Business Defaults

Set your usual figures once and many tools open with your own numbers already filled in.

Business Defaults save you typing the same VAT rate, markup and labour rate into every calculator. Set them up once and tools like the Arrangement Calculator, the Tribute Calculator and the Pricing Guide Generator pick them up as their starting point. The whole section is optional, so you can fill in as much or as little as you like.

What It Does

Business Defaults are your own business settings, kept private to your account. They do two jobs:

• Pre-fill your calculators. Your VAT rate, markup, labour rate and delivery charge become the starting values in tools that use them, so you are not retyping them each time.
• Set what your team sees on staff outputs. The printable sheets and staff PDFs some tools produce can show or hide labour cost and ingredient prices, in the format you choose.

Changing a default here updates the starting point for future calculations. It does not touch arrangements, recipe sheets or pricing guides you have already saved.

How To Find Them

Click your name in the top right of the screen, then open your profile. Find the Business Defaults section and open it (it starts collapsed). Make your changes, then click Save Defaults at the bottom.

What To Set Up

The form has four short groups. Work through them top to bottom.

VAT Settings

Default VAT Rate (%). Type your standard VAT rate as a number, for example 20. Tools use this figure wherever VAT is added to or taken off a price.

VAT registered. Tick this box if your business is VAT registered. When it is ticked, tools include VAT where it applies; when it is off, they leave it out. If you are not sure whether you should be registered, or which rate fits your work, check with your accountant.

Pricing Defaults

Default Markup Multiplier. The number your cost price is multiplied by to reach a retail price, for example 3.5. This is a baseline. Tools that need separate markups for flowers and sundries, like the Pricing Guide Generator, carry their own fields that override it. Anchor this to your own overheads and margins, not the shop down the road.

Default Hourly Labour Rate. The hourly rate you want to charge for labour, in your currency. Tools use it to work out the labour part of a price, and it feeds the staff labour display below when minutes are shown.

Delivery

Default Delivery Charge. The delivery fee you usually charge. Tools that add delivery as a line, such as the Delivery Profitability Calculator, pre-fill this, and you can still change it per job.

Pricing Settings

This group controls what your team sees on staff-facing outputs, like employee PDFs and recipe sheets. It changes presentation only, never how prices are worked out.

Staff Labour Display. Choose how labour appears for your team. The options run from Minutes only (shows how long the job should take, no cost) through Minutes and labour cost and Labour cost only to Hide labour completely. When minutes are shown, the figure uses your default hourly labour rate.

Ingredient Price Display. Choose whether per-ingredient prices show Including VAT or Excluding VAT. This applies only when ingredient prices are switched on for staff outputs.

Show ingredient prices on staff outputs. Tick this if you want your team to see per-ingredient prices on the printable sheets. Leave it off to keep cost figures off staff documents. This tick box is the master switch for the Ingredient Price Display setting above.

When everything looks right, click Save Defaults.

Tips And Best Practices

• Set your defaults up before you start pricing. It makes every calculator faster from the first job.
• Use your real numbers, not aspirational ones. Your actual costs, rates and delivery fee give you honest prices.
• Review them every few months, especially after a wage rise or a jump in supplier costs.
• Not sure of your markup? Start with what you already charge and adjust over time as you test your pricing. The Business Markup Calculator can help you work a markup out from your overheads.
• The ingredient-prices tick box is the master switch. If it is off, the Including VAT / Excluding VAT choice has no effect.

Common Questions

Do I have to fill in every field? No. The whole section is optional. Leave any field blank and fill it in later; setting them up early saves you time in the tools.

Can I change a default inside an individual tool? Yes. Defaults are only the starting point. Each tool lets you adjust its figures for that one calculation without changing what you have saved here.

What if I change my VAT rate or registration status? Update them here and tools use the new values from then on. Work you have already saved is not affected.

Where do I set separate flower and sundry markups? Those are not a Business Default, because they often vary by product range. Set them per guide in the Pricing Guide Generator, which takes separate flower and sundry markups for each guide.

Does the Default Markup Multiplier affect every tool? It is used wherever a single markup makes sense. Tools that need finer control, like separate flower and sundry markups, have their own fields and start from the values you enter there.