This article is also available in:

Posts | General

With posts you build a calculation once and reuse it in every quotation. A post is a reusable quotation line with a build-up: the items, hours, equipment and other costs you need for one unit, for example 1 m² of painting work. With parameters and formulas, the post also adapts automatically to the situation. You use posts in calculated quotations and change orders. Posts are included in the Starter, Go and Pro licences.

Navigate quickly to:

the overview of the posts
creating a new post
the post file and its fields
the structure of the post: calculation and parameters
the various tabs
the action buttons

You can find answers to frequently asked questions in the posts FAQ.

Overview screen

You can find your posts in the Items module, via the Calculated item action button. Don't see it? Then Calculation is switched off in the quotation settings, or your user role has no access to the posts. You can read more about this in Posts | Settings.

Every user can create their own overviews and personalise them: which columns, in which order, with which filters. Via the overview screen you can make bulk changes to several posts at once.

Creating a new post

You can start a new post in two ways:

from the overview of your posts, via the Add (+) action button. Robaws immediately creates an empty post and opens the post file.
from a calculated quotation: build up a quotation line with a description, a build-up and, if needed, parameters. Open the line and, in the Lay-out tab, click Add as new post. Robaws saves the line as a new post in your post library and links the line to that post.

Working in the post library gives you the clearest picture. Does your new post closely resemble an existing one? Then duplicate that one: the build-up, the parameters and the formulas are copied along. Do you have a long list of posts? Then you can also import them, but parameters and formulas are not taken over that way.

You decide how far you go. A post with only a few items in the calculation is already usable; you add parameters and formulas when you need them.

The post file

The post file consists of four blocks, with the tabs below them:

Calculation (the first block): the details of the post.
Parameters: the questions and formulas with which the post adapts itself, see Parameters and formulas.
Calculation (the third block): the build-up of the post.
Additional line items: items or posts that end up as an extra line below the post in your quotation.

The name of the post is shown at the top of the file. Changes to a post only apply to new quotation lines: existing quotations do not change along with it.

Post details

Field	Explanation
Name	The name of the post. This is how you find the post in your library and in the quotation.
Salesname	The text that appears as the description on the quotation line. If you leave this empty, Robaws uses the name. Via the globe next to the field you enter the translations; the quotation uses the language of the customer.
Post	The post number, for example the number from a bill of quantities or specifications. With this number, Assign posts links the lines of an imported bill of quantities to your post (see The post in your quotation).
Nr.	(visible if Show line nrs. is switched on in the quotation settings) A number of your own for the post. It becomes the line number of the quotation line, unless that line already has a number.
Line	The line type the quotation line gets, for example a normal line, a variant or an option.
Type	The type of the line, for example SOG, VH or PM.
Level	The layout style (H1 to H8) with which the line appears on the pdf.
Item group	The item group in which you classify the post.
Unit type	The unit of the post, for example m², piece or day. You calculate the build-up for one unit.
Cost allocation percentage	Which percentage of the direct costs of the quotation ends up on this line. If you leave it empty, the line shares in what remains after the lines with a percentage.
Custom price	If you switch this on, a second Custom price field appears in which you enter a fixed sales price for the post. On the quotation line, the price is then not calculated from the build-up.
Default Vat	The VAT tariff the quotation line gets.
New page	Ticked: on the pdf, the line starts on a new page.
Show composite line on PDF	Ticked: the build-up of the post appears below the line on the pdf. This is the default value; you can still change it per quotation line. Lines with quantity 0 do not appear on the pdf.
Picture	An image of the post. How it appears on your quotation pdf is explained in How do you add a photo to a quotation?
Gl-account Sales and Gl-account Purchase	(visible if you work with GL accounts) The GL accounts for the sale and the purchase of this post.

Structure of the post

Calculation

In the Calculation block you build up the post for one unit. Click Add line and choose an item from your item library for each line. If the item does not exist, type a free description and fill in the cost type, the cost price and the margin yourself. You cannot choose a post here.

The calculation of the Painting work post

Column	Explanation
Cost type	Material, Labor, Equipment, Subcontractor, Composite or Other. The cost type determines which margin from the Margins tab of the quotation applies to the line, and in the recalculation your costs are split per cost type. More explanation in How do I calculate a quotation with cost types, posts and parameters?
Item	The item from your library.
Activity	(visible if you work with activities) Link the line to an activity for an analysis per activity.
Description	The description of the line.
Unit type	The unit of the line, for example hour or litre.
Quantity	How much of this line you need for one unit of the post. You can also enter a formula or a parameter here.
Cost price, Margin and Price	The cost price, the margin and the sales price per unit of the line. Which of these you can change depends on the pricing strategy.
Totality	Ticked: the quantity stays fixed and is not multiplied by the quantity of the post in the quotation. Example: a post 'earthworks' per m³ contains a crane for one day. With totality, the crane is charged once, however many m³ you quote.
Pricing strategy	Follow item price: the cost price and sales price come from the item file. Custom margin: the cost price comes from the item file, you set the margin. Custom price: you fill in the cost price and the price yourself and so deviate from the item file.
Total	Quantity × price.

Below the lines you see the Total vat excl. and the Total costprice of one unit of the post.

Parameters and formulas

With parameters you make a post smart: you ask a question once ("which colour?", "how many days?") and the calculation adapts to the answer. You add a parameter with Add parameter; with Show details you also see the column with possible values.

Give each parameter a unique name and put the question the user has to answer in the description.
You put text values between double quotation marks, for example "blauw" and "rood".
In the Quantity of a calculation line you refer to a parameter or use a condition, for example kleurverf == "blauw" ? 1 : 0. A parameter can also be a calculation itself, for example (hoogtewerker == "ja" ? 1 : 0) * aantaldagen.
Two parameters always exist: Q is the quantity of the quotation line and DISTANCE_KM the number of Kilometers of the quotation. On the post file itself Q is 1 and DISTANCE_KM is 0, which is why a line with DISTANCE_KM shows a quantity of 0 there.
Parameter names are case-sensitive: Kleurverf is not the same as kleurverf.
In the Extended description you show the value of a parameter with ${naamparameter}, for example Kleur: ${kleurverf}. This way you can also make a whole sentence depend on a choice.

In the Calculation description field above the parameters you explain the post, for example which questions the user has to answer. That explanation is taken over to the quotation line and does not appear on the pdf.

Everything about calculating with parameters and formulas can be found in How do I calculate a quotation with cost types, posts and parameters?. Which characters and functions you can use is listed in Symbols and formulas you can use in posts, and worked-out examples can be found in Examples of posts and formulas. Do you want to substantiate the quantity of a quotation line yourself, for example with dimensions? Then use a formula for the quantity or measurements.

Additional line items

In the Additional line items block you choose items or posts with a fixed quantity. If you choose the post in a quotation, these lines automatically appear as separate quotation lines below the post. A line without an item or post is not taken over.

The post in your quotation

If you choose a post in a quotation, the quotation line becomes a copy of the post: whatever you change in the post later does not change existing quotations. Do you still want to bring the lines of a quotation in line with the current version of their post? Then use Reset posts (see Quotations | General).

Tabs

Description

Here you write the Extended description of the post: the text that appears below the description on the quotation. Via the globe next to the field you enter the translations. You can refer to parameters with ${naamparameter}.

Documents

Here you add files that belong to this post, such as a technical data sheet or a detailed drawing.

Remarks

You use remarks to communicate internally about this post and as a reminder.

Analysis

An analysis of one unit of the post: per cost type the cost, the margin and the total, and below that the net cost price, the margin and the unit price.

Action buttons

In the overview screen

For most action buttons in the overview, you first tick the post(s) on the left on which you want to carry out the action.

Action button	Explanation
Add	Create a new post, see Creating a new post.
Duplicate	Make a copy of the selected post, with the build-up, the parameters and the formulas. Handy for building up a series of similar posts.
Excel	Export the posts from the overview to Excel.
Delete	The post disappears from the overviews and can no longer be chosen in a quotation. Quotations that already contain the post do not change. More explanation in Archiving and deleting.
Archive	The post disappears from the overviews, but is kept. More explanation in Archiving and deleting.
Lock	The post can no longer be changed. More explanation in Locking documents.

Don't see Add, Duplicate, Delete, Archive or Lock? Then your user role has no right to change or delete posts. Posts follow the permissions of the items module. You can find archived and deleted posts via the advanced filters in the overview.

On the post file

Action button	Explanation
Audit log	(visible to administrators) The history of retrieving and saving the post.

If the post has been deleted, archived or locked, this is shown at the top of the file, with the date. Click Undo next to it to make a deleted or archived post active again, or Undo manual lock to make a locked post editable again.

Updated on: 14/10/2026

Was this article helpful?

Thank you!