🕰️ Est. Time: 5 minutes
🎯 Goal: Understand how items work across Streamtime, and how to set them up
🔑 Requirements: Access to the Master Settings within Streamtime, and an understanding of your job building requirements across the business
How do items work?
Items in Streamtime can take on a few forms, but the most common use case within Streamtime is using items as tasks or deliverables. For example, your item might be “Graphic Design”, or “Social Media Setup”. They represent the main services you offer, and make it easier to track the time and cost associated with each service.
Master items and how they work
While not every job will be the same, some tasks will pop up more frequently across your business. For instance, if you run a digital agency, SEO is a task that you’ll often need to add to your projects. To streamline this process, you can create a master item, and quickly add this into any job to reduce admin time.
Why should I create master items?
Master Items can significantly streamline your workflows and improve efficiency in various ways. Here’s why you should consider adding Master Items to your account:
Speed up your planning: No more starting from scratch every time. With Master Items set up in your account, you can whip up a job plan in no time.
Consistent pricing: Master Items come with set prices, making quoting a breeze and keeping your financials in check.
Enhanced reporting: Master Items help you generate detailed reports, giving you a clear picture of your business’s productivity and profitability.
How do I create master items?
In the ⚙️ Menu, select Items.
Click Item in the ➕ Create menu.
Name your item. Ensure the item name is unique, especially if you have similar items in your agency. This avoids any mix-ups.
Decide how the item should be priced.
Indicate whether the item is billable or not. For more details on non-billable items, see here.
Enter the Standard Sell Rate for the item.
Note: If you’ve selected the Price by Person option, this field won’t be available.
Add your description. This is a lifesaver if you’re not great at naming items. It also adds transparency for your clients, as you can choose to include this on their invoice.
Hit Save to finish. All set!
How does item pricing work?
Items within Streamtime can be priced in three different ways. You can read a more in depth overview here, but here is a brief overview how each method works:
Price by item rate
Set a fixed hourly rate for the item, regardless of who’s doing the work.
Price by person
Charge for your item based on each team members hourly rate.
Fixed price items
Set a fixed price for the item, regardless of who works on it, or how many hours it takes.
Items and accounting
Some of our integrated accounting platforms also allow you to link your items with account codes/nominal codes.
You can learn more on this and how to action it here.
Additional item workflows
A less commonly use workflow for items in Streamtime is to use your items as roles. This usually comes into the equation when team members have multiple roles across the business, and you want to build out your jobs to reflect their roles, rather than the deliverables.
In this use case, your phase name would be your deliverable, and your item would be your team member role.
We have a comprehensive overview of handling multiple roles within Streamtime in our Roles webinar here, which gives you a few different workflows to consider - so we suggest checking this out before you make a final decision!
How to use items within jobs
Now you’ve got your Master Items set up and you understand the basics, the article here will help you nail down your Item workflows, and also contains some handy tips & tricks!