Pricing rules and the pricing meter

Day rates and multipliers cover most of the math, but every contractor has rules that don't fit a number field. "Never quote less than $1,200 for a small bath demo." "Add 15% if the client wants it done in under two weeks." "Round my totals to the nearest $50." That's what pricing rules are for. The pricing-tuned meter is how you see at a glance how complete your setup is.

Pricing rules

A pricing rule is plain-English guidance you write (or tell Biddy) that applies to every future proposal. Examples that work well:

• "Minimum demo charge is $1,200, no matter how small the bathroom."
• "Add a 15% rush fee when the timeline is under 2 weeks."
• "Don't quote heated floors under $35 per square foot installed."
• "For natural stone walls, add an extra 10% beyond the standard marble multiplier."
• "Always include a $400 mobilization line on jobs more than 30 miles from my shop."

You can write rules directly on the Pricing rules tile at Settings → Pricing templates. The panel lists your rules one per row: edit a row, delete it, add a new one, then tap Save. Rules Biddy saved from your conversations sit in the same list with a From Biddy stamp. Or just tell Biddy in a chat — "Hey, never quote less than $1,200 for a small bath demo" — and Biddy will offer to save it as a rule for you. Confirm and it sticks across every future proposal.

Rules apply to every job. Each time the AI builds a proposal, it reads your rules and follows them on the lines it prices for you. When a rule changes a number (like a minimum charge), the proposal notes it so you can see why the number came out the way it did. A price that's already set on your scope stays as it is (see "When rules win, when math wins" below).

[!tip] The fastest way to build up rules is to react to drafts. The first proposal goes out at $1,750 for demo and you think "no way, I never go below $2,000 for that scope" — tell Biddy. Next time, your rule kicks in automatically.

The pricing-tuned meter

Look at your dashboard, or the top right of Settings → Pricing templates. There's a circular ring with a percentage in the middle. That's the pricing-tuned meter. It tracks how complete your pricing setup is on a 0–100% scale.

The math behind it:

Each tuned field is worth a proportional slice of its phase's weight — so an Essentials field moves the meter more than an Advanced one, and finishing all of Phase 1 gets you to 60%.

Hit a tuned field and you'll see a brief "+X% tuned" toast slide in to celebrate the move. The ring glows steadier as you climb, with a soft pulse at 100%.

Why Essentials matters

Getting to 60% tuned — finishing Phase 1 — is the threshold where BidCraft can give you accurate first-pass proposals. You can absolutely keep going after Essentials, and you should, but the meter is intentionally weighted so the most important fields count for the most.

Resuming where you left off

Click the ring. It opens the pricing interview chat at exactly the point where you stopped. If you finished Essentials, it picks up at Phase 2. If you're halfway through Phase 1, it picks up at the next unfilled field. You can also bail mid-interview and come back days later — the chat thread remembers everything.

The ring is permanent on the dashboard. Even at 100%, it stays as a "fully tuned" status badge you can revisit any time you want to refine a multiplier or add a new rule.

When rules win, when math wins

A common question: if you have a rule that says "$1,200 minimum for demo" and the math comes out to $800, what wins?

It depends on where that line's price comes from.

Your rules guide the lines BidCraft prices for you, which are the lines on your scope that don't have a price of their own yet. If BidCraft is pricing the demo line itself, it follows your rule: the proposal shows $1,200 for that line, with a note saying the rule kicked in. That's what makes rules useful. They put your judgment in the places where plain math would under-quote you.

A price that's already set on your scope is final, whether you typed it yourself or it's your service's own price. A rule never changes it.

Your prices keep learning

Rules are the judgment you write down. Your sent bids are the evidence. Every bid you send teaches BidCraft your real prices: for each catalog service on it, BidCraft notes the price you actually sent, one price per job. Resend at a new price and that job's price is updated. When the client signs, it's set to what they signed. Jobs priced by the day and lines priced as days × your day rate are never noted as a service's price.

Services priced as a range follow those prices. A fixed price never changes without you; the sent prices sit next to it as history, so Biddy can tell you when they drift apart. More on what gets noted in Building your service catalog.

Next steps

Rules and meter complement the underlying math. If you haven't tuned the core numbers yet, start with Day rate, multipliers, and overhead.

If you have past proposals you've already sent, uploading them is a shortcut to half the meter — see Uploading sample proposals to teach BidCraft your prices.