Adding and editing material types

In this article

• What are material types?
• Adding a material type
• Editing material types
• Archiving material types
• Deleting material types

What are material types?

Material types are the method Chalkstring uses to sub-group the materials in your material database into categories.  For example, a material type of 'Plasterboard' may contain hundreds of different types of specific plasterboard sheets from within your material database. Materia types are used for filtering and locating materials during the estimating and procurement stages of a project. They are also used as part of the accounts export process with nominal codes being matched to each material type to enable you to track revenue based on the different material types in your 3rd party accounting software.

Every Material added into your database will need to be allocated a type when it is created. New material types can be created when manually adding materials into the database and in bulk during your onboarding process. 

Adding a material type 

To add a new material type you will need to have the necessary permissions. If you don't see the options in the steps below but believe you should have these permissions, please speak to your system administrator or contact our support team.

Steps to add a material type

1. From the left menu bar click the 'Settings' icon, then click the ‘Admin’ icon.
2. Click the ‘Material types’ sub menu.
3. Click the '+ New material type' button in the top right.
4. Enter the 'Type name' for the material in the box.
5. Click the 'Save' button.

Editing material types

If a material type needs to be updated you can use the edit option.

Steps to edit a material type

1. From the left menu bar click the 'Settings' icon, then click the ‘Admin’ icon.
2. Click the ‘Material types’ sub menu.
3. Find the material type that you wish to edit in the 'Name' section on the left of the page and click on it to view the details. 
4. Click the 'Edit' icon in the top right of the screen. If you aren't sure which icon, hover over them to see a tooltip.
5. Make the changes you wish to make.
6. Click 'Save'.

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Archiving material types

If you have material types that you no longer want to use going forward but that have been used previously then you can archive them.

Steps to archive a material type

1. From the left menu bar click the 'Settings' icon, then click the ‘Admin’ icon.
2. Click the ‘Material types’ sub menu.
3. Find the material type that you wish to archive in the 'Name' section on the left of the page and click on it to view the details. 
4. Click the 'Archive' icon in the top right of the screen and then click the 'Confirm archive' button that appears. If you aren't sure which icon, hover over them to see a tooltip.
5. This will leave the material type record in the system but hide it from dropdown lists.

Steps to unarchive a material type

If for some reason you need to reinstate an archived material type you can do so with the following steps:

1. From the left menu bar click the 'Settings' icon, then click the ‘Admin’ icon.
2. Click the ‘Material types’ sub menu.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and tick the 'Include archived' checkbox.
4. Find the material type that you wish to unarchive in the 'Name' section on the left of the page and click on it to view the details. 
5. Click the 'Unarchive' icon in the top right of the screen and then click the 'Confirm unarchive' button that appears. If you aren't sure which icon, hover over them to see a tooltip.
6. This will reinstate the material type record in Chalkstring

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Deleting material types

If you have material type that were created in error and they have not been linked to any other data (such as materials in your database) then you can delete them using the following steps:

Steps to delete a material type

1. From the left menu bar click the 'Settings' icon, then click the ‘Admin’ icon.
2. Click the ‘Material types’ sub menu.
3. Find the material type that you wish to delete in the 'Name' section on the left of the page and click on it to view the details. 
4. Click the 'Delete' icon in the top right of the screen and then if you are sure you want to delete the record permanently, click the 'Confirm' button that appears. If you aren't sure which icon, hover over them to see a tooltip.
5. This will permanently remove the material type from the system.

If you receive an error when trying to delete, this means the data is linked to other data in the system. In this instance use the Archive option instead. 

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Want to know more?

• Video:  Materials
• Video: Accounts reporting
• How to set up nominal codes
• Adding and editing materials