Products, listings and the marketplace — the My Business pages

These are the pages a business that quotes uses to show what it sells and to keep its own paperwork. Products is your catalogue of materials and services, each with one public rate. Marketplace is the public page where everyone else browses those catalogues. My documents is your own filing cabinet, sorted by customer. My listings is for real-estate agents who list property. The pages are for service providers (trades, subcontractors and suppliers) and for main contractors. If you only hire, these links do not appear in your sidebar.

Nothing is bought or paid for in the marketplace. There is no basket and no checkout. A buyer finds your listing, opens your shop and contacts you directly.

Where it sits

In the sidebar, the group just above Contacts. It has no heading on screen. In the command menu (⌘K) it is called My Business. It shows when you are finding work and when you are running a project.

Products, Marketplace and My listings are part of the New Zealand marketplace, which is set per organisation. If your organisation is outside it, these three links do not appear. The phone app has only My documents, under Account → My documents. None of these pages has MCP tools, so an AI assistant connected as described in QSME for AI assistants cannot read or change your products, listings or documents.

Products and services

Your catalogue holds two kinds of listing. The All / Products / Services tabs at the top of the page switch between them.

Add gives you three choices: Add a product (material), Add a service (gig) and Import from spreadsheet (see Importing a spreadsheet).

The form

• Name. Buyers see it in the marketplace and when they add the item to an SOQ.
• Description. Formatted text saying what the material is or what the service covers.
• Media (called Photos & examples for a service). Images or video. The first image becomes the picture on your marketplace card.
• Public rate. One Rate, Per unit and Currency (NZD by default; AUD, USD, GBP and EUR are also offered). The line underneath shows how buyers will see it, for example $8.50 NZD / lm. The Rate excludes GST switch records that your figure is before GST. The marketplace shows the rate exactly as you typed it.
• Inventory (products only). An optional SKU / product code and a Stock quantity.
• Status and Category, on the right.

To change a listing later, click its card. The ⋯ menu on each card has Edit and Delete.

Public, Private, Archived

Every listing starts Private, and so does an import unless you choose to publish it. Nothing goes public until you set it to Public. If a product's stock is 0, it shows as Out of stock in the marketplace and on your shop. Services never show stock.

Categories

Every supplier shares one set of categories, so a buyer who filters by Timber & Framing sees timber from every shop at once. The set starts with twenty: Concrete & Masonry, Timber & Framing, Fixings & Fasteners, Plumbing, Electrical, Insulation, Plasterboard & Linings, Roofing & Cladding, Flooring, Doors & Windows, Paint & Finishes, Skirting & Trim, Tiles & Tiling, Steel & Metalwork, Drainage & Civil, Tools & Equipment, Landscaping & Outdoor, Kitchen & Bathroom, Hire & Plant, and Services & Labour. New category on the form, or Add category on the catalogue, adds a category to the shared set for everyone to use. If that name already exists, you get the existing category instead of a duplicate. Shared categories are marked Shared and cannot be deleted. Any categories you made before categories were shared still show for you, and you can delete one once nothing is filed under it.

Importing a spreadsheet

Add → Import from spreadsheet accepts a .csv, .xlsx or .xlsm file up to 12 MB. Old .xls files cannot be read. Open one in Excel and use Save As → Excel Workbook (.xlsx). Download template gives you a CSV with the headings and three example rows already filled in. The header row does not have to be the first row; the importer looks for it in the first 25 rows. Headings are matched however they are written, so spacing, punctuation and capitals do not matter. Only one sheet of a workbook is read, usually the first.

The file is read as soon as you choose it, but nothing is saved until you press Import. The preview shows how many rows are ready to import, how many were skipped (no name), and the first six rows as they were read. You make two choices before importing:

• Treat all rows as: What the sheet says, or make every row Products (materials) or Services (gigs).
• After importing: Keep private (the default) or Publish to marketplace.

If a row cannot be saved, the other rows still import, and the message tells you how many went in and how many failed. An import always adds new listings. It does not update existing ones by SKU, so importing the same file twice gives you two of everything.

The marketplace

Marketplace opens the public page at qsme.co.nz/marketplace, the same page anyone can see without an account. It lists every Public product and service from every supplier.

Buyers can search by name or SKU and filter by type (products or services), category and supplier. Each card shows the first picture, the name, the rate and unit, the start of the description, and material and colour tags. It also shows the stock level, Out of stock, or Service. The button at the bottom of the card has the supplier's name on it and opens their shop.

Your shop

Your shop is at qsme.co.nz/shop/_your-username_. The top shows your company name and logo, the Verified badge if you have one, your city, your email and website, View profile, and Contact, which phones you. Below that are all your Public listings, with a search box. These details come from your profile, so if your profile has no phone number, your shop has no Contact button. There is no order or payment step: a buyer emails or phones you, and anything you agree after that is between you and the buyer.

Products in an SOQ

A builder pricing a job can add your listing straight onto their schedule. In the Classic view of the SOQ, the materials section of every job offers two ways to do this:

• Import from Catalog opens the catalogue with a My products / Marketplace switch. Search by name or SKU, filter by category, set a quantity and add it. The line arrives with the listing's name, description, unit and rate, and its SKU goes in the product link field.
• Add Material → My Inventory (your own catalogue) or Browse Suppliers (everyone's Public listings) fills in the name, description, unit and rate so you can check them before adding.

The rate is copied onto the line when it is added. Anything added this way becomes a material line, including a service. Your own Private listings show under My products, but only for you. Anyone using the SOQ in the New Zealand marketplace gets these buttons, not just suppliers.

My documents

My documents holds everything you have sent customers through QSME, along with your own paperwork, sorted by customer. Only you can see this page.

The top level has My Library, which holds uploads you have not filed under anyone (templates, terms and conditions), and a folder for each customer. If you have worked for a customer on more than one project, their folder has a subfolder for each project.

Files from a project are filed under that project's client. They are still in the project's Documents, and you manage them there, not here. If you upload from the top level, the file goes to My Library. If you upload from inside a project folder, it is filed with that project.

On the phone, Account → My documents → Add a document lets you take a photo, choose a photo or choose a file. It then asks what the document is (Licence or certificate, Insurance, Terms & conditions, Contract, Template or Other) and puts it in My library.

Nothing in My documents is checked. To have a trade licence verified against the official register, add it to your profile. See Licences, verification and trust.

My listings

My listings is for real-estate agents listing property and investment opportunities: houses, sections, commercial and rural property. Products do not go here. The first time you open it, the page offers Enable real-estate agent mode. Turning this on lets you list property and changes nothing else about how you use QSME.

Add listing asks for:

A listing that is both Public and Active appears on the public page at qsme.co.nz/properties. The listing's own page stays open while it is Under offer. It shows Listed by with your company and name, and has a button that opens the address in Site Search.

If something looks wrong

Still stuck? hello@qsme.co.nz, or +64 27 338 8500.