Materials & Supplies: Set Your Costs for Accurate AI Quotes

When Lawnager's AI generates a quote, it needs to know what your materials actually cost. Without your real prices, it falls back on generic market estimates — which may not match what you pay your supplier.

The Materials & Supplies catalog is where you enter your actual costs for mulch, fertilizer, seed, chemicals, and anything else you use on jobs. Once set up, every AI-generated quote automatically pulls from your catalog instead of guessing.

Why This Matters

• •Accurate quotes: The AI uses your supplier prices, not national averages
• •Protected margins: No more accidentally quoting below your actual material costs
• •Faster quoting: No need to manually adjust material line items every time
• •Always current: Update a price once and all future quotes reflect it automatically

Getting to the Materials Catalog

1. •Go to Settings in the left sidebar
2. •Click Materials & Supplies

You'll see your existing materials grouped by category, or an empty catalog if you're starting fresh.

Adding Materials with AI (Recommended)

The fastest way to build your catalog is to let Lawnager suggest a starting list.

1. •Click Suggest Materials with AI
2. •Lawnager generates 15–25 common lawn care materials with market pricing in about 10 seconds
3. •Review the list — prices are estimates at this point
4. •Click Add next to any material to add it to your catalog
5. •Edit the price to match what you actually pay

Note: Using AI suggestions costs 1 AI action credit from your monthly allocation.

Adding Materials Manually

If you prefer to add materials one at a time:

1. •Click Add Material
2. •Fill in the details:
   • •Name — e.g., "Scotts Turf Builder"
   • •Description — optional, for your reference
   • •Unit — choose how you buy it: each, bag, sq ft, cubic yard, lb, gallon, or linear ft
   • •Unit Cost — what you pay per unit
   • •Category — select from: General, Mulch, Fertilizer, Seed, Stone & Gravel, Soil & Amendments, Chemicals, Bags & Supplies, or Equipment Rental
3. •Click Save

Keeping Prices Current

Supplier prices change. When they do:

1. •Find the material in your catalog
2. •Click Edit
3. •Update the Unit Cost
4. •Click Save

All future quotes will immediately use the new price. Quotes already sent are not affected.

How It Works in Quotes

When you create a quote and the AI builds a materials list:

• •Lawnager checks your catalog first
• •If a matching material exists, it uses your price
• •If no match is found, it falls back to an estimated market price
• •You can always adjust any line item manually before sending

The more complete your catalog, the more accurate your AI quotes will be out of the box.

Tips & Common Pitfalls

• •Match how you buy, not how you sell. Set the unit to match your supplier invoice — if you buy mulch by the cubic yard, use cubic yards. The AI will calculate quantities from job size.
• •Don't skip the unit. A unit cost of $45 means nothing without knowing if that's per bag or per cubic yard. Wrong units = wrong quote totals.
• •Add seasonal materials proactively. Add pre-emergent and overseeding materials before spring — they'll be ready when quote volume picks up.
• •Equipment rental belongs here too. If you rent an aerator or slit-seeder for specific jobs, add it under Equipment Rental so it's captured in quotes automatically.
• •One catalog, all quotes. Your materials catalog is shared across all quotes — there's no per-job or per-service catalog. Keep it clean by removing materials you no longer use.

Plans

The Materials & Supplies catalog is available on all Lawnager plans, including Starter (free).