief and your assistant.
• Change them for one event. On the proposal, open Edit pricing rules. Under Category markups, each category has its markup, and then Services and Operational costs. A change there applies to this event only. Your studio’s markups do not change. Business defaults under the heading opens your studio’s markups. If you changed a markup here and did not save it, BloomBoard asks before it leaves the panel.
• A category that you add later goes into an event the first time that one of its items goes into that event. The event copies its markup then.
• Board chips. The Arrangements and Rentals sections show a Category markups chip. Hover it to see the markups in use, for example “Flowers ×3.0, Foliage ×3.0, Décor ×2.0”. Click it to open Edit pricing rules. The Services and Operational costs sections keep their Auto chip, for example Auto ×1.0.
• Section averages. Where BloomBoard shows one markup for a whole section, it is the average for that section, and it says so.
• Sent and signed proposals keep their markups. To change them, create a revision.
• Discount, planner commission and tax work as before.

How BloomBoard prices an arrangement

For each category, BloomBoard adds up the cost of the arrangement’s used-up items and the hire cost of its rented items, for the whole event quantity. It multiplies that total by the category’s markup. Then it adds the hire price of the items that you own.

• The recipe builder groups the ingredients by your categories, in your order. Its cost summary shows one row for each category, such as “Décor $1.50 × 2.0 = $3.00”, and a row Owned items, hire (no markup).
• A price that you type on an arrangement ignores markups, as before. If the arrangement has no recipe, BloomBoard works out your cost from the event’s Flowers markup. For example, a typed price of $300.00 with Flowers at ×3.0 gives a cost of $100.00. Your margin and your finance reports use this cost.
• In the Rentals section, a rented item takes its category’s markup, and an item that you own takes its hire price.
• Tax works as before. Used-up items take your tax for Arrangements. Rented and owned items take your tax for Decor & Rentals. You set both under Business → Tax & pricing.

A worked example

A US studio has these markups: Flowers ×3.0, Foliage ×3.0, Décor ×2.0, Mechanics ×2.0 and Miscellaneous ×2.5. One centerpiece holds:

The cost summary reads:

• Flowers $10.00 × 3.0 = $30.00
• Foliage $2.00 × 3.0 = $6.00
• Mechanics $1.50 × 2.0 = $3.00
• Décor (hired) $1.50 × 2.0 = $3.00
• Owned items, hire (no markup): $3.00
• Client price: $45.00. Your cost: $15.00.

Six centerpieces cost your client $270.00. In each centerpiece, $39.00 takes your Arrangements tax and $6.00 takes your Decor & Rentals tax. Orders buy the roses and the eucalyptus in whole bunches, and put the vase hire with its supplier. Production lists the 18 candle holders under From your stock.

What happens when you change something:

• Décor at ×2.5 for this event only. Only the hired vase moves. It costs the client $3.75, so the centerpiece becomes $45.75.
• A new Fruit category at ×2.5, set to Add to event cost. Half a bunch of grapes at $5.00 a bunch adds $6.25 to the centerpiece. In Orders, the grapes that the event does not use show as leftover money.
• Mechanics renamed to Sundries. The name changes everywhere. No price changes.

If you used BloomBoard before this update

• Your categories. Flowers, Foliage, Décor, Mechanics and Miscellaneous are now your own. Hard Good is now called Mechanics, and its items stay in it. You can rename it back, or move your vases and candles to Décor.
• Your starting markups come from the markups that you saved: Flowers from Flowers, Foliage from Foliage, Mechanics from Hard Goods, Miscellaneous from Miscellaneous, and Décor from Rentals, because almost all Décor was rented.
• The Rentals markup is gone. A rented item takes its category’s markup. Labor is now called Services.
• Your events keep their prices. BloomBoard gave each event category markups that match the markups it used. Categories with bought items took the event’s markup for arrangements, and categories with hired items took its markup for rentals.
• A few draft events can change. A draft that had bought and hired items with different markups in one category now uses one markup for that category. Check the price of a draft before you send it.
• Sent and signed quotes do not change. They keep their prices until you create a revision.
• Items that you could buy or rent are now two items: one that you use up and one that you rent.
• The first time that you open Categories and markups, a note says: “Your category markups now apply to new events. Check them.”

The “What’s new” pop-up

If you had a login before this update, a What’s new pop-up shows once, on the first BloomBoard page that you open after you sign in. It has four steps:

1. Your categories are now yours
2. A markup for each category
3. Tell us how you use each item
4. Stems and bunches

Use Back and Next to move between the steps. On the last step, Check my markups opens Business → Categories and markups. In the phone app, it opens Settings → Pricing & tax. Got it closes the pop-up. Escape and the close button also close it.

• After you close it, it does not show again in this studio, on the web or in the phone app.
• It shows even if you switched off Show tips and guides.
• People who join after this update do not see it.

In the phone app

The phone app has the same categories, the same How will you use this item? question and the same prices. Settings → Pricing & tax shows the same list of categories and markups.

Common mistakes

• Fruit at the flower markup. Add a Fruit category with its own markup, set it to Add to event cost, and move your fruit into it.
• A vase that you own set as used up. The event then pays its price, and Orders buy it again for each event. Choose Studio-owned and reusable and type a client hire price.
• A hired vase set as owned. The supplier’s charge then does not count as your cost. Choose Rented from a supplier and type the supplier hire cost.
• Ribbon set to Add to event cost. The rest of each roll then counts against the event. Choose Keep for later for things that you keep.
• A studio markup changed to fix one event. Your studio’s markups are for new events, and an event keeps the markups that it copied. To change one event, use its Edit pricing rules.

Related pages

• Add and price library items
• Stems, bunches and leftovers
• Build a proposal in the workspace
• Assign items to suppliers
• Find your way around Business and Settings