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

  1. Go to Account → Costs. You'll see My Costs, with Tradewin Recipes™ just below it.
  2. Make sure the costs you need are already in My Costs — recipes are built from there.
  3. Click Add recipe.
  4. Pick the trade and the job this recipe is for.
  5. Give the recipe a clear name, e.g. “100mm slab per m²”.
  6. Add each item from My Costs and set its quantity.
  7. For materials, add a wastage % if you want to allow for offcuts and breakage.
  8. 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.
  9. 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

  1. In the calculator, choose the job type the recipe was made for.
  2. Open the Job Costs section — your saved recipes for that job appear under Recipes.
  3. Tap Apply. The recipe's items load straight into your itemised costs.
  4. Anything set to grow with job size scales to the size you've entered; fixed items stay as-is.
  5. 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.