If you have no catalog, Handoff still prices your estimates. Labor uses local data for the job location. Materials use Home Depot or Lowe's prices when a retail supplier is turned on, and everything else uses Handoff's default rates.
Available on all plans, including the free trial. You need an active subscription, because accounts without one can't run AI estimates. Works on desktop and in the mobile app.
The fastest way to get your own numbers in is to import a price list or tell Handy (Handoff's AI assistant) your rates in chat.
What Handoff uses when you have no catalog
An estimate without catalogs is priced from these sources.
Labor: Handoff looks up a labor rate for the county of your price location. If it has no location, it uses a default hourly rate.
Materials: if retail supplier pricing is enabled, Handoff matches material lines to Home Depot or Lowe's products and uses their prices. Accounts start with Lowe's selected.
Everything else: Handoff's built-in knowledge base and default rates.
On the estimate, the catalogs badge reads No catalogs applied on desktop. In the mobile app, it shows an icon only. Your direct requests in chat still win. If you type "use $100/hr for labor", Handoff uses that rate for the estimate.
What you can set up first
Presets and markups work without a catalog. Markups and tax start at 0% unless you answered the markup step when you signed up. Set defaults under Settings > AI Settings > Presets.
Build your first catalog
You have three quick routes, from fastest to slowest.
Tell Handy a rate in chat. When you state a rate you want Handoff to keep, Handy saves it as a catalog rate in a catalog called Ungrouped.
Import a price list. Go to Settings > AI Settings > Catalogs, select New catalog (New in the mobile app), and choose Import from file. See How to import a supplier price list into a catalog.
Create manually. Select New catalog (New in the mobile app) > Create manually, and add rates one at a time.
The free trial includes unlimited catalogs, so you can build several. After the trial, Flex includes 1 catalog and Pro and Scale include unlimited. The Ungrouped catalog doesn't count toward the limit.
Why a catalog changes your numbers
Once a catalog is active, Handy checks it before supplier prices and market defaults. A catalog rate sets the price, and material lines priced from your catalog are not repriced by supplier matching. See How catalogs work.