The first time you open this screen, no plants will be displayed. You can filter the list using the Filter Items drop-down list. You can choose to view all items or view items by category or supplier. If you choose to view by category, a Category drop-down list will become visible from which you can choose a category. The same applies if you choose to filter by supplier.
Add a New Item
Enter the Title and choose a category to group the item under from the Category drop-down list. If the category you want is not on the list, just type it in and it will be saved to the list and will be available the next time. You can manage the category list from the Other Lists screen.
Enter the unit of measure for the item in the Unit field.
You can break the item cost down into Labor, Materials and Other. For example if an item involves labor and materials, you would enter the labor cost and the material cost. If you don't want to break down the cost, you can just enter the total cost in the Labor field. It is much better though if you break out the labor, materials and other. This way when you create an estimate you will see how much is for labor, materials etc. If it is a labor only item then just enter the labor cost per unit. Likewise if you are just supplying the materials then just enter the material cost per unit.
You can also enter the Labor Hours Per Unit. This is the amount of time it takes one person to install or carry out the task. By entering this information, Plant Estimator will be able to calculate the totals hours required for a job when you create estimates and invoices. This is very useful for scheduling.
Enter the Markup % for the item / service. The markup will be calculated and applied when you add the item / service to an estimate or invoice. If you don't want to use markup, then enter your selling price for the item / service in the Unit Cost field.
Enter the Default Quantity. This will be used to set the quantity when you add the item to an estimate or invoice.
Check the Taxable box of the item is taxable. You can override this when you add the item to an estimate or invoice.
You can also choose a supplier from the Supplier drop-down list for each item. This allows you to filter out items by supplier.
You can optionally add an image of the item if applicable. Click the
button to insert an image. The image will be scaled to a certain size and saved in the database. This means that even if you delete the image file from you computer, it will still be in Plant Estimator. Click the 
button to delete the image.
Enter a Description of the item. This is optional. To enter a description, click the View / Edit Description button. This will open a popup window as shown below where you can view and edit the text.
Click the Save button to save any changes you have made.
To edit an item, select it on the list and edit the details in the fields at the bottom.
Click the Delete button to delete the selected item .
It is a good idea to enter all your items at the beginning as this will speed up the creation of estimates and invoices.