How Tradewin Recipes Work
Save a reusable bundle of your costs for a job type, then apply it in one tap on the calculator. Learn how to create, edit, and share recipes.
A Tradewin Recipe™ is a saved set of cost items for a particular kind of job — like a “100mm concrete slab” or a “standard switchboard upgrade”. Build it once, then apply it in a single tap whenever you quote a similar job, and the costs scale to the new job size automatically.
What a recipe is
- •Tied to one job type (a standard job or one of your custom jobs) — that's how it appears in the calculator for the right jobs.
- •Made up of items from your cost library (My Costs) — you can only add costs you've already saved.
- •Labour is optional. On unit-based jobs (per m², per metre, each) you can lock how long the work takes per unit — like 1 hr per light — so labour scales with the job too. Leave it off and your labour is worked out separately each time.
- •Prices and any labour rate are a snapshot from the moment you save — update a recipe any time to refresh them.
- •Can be kept personal or shared with your whole team (on Business plans).
Create a recipe
- Go to Account → Costs. You'll see My Costs, with Tradewin Recipes™ just below it.
- Make sure the costs you need are already in My Costs — recipes are built from there.
- Click Add recipe.
- Pick the trade and the job this recipe is for.
- Give the recipe a clear name, e.g. “100mm slab per m²”.
- Add each item from My Costs and set its quantity.
- For materials, add a wastage % if you want to allow for offcuts and breakage.
- On unit-based jobs, optionally set Labour per unit — the hours the work takes per unit and your rate — to lock your productivity so labour scales with the job.
- Choose whether each line grows with job size (see below), then click Create recipe.
Fixed vs grows with job size
Every line in a recipe is either a fixed amount or scales with the size of the job:
- •Qty (total): a one-off amount for the whole job — e.g. 1 crane hire, or 1 permit. It stays the same no matter how big the job is.
- •Qty per unit (grows with job size): the amount needed for each unit of the job — e.g. 0.1 m³ of concrete per m² of slab. The calculator multiplies it by the job size for you.
Using a recipe when you quote
- In the calculator, choose the job type the recipe was made for.
- Open the Job Costs section — your saved recipes for that job appear under Recipes.
- Tap Apply. The recipe's items load straight into your itemised costs.
- Anything set to grow with job size scales to the size you've entered; fixed items stay as-is.
- If the recipe locked per-unit labour, your hours are filled in and scale to the job size (crew set to 1, since the per-unit time already covers the whole crew) — tweak the hours or rate anytime. Otherwise, add your labour for this job. The recipe is a starting point, not a lock.
Edit, share & delete
- •Edit a recipe any time from Account → Costs → Tradewin Recipes™ — rename it, add or remove items, change quantities, or update prices.
- •Turn on “Share with my team” to make a recipe available to everyone in your organisation (Business plans).
- •Shared recipes can be edited by any team member; only an owner or admin can delete them. Personal recipes are only visible to you.
- •The job type a recipe is attached to is fixed — to use the same costs for a different job, create a new recipe for that job.