Reference data

Content owner: Quote Control product. Last reviewed: 20 September 2026.

Use Administration → Reference data to maintain the master records offered when users prepare quotations. Quote Control currently uses these manual records; it does not include a live customer, supplier or accounting-system connection.

Understand the relationships

• Customer records provide a reusable customer name and optional account reference.
• Site records belong to one customer and supply its site name and address.
• Supplier records provide a reusable supplier name and optional account reference.
• Material rate cards hold a part code, description, unit, unit cost and mark-up. They can optionally link to a supplier.

Create the customer before its sites. Create a supplier before assigning it to a material rate card.

Add or edit a customer

1. Open Customers.
2. Enter the customer Name and optional Account ref.
3. Choose Add Customer.
4. To correct a record, find it in the table, choose its edit action, amend the name or account reference, then choose Save changes.

Add or edit a supplier

1. Open Suppliers.
2. Enter the supplier Name and optional Account ref.
3. Choose Add Supplier.
4. To correct a record, find it in the table, choose its edit action, amend the fields, then choose Save changes.

Add or edit a site

1. Under Sites, choose the owning Customer.
2. Enter the Site name and Address.
3. Choose Add site.
4. To correct a site, find it in the table and choose its edit action.
5. Amend the customer, site name or address, then choose Save changes.

Changing the customer on a master site affects that site’s future use. It does not move or rewrite a site already saved on a quotation.

Add or edit a material rate

1. Under Material rate cards, enter a unique Code and a clear Description.
2. Choose Unit, then enter the internal Unit cost (£) for that unit and the default Mark-up (%).
3. Choose a Supplier, or retain No supplier.
4. Choose Add material rate.
5. To amend a rate, find it in the table, choose its edit action and then choose Save changes.

The Unit field offers each, metres, square metres, cubic metres, litres or kilograms. Existing custom unit labels remain available when editing their rates. A new unit does not convert an existing price: review the cost for the selected unit.

The mark-up provides the starting selling calculation when the rate is selected on a quotation. The estimator can still review the commercial line and round an authorised selling price.

Find and organise records

Each reference table supports search, sortable columns and pages of 10, 25 or 50 rows. Search uses the useful identifying fields for that table, such as name, account reference, customer, address, code, description or supplier.

Import established company data

Only Administrators can import established master data. The current import supports exactly these records:

Import type	Required identity	Other supported fields
Suppliers	Name; optional exact account reference	None
Material rates	Exact code	Description, unit, unit cost, mark-up and optional Supplier identifiers

Customers, sites, quotations, users, handovers, documents and company settings are not import formats.

1. Choose Import CSV and download the example for the required type.
2. Upload a UTF-8 CSV no larger than 2 MB or 5,000 data rows.
3. Map each Quote Control field to the heading used in the CSV.
4. Choose Preview changes. Preview writes nothing and classifies every row as Create, Update, Unchanged or Invalid.
5. Review the result and download rejected rows when any row is Invalid.
6. Apply the reviewed creates and updates. A successful apply adds an audit event; Unchanged and Invalid rows do not change records.

Import suppliers before material rates that reference them. Quote Control uses an exact supplier account reference when supplied, otherwise an exact name; it does not ignore an unknown account reference or fuzzy-merge similar companies. Applying a preview reparses the file and verifies the exact heading mapping, commercial values and matched record versions. If the file, mapping or master data changed, Quote Control asks for a fresh preview instead of overwriting an unreviewed value. Missing rows are never treated as deletions.

Material rates match existing records by exact code. Ambiguous, unknown or contradictory supplier details remain Invalid.

To use an imported material rate, open the line-item editor and choose its rate-card control.

Effect on existing work

Reference edits are immediate master-data changes. Future quotation selections use the amended records. Existing quotations retain the customer, site, address, supplier and commercial values that were already saved.

Material rate changes follow the same rule: new quotation lines use the amended rate, while existing lines retain their saved commercial values.

Administrators can also maintain Company part mappings for verified public replacement facts.

Continue with Labour rates or read how users price quotation lines.

Caution

Correct the master record rather than creating a second record for a spelling mistake. Check the search results first so users do not have to choose between duplicates.