Rules

A rule reads like a sentence:

When door type equals Automatic and openings is greater than 0, then add part Photo-eye safety sensors, quantity = openings.

Before writing a rule, check whether the question editor already does it. An answer can add a part one per opening, and a question can be asked only when another answer fits (When to ask it). Neither needs a rule.

Rules handle what’s left:

• Parts that depend on a combination of answers, or on a formula (“one strut per two openings, plus one”).
• Making a question required only in some cases.
• Greying out options that don’t fit (“WiFi module requires an automatic door”).
• Adding fees, credits and percentage adjustments.

Build a rule

Go to Rules and click + New rule. The editor has three parts.

1. Name it

Type a name in the top bar that says what the rule does, for example “Add track kit per opening”. The name appears in the rules list. For fees and adjustments, it’s also the line label customers see on the quote.

Under the name, a plain-English summary updates as you build. If it doesn’t read the way you meant, the rule probably doesn’t do what you meant either.

2. When: add checks

Each check is question → comparison → value. Click Add a check for more. With two or more checks, choose whether all of them must be true (AND) or any of them (OR).

A rule with no checks runs on every quote. That’s useful for things every quote gets, like “Track and hardware (always)” with a formula quantity.

Comparison	Works with	True when
equals / does not equal	Pick one, yes/no, number, text	The answer is (or isn’t) exactly this value.
is greater than / is less than	Number	The answer is above (or below) the value.
is true / is false	Yes/no	The customer answered Yes (or No).
includes	Pick many, text	Pick many: the customer ticked this option. Text: the answer includes this text.
is in list	Pick one, number, text	The answer is any one of several values.
is answered / is not answered	Any	The customer has (or hasn’t) answered the question.

The value picker matches the question: a list of answers for pick-one and pick-many questions, Yes/No for yes/no questions, a number box for numbers.

The builder only offers the comparisons that fit the question you pick: equals, does not equal and is in list for pick-one questions, includes for pick-many, is true / is false for yes/no, and equals, is greater than and is less than for numbers. More checks under the checks shows every comparison, including is answered and is not answered.

Matching one of several answers? Use is in list. On a pick-one question, tick each answer that should match, for example material is in list Wood, Fiberglass. On number and text questions, type the values separated by commas, such as 2, 3, 4. is in list isn’t offered for pick-many questions: use any with one includes check per answer instead.

Comparing two answers. Switch the value from value to question to compare against another answer instead of a fixed value, for example “width is greater than height”.

3. Then: add actions

Click Add an action, pick what to do, and pick the question, answer or part it applies to. The list starts with the five actions most rules need; More actions shows the rest. A rule can have several actions, and they all run when the checks pass. The full list is in Rule actions.

Actions that need a number have a row labelled with what the number means: Qty for parts, Amount for fees, Percent for percentage changes. Choose:

• fixed number: the same value every time, for example 1 or 75.
• formula: calculated from number answers, for example openings * 2. See Formulas.

Active

The switch in the top bar turns the rule on or off. Inactive rules are saved but never run. Create risky rules inactive, test them, then turn them on.

Test a rule before you save

The Test this rule panel on the right runs your rule through the real pricing engine without touching the live configurator.

1. Open the panel and fill in sample answers. By default it only shows the questions your rule checks. Use Show all questions to set others.
2. It tells you whether This rule fires, and lists what changes as a result: questions shown or hidden, parts added, price changes.
3. Warnings explain anything that went wrong. For example, a quantity action that targets a part nothing has added yet.
4. Rules that fired lists every rule that ran with those answers, including your other saved rules. Use it to spot two rules that undo each other.

The panel tests the rule as it currently stands in the editor, including unsaved changes.

When rules disagree: run order

Rules run one after another. When two rules conflict, for example one shows a question and another hides it, the rule that runs later wins.

Run order doesn’t matter for parts and prices. ConfigBid always adds parts first, then removes, then changes quantities, then prices, and adds fees and percentage lines last, so a Multiply qty or a Change the total by % rule sees every part whichever rule adds it. See how the total is built.

Set when a rule runs under Advanced → When this rule runs:

• Early: runs before normal rules. Use for broad defaults that others refine.
• Normal: almost every rule.
• Late: runs after normal rules, so it gets the final word. Use for overrides like “hide installation for out-of-area customers”, or a Set qty that should beat another rule’s Set qty on the same part.

Within the same step, actions inside one rule run top to bottom.

What customers see

• Hidden questions are removed from the page, and from the review screen. A required question that’s hidden doesn’t block the customer.
• Disabled questions stay on the page with their answer locked, and don’t block the customer either.
• If every question in a section is hidden, the configurator skips that section.
• A hidden question’s answer doesn’t count. While a question is hidden, its answer adds no parts, doesn’t trigger other rules, and isn’t saved on the submitted quote. ConfigBid still remembers it, so if the question comes back (the customer switches the door back to Automatic, say), their earlier answer comes back too.
• When a rule removes or greys out an option the customer had already picked, their answer is cleared and a short notice under the question tells them why.

The rules list

Each rule in the list shows its name, a one-line summary, when it runs, and whether it’s active. Needs attention marks a rule that’s incomplete, such as a missing target or a formula using an unknown question. Hover the pill to see what’s wrong.

Every question, answer option and part editor shows a Used by rules list, so you can check what a change will affect before you make it. Each rule also keeps a change history below its editor. See History.