Ryan Schmidt: We just made a single item and manually enter shade info into the description. Even if we can not import/export anything, being able to enter the most common options for shades would be nice. Then we could copy and adjust the sizes per item.

Ryan Schmidt: I'm a little late to the conversation but we sell mostly Lutron and when we first quote we add shade "budgets" based on window size then later we convert the budgets into a Lutron quote using their software and add a Lutron shade package to the project that replaces the budgets. We also replace the shade "budget" line items in the Cloud quote with placeholder shades that have no cost or price (only labor) and have the descriptions refer to the printed Lutron quote. This is our typical process for any product that's too variable to effectively manage in Cloud's product library such as custom SI screens, light fixtures, etc.

Robi Aamodt: We do something similar, utilizing allowances as budget line items. Then I go back in a change order and replace the allowances with product line items because the software doesn't allow you to update item status for an allowance (e.g. ordered, installed). The frustrating thing is in a purchase order it groups all of the shades together because they are the same model. So if Lutron ships 4/5 shades then i have to mark all or none as received. It seems as if a special item type that acts as separate items but has the same model would be most useful for us within this software. And then that special item could contain additional fields such as width, height, drive, fabric, color, and how it is mounted (e.g. outside, inside, pocket, etc.)