Pricing Rules is your price book. It is what prices a job in Auto mode and what prices an invoice raised from a record, so once it is set up the office is charging the same figure for the same work every time.
It takes an hour to fill in properly and it is the hour that stops the "who told them that price" conversation.
How to do it
Click Settings, then Pricing Rules.
Container & Transport. This is the main one. Container Rates holds a row for every container type and size: the hire, how many days are included, what an extra day costs, drop-off, collect, exchange and the weight limit. Fill in the ones you offer and leave the rest blank; a blank row is not saved. Transport Rates underneath sets whether haulage is a flat rate or per mile, and Distance Bands lets the price step up as the run gets longer.
Surcharges. The extras: waiting time, out of hours, fuel, permits. Each one is a fixed amount, a percentage of the subtotal, or a per-unit rate, where the unit can be a tonne, a mile, an hour, fifteen minutes, a day or each. Pass-through charges like a council permit can be set exempt or zero-rated rather than standard VAT.
EWC Surcharges. Extra charges hung off a specific waste code, so a load of plasterboard prices differently from a load of muck without anybody remembering to add it. Completely optional if your container rate already covers the disposal.
Gate Fees. Only there if you take waste in at your own site. What you charge carriers per tonne to tip, matched on waste code and container type. When an incoming receipt is approved, the draft gate fee invoice to the delivering carrier is priced from these.
Global Defaults. Your default weight unit, the default hire period and the default wait allowance, used when no specific rate or contract override applies.
Worth knowing
Every container type and size DEFRA recognises is listed, which is why the table is long. You only fill in the ones you actually offer, and the rest stay blank and are never saved.
Waste rates, on the next tab, are optional. Set them and they add on top of the container charge for tonnage over the allowance. Leave them empty to price purely by the container.
Quote lines are still typed by hand. The price book prices jobs and invoices, not quotes.
VAT is not set here. Your VAT registration, rate and number live on the Invoicing settings tab.
Contract rates override the price book, so a customer on an agreed rate gets their rate.
A surcharge set to Manual only will not fire on its own, which is useful for a charge you want somebody to think about before applying. The alternatives are Always and When hazardous.
Put your real prices in rather than round numbers you mean to fix later. Every job priced from here on uses them.
Related: How to create a quote. How to raise and send an invoice. How to set up a contract for regular work.