Price roof materials from your ABC Supply account

With ABC Supply installed, a roofing estimate shows exactly what its materials cost: the shingles, underlayment, drip edge and everything else, in whole bundles, rolls and pieces, at your prices at your ABC branch. The materials total sits next to the labor, the cost and the margin, so you know what a roof costs before you send the price. Roofing also gets a Catalog: ABC’s items at your branch with your price on each, what your account buys most, and your materials kept current.

It works through an app you make in ABC Supply’s developer portal, for your company only. ABC doesn’t charge for it and neither does Crewtavo. Your prices stay between you and ABC.

Note

Before you start, have your ABC account number (top left in myABCSupply, or on any ABC invoice) and a myABCSupply login that can see that account. No login yet? Sign up at myABCSupply or ask your branch. Without an account, you can still try it with ABC’s sandbox test prices.

Install it

An owner or admin does this once. It takes about ten minutes, plus a business day or two for ABC to switch on your real prices.

1. In Crewtavo, open Apps, choose ABC Supply (under Material prices) and click Install.

2. Click Open ABC’s developer portal and sign up with a work email you’ll keep. ABC writes to it about your app. Confirm the email and set a password. When ABC asks for a Developer Organization, give it your company’s name and click Complete ABC API Developer Account.

3. Click Create New App and fill it in with what Crewtavo shows you:

   • Application Name: Crewtavo
   • “Do you plan to integrate our APIs into a product or platform that will be used by multiple ABC customers?”: No. The app is for your company only.
   • OAuth 2.0 Redirect URIs: ABC fills in https://localhost:4000 already. Leave it as it is: Crewtavo doesn’t use it, but ABC’s form needs one.
   • Description and Application URL can stay empty.

   Then click Create App. ABC sets it up in its sandbox, with test prices, right away.

4. Under Manage Applications, click Manage next to the app and copy its Client ID and Client Secret. Keep them private, like a password.

5. Back in Crewtavo, paste them, leave Sandbox ticked and click Connect. Crewtavo checks the keys with ABC before keeping them.

6. For your real prices, click Manage next to the app again, then Production Request. Give ABC your myABCSupply email and your account number (top left in myABCSupply, or on an ABC invoice) and click Continue. ABC usually approves it in a business day or two.

7. When ABC says it’s approved, open Apps → ABC Supply, click Change keys, paste the app’s keys again with Sandbox unticked, and click Connect.

Caution

Answer No when ABC asks whether the app will be used by multiple ABC customers. An app made for a software company can’t get prices without a sign-in page, and Crewtavo says so when you connect.

The keys are stored encrypted on your server. Crewtavo only reads your account, ABC’s catalog, your prices and ABC’s list of what your account buys most: it can’t place orders or see your invoices.

Pick where prices come from

Under Where prices come from, Crewtavo starts with your account’s home branch. Each ABC branch sets its own prices, so if you buy from another branch, pick the ABC account and Branch and click Use these.

Below it, Your catalog has Open the Catalog, which takes you to Roofing → Catalog, and a search to look up your price for one of any item.

Browse ABC’s catalog

Once ABC Supply is connected, Roofing has a third tab, Catalog, after Projects and Packages. It shows ABC’s catalog at your branch, at your prices: the top of the page says “Your prices at” your branch, with “(ABC’s sandbox test prices)” while you’re still on the sandbox. Roofing is in the sidebar while Crewtavo - Roofing is installed (see Install and manage apps).

Owners, admins, office staff and estimators with Quotes and sales can browse it. Adding items to services, Check with ABC and Replace also take Price list, checklists, crews and booking forms, which estimators don’t have to start with.

On the left:

• What you usually buy: the items your account buys again and again, from ABC’s record of its invoices, most often first, at today’s prices. Each says “On 6 invoices lately”, or “Not at your branch” when your branch doesn’t carry it.
• Your materials: every ABC item in your price list (see Keep your materials current). The number beside it is how many need a look.
• Categories: Shingles, Hip & ridge, Starter strip, Underlayment, Ice & water, Drip edge, Valley & flashing, Vents, Pipe boots, Nails & fasteners, Sealants and Metal roofing.

Or type in “Search ABC’s catalog: brand, product, color or item number”. It searches once you’ve typed two letters.

A category or a search shows up to 60 items, like “48 items at” your branch. Type and Brand narrow them, each with how many there are; All shows them all again.

Each item is a card: ABC’s photo of it, the brand and type, its name, item number and color, and your price for one, like “$38.50 / bundle”. In your price list marks the ones you already use. The cards show at once and their prices fill in a second or two later; photos load as you scroll. When ABC is slow to answer, a note above the cards says “ABC Supply is slow to send prices right now. Still asking…” and the prices fill in when they come. An item ABC has no photo of shows a swatch of its color, which is a guess: “Approximate color, from its name. ABC has no photo of it.” Items cut to length say “Pick a length to see its price.”

Note

What you usually buy needs your real prices. On the sandbox it says ABC has no purchases to go by. On a real account with nothing there yet, it explains that “ABC lists the items your account was invoiced for at least twice in the last 6 months.” Either way, Start from a category below it opens a category in one tap.

Open an item

Click a card to see ABC’s categories for it, its Item number, Made by, Color, Sold by the and Lengths, and “Your price for one, at” your branch.

• Colors and sizes at your branch lists the item’s other colors and sizes with your price on each (Other colors and sizes when ABC only lists them). Tap one to open it.
• Specs lists what ABC says about it.
• In your price list shows the services it’s in, how many go into each, and the packages those services are part of.

Add an item to a service

Materials belong to the services in your price list, so you pick them once and every estimate with that service is priced the same way.

1. Open the item and click Add to a service (Add to another service once it’s in one).
2. Under Which service is it in?, pick the service and click Next.
3. Check how many go into each unit with Per square or One covers, the same way as on a roof, and pick a Length for an item cut to length. Then click Add to ….

Keep your materials current

Roofing → Catalog → Your materials lists every ABC item in your price list once, with the services it’s in (how many go into each, and their packages), its last price and how long ago it was priced. Ones that need a look come first.

Check with ABC

Click Check with ABC to look up every material at ABC and price it at your branch today. Your price list’s costs, and the packages set to Follow ABC prices, move with the new prices.

• An item ABC renamed takes its new name.
• An item ABC doesn’t carry any more, or doesn’t sell by that unit any more, is flagged to replace.
• An item the branch couldn’t price shows the branch’s reason.

When it’s done, Crewtavo says “Checked with ABC: everything is still carried and priced”, or how many need a look. A flagged material keeps its last price, and its row says why, like “ABC Supply doesn’t carry this any more. Until then, it counts at its last price.”

Replace a material

1. Click Replace on its row. It opens with ABC’s catalog already searched for that kind of material.
2. Pick what to use instead. It changes in every service the old one is in.
3. Check Priced by the (when ABC sells it more than one way), the Length for an item cut to length, and how many go into each service. Crewtavo fills in the count from how ABC describes the new item.
4. Click Replace in …: the service’s name, or Replace in 3 services when it’s in three.

The services’ costs and the packages that follow ABC are worked out again straight away. Estimates still open for changes are priced again the next time they’re opened.

Add materials to a roof

You can also pick a service’s materials right from a roof estimate.

1. Open a roof in Roofing and go to the Estimate step. Below the estimate, open Materials for this roof. Each line on the estimate has Add materials from ABC.
2. Search ABC’s catalog by brand, product and color, like Timberline Charcoal or drip edge white, or paste an ABC item number. Each item shows your price at your branch.
3. Pick the item. Crewtavo guesses how many it takes from how ABC describes it: 3 bundles per square for shingles sold 3 bundles to a square, one roll covers 10 squares for a 10-square roll of underlayment, one piece covers 10 ft for 10 ft drip edge. Check it with Per square or One covers, and see what this roof would order.
4. Click Add to …. Add the rest the same way with Add another material.

For each material, the estimate shows what to order for this roof, rounded up to whole ones (28.8 squares of shingles at 3 bundles a square is 87 bundles), the price each and the total. The pencil changes how many go into a unit; the × takes a material out.

Labor and the rest

When a service gets its first material, Crewtavo splits the cost already in your price list: what the materials don’t explain becomes Labor and the rest, per unit. Change it to what the crew, equipment and disposal really cost you. The line’s cost on the estimate is then its materials plus that, and the margin follows.

Keeping prices current

The estimate prices itself whenever its lines, quantities or materials change, and shows when it was priced. Click Update prices for today’s prices any time. Your price list keeps the newest prices too, so its costs stay current. On Roofing → Packages, Update prices on the ABC Supply card prices every package’s materials at once.

When ABC won’t price a material (the branch stopped pricing it, or ABC doesn’t carry it any more), your price list keeps its last price instead of dropping to $0, so nothing it’s in gets cheaper by itself. Your materials in the Catalog shows which ones, so you can replace them.

A package set to Follow ABC prices whose roof has a material your branch has never priced shows A square, held: the roof stays at its price a square instead of leaving that material out, until the branch prices it or you replace it. One ABC didn’t price last time keeps its last price, and the package says so: “Check it in the Catalog.”

Once a proposal is signed, its materials keep the prices it was signed with.

Note

ABC’s terms let you use your prices for your own estimates and orders, and don’t allow putting them next to another supplier’s prices. Crewtavo prices each material from the supplier you picked it from, and never compares suppliers.

If something goes wrong

• “ABC Supply didn’t accept that Client ID and secret for your real prices.” Copy both again from your app in ABC’s portal. If you only just sent the Production Request, ABC may not have approved it yet; tick Sandbox until it has.
• “ABC Supply accepted the keys, but no ABC account is linked to this app yet.” Send ABC the Production Request with your account number and myABCSupply email.
• “ABC Supply won’t give this app prices.” The app was made for a software company. Make a new app in ABC’s developer portal, answer No when ABC asks if it will be used by multiple ABC customers, and paste its keys.
• “ABC Supply’s sandbox has no test accounts for this app.” Check the app was made for your own company (No to being used by multiple ABC customers), or ask ABC’s API support.
• “ABC Supply couldn’t use that: …” ABC turned the request down; the words after the colon are ABC’s own reason. If it’s about an item, pick another one or replace it in the Catalog. Otherwise, send the whole message to ABC’s API support.
• “call for price” next to a material means the branch hasn’t priced that item for your account. The materials total shows a +. Call the branch, or pick another item.
• “Today’s prices didn’t come.” above the Catalog’s cards, with “Couldn’t get today’s price.” on each, means ABC didn’t send the prices, often with “ABC Supply didn’t answer in time. Try again in a minute.” Click Try again, or open an item to ask for its price again.
• “Connect ABC Supply to see its catalog” ABC Supply isn’t connected, or was uninstalled. An owner or admin can click Set up ABC Supply.
• “ABC Supply didn’t say which account your purchases are billed to, so it can’t show what you usually buy.” or “ABC Supply didn’t share what you usually buy.” followed by ABC’s reason: the rest of the Catalog still works. Browse by category or search instead.
• “That’s a lot of searches in a few minutes. Wait a little and try again.” The Catalog asks ABC for each search, category and price. Give it a minute.
• “Your materials were just checked. Wait a few minutes and try again.” Check with ABC runs at most 10 times in ten minutes.
• “Material prices come from ABC Supply. An owner or admin can install it on the Apps page.” ABC Supply isn’t installed, or was uninstalled. The estimate keeps the last prices it had.

Uninstall it

Open Apps → ABC Supply and click Uninstall. Estimates stop getting prices from ABC, the Catalog tab goes away, and your app’s keys are removed from Crewtavo. The materials in your price list and the prices already on estimates stay. To stop the app working anywhere, delete it in ABC’s developer portal too.