Pricing & Calculations

1. Click the sidebar icon on the right side of your screen and select Calculations.

2. Select the drop-down menu for tax and choose an existing tax rate or create a custom rate.

3. You can include more than one tax rate by selecting multiple options.

If you would like to only charge tax on materials, please reach out to our team at support@paintscout.com to enable the ability to split tax rates for labor and materials.

After adjusting, you'll notice a triangle marking the subtotal section, signaling that it has been overridden. To revert to the default value, click on the triangle and select reset value.

To add a discount to a quote, click on the sidebar icon and go to the Calculations tab. Under 'Discount' you can add a discount by % or dollar and a discount description.

You can also add a list of your discount rates by going to your Account Settings > Estimates > Discounts section.

How to show surface pricing

When you create an estimate, the prices for individual items are hidden by default. If you want to make them visible, follow these steps:

How to hide area pricing

You can quickly show or hide the pricing for each area in the estimate by using the slider.

To show the pricing, click the slider to turn it green. If you want to hide the per-area prices and only display the total, click the slider to turn it grey. This feature puts you in charge of what pricing details the customer can see!

If you manually customize the estimates total in the sidebar menu > calculations, the per-area pricing will automatically toggle off.

To remove the surcharge from a specific estimate open the sidebar menu and select Payments & Lending.

Uncheck the Surcharging box to remove the surcharge from future credit card payments made on this estimate/invoice.

Are you finding that even though you've updated your hourly rate in the Account Settings, your new estimates are still using the old rate?

Chances are, you're frequently using templates, and templates do not automatically update from your Account Settings (but don't worry, we have a solution for this, so keep on reading till the very end!)

How to update your hourly rate on a template

Our feature ensures that you always have the most current information from your settings. Reach out to our support team if you'd like to switch to Smart Templates!

Area View

Area View organizes the estimate by room (e.g., Bedroom, Bathroom, Office). Each area lists its substrates underneath, with the total price per room.

Surface View

Surface View organizes the estimate by substrate type (e.g., Walls, Windows). Each substrate lists all associated rooms underneath, showing the cost breakdown per surface across the entire project.

What is an Area?

An Area is a distinct physical space with specific dimensions, such as a bedroom, entire house, or deck. After entering dimensions, you select surfaces (substrates) to build your estimate. Pricing auto-calculates based on the rates configured in Account Settings > Production Rates.

What is a Line Item?

A Line Item is a custom entry on an estimate that is not tied to room dimensions. Line items are useful for preparation details, flat-rate charges, consultation fees, or materials not calculated by area. They can include specific prices, hours, and products. Create reusable line items in Account Settings to add them quickly to any estimate.

Production rates in PaintScout support only one default product each. Use one of the following workarounds when you need multiple products on a surface (e.g., primer plus finish coat):

Create a Separate Production Rate

If you need to add both a priming and finish coat product to your production rate, it's best to create a separate production rate for priming. This allows you to calculate the priming material separately and account for the extra time your painters will need to prime the space.

Factor Additional Material into Your Material Markup

For materials used on every project, like primer or sundries, you can factor these into the price of your products as the price entered in your Account Settings should already include the markup or the amount you want to charge the customer.

Add Products to a Line Item

Even though production rates can only have one product per rate, you can still add multiple products to a line item. This is useful for adding sundries like tape or plastic. Just remember, materials added to line items won't automatically adjust based on project size, so you'll need to manually adjust quantities or create pre-made "sundries bundles" based on the project's size.