Global Catalog
Browse a shared library of manufacturer products and copy the ones you use into your own company catalog.
Overview
The Global Catalog is maintained by Readybuild — you cannot edit it, and nothing in it appears in your estimates until you copy it. Copying creates a normal company catalog item that you own: you can rename it, re-price it, add your own photos, and enable or disable it like any other item.
Go to Settings → Selections Catalog and click the Global Catalog tab. Your own items stay on the Company Catalog tab.
Browsing
The list shows one row per product:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Select | Checkbox used to choose items to copy |
| Thumbnail | Product photo — click to view it full size |
| Name | Product name |
| Category | The manufacturer category the product belongs to |
| Manufacturer | Brand |
| Model # | Family model number |
| Finishes | Colour swatches for the finishes this product is sold in, and how many — hover to see their names |
| Size | Size specification |
| Style | Product line or style |
| Price | Lowest list price in the finish range |
Click Name, Manufacturer, Model #, or Price to sort.
Search and Filters
Use Search Global Catalog to match on name, model number, manufacturer, or style.
Click Filters to narrow the list further:
- Category — pick a manufacturer category
- Manufacturer — pick a brand
- Color — enter a colour name
- Price Min / Price Max — limit the price range
Click Apply to update the list, or Reset to clear the filters. Your search, filters, sort, and page are kept in the address bar, so the view can be bookmarked or shared.
Finishes
Most catalog products are sold in several finishes — brushed nickel, matte black, polished brass, and so on. The finish is what carries the real detail:
- The product itself has no colour, a family model number, and the lowest price in its range.
- Each finish has its own colour, orderable model number, and price.
That is why copying by finish matters: a finish copied into your catalog is orderable as-is, while a product copied without one is not.
Copying Items to Your Company Catalog
- Tick the checkbox on each product you want
- Click Copy N Items to Company Catalog
- Choose a Cost Code — this is required, and every item in this copy is filed under it
- Review the Finishes section (see below)
- Click Copy
Each copied finish becomes its own company catalog item, so one product copied with three finishes gives you three rows — same name, different colour, model number, and cost. The Cost on your item comes from the global Price; adjust it afterwards if your pricing differs.
Choosing Finishes
Every finish is selected by default. Deselect the ones you do not want rather than picking the ones you do.
- Click a finish chip to turn it off or back on
- Use Clear all finishes / Select all finishes at the top of the section to switch the whole list at once
- Each product also has its own Clear all / Select all link
- A product with no finishes selected is copied as-is: no colour, family model number, lowest price
When you select more than 20 products, they are too many to list finish by finish. Instead, a single Copy every finish of each product checkbox appears, ticked by default. Leave it on to copy the full finish range for every product, or untick it to copy the products at product level.
Copying every finish of a large selection can create a lot of catalog items — a hundred products averaging six finishes each becomes six hundred rows. Filter the list down before using Select all if you only want part of the range.
Selecting Across Pages
Ticking every row on a page offers Select all N items — this selects every product matching your current search and filters, not just the visible page. The banner stays on screen while the whole set is selected, with Clear selection to undo it.
Copying the Same Item Again
Copying a product you already copied updates the existing item rather than adding a duplicate. Each company item remembers the exact product and finish it came from, so three copied finishes stay three separate rows on a re-copy.
An update refreshes the vendor-owned fields — name, manufacturer, model number, colour, size, style, note, and cost — and files the item under the cost code you chose. Photos and links are only filled in where your item has none, so anything you uploaded yourself is kept.
Keeping One Item Up to Date
Company items copied from the global catalog show a globe icon in the list, and a Source: Global Catalog banner when you open them. Click Update from Global Catalog in that banner to pull in the manufacturer's current details for that one item.
- Updated: name, manufacturer, model #, colour, size, style, note, and cost
- Left alone: cost code, status, and any photo or link you added
- A message tells you which fields changed, or that the item was already up to date
Estimates already pointing at the item keep working — the row is updated in place, not replaced.
Selections already added to an estimate do not change. Updating a catalog item affects future use of that item only.