Service catalog

The service catalog is your firm’s library of pre-built line items — “1040 Preparation,” “Bookkeeping (Monthly),” “S-Corp Election Filing.” Once you’ve defined them, they auto-fill into the invoice line-item picker so you stop typing the same descriptions and prices over and over.

Where to find it

Open Billing from the sidebar, then click Service Catalog in the toolbar. You can also reach it from the invoice line-item picker — when the catalog is empty, the picker shows a “Manage service catalog →” link.

The catalog is firm-wide — every team member sees the same set.

[Screenshot: Service catalog page with search, filters, and the service list]

Adding a new service

Click + New service in the top-right. Fill in the form:

Field	Required	Notes
Name	Yes	”1040 Preparation” — shown in the picker and on invoices
Description	No	”Complete federal + state return, e-file, and PDF copy”
Kind	Yes	Package, Add-on, Retainer, or Hourly — see below
Pricing model	Yes	Fixed, Hourly, or Retainer — see below
Default price	If Fixed or Retainer	The dollar amount that pre-fills on invoice line items
Default hourly rate	If Hourly	The hourly rate that pre-fills on time entries and line items
Default billing frequency	If Retainer	Once, Monthly, Quarterly, or Annual
Taxable by default	Checkbox	Whether tax applies — overridable per invoice
Active	Switch	Inactive services hide from the picker but stay in your history

Click Create to save. The picker in the invoice form updates immediately.

Choosing a kind

What kind of charge this service represents:

Kind	What it’s for
Package	A complete service offering — “1040 Preparation,” “Quarterly Bookkeeping”
Add-on	Optional extras attached to a package — “S-Corp Election,” “Amended Return,” “Audit Defense”
Retainer	Upfront fee that activates ongoing work — typically paired with a recurring schedule
Hourly	Billed by the hour — advisory, research, IRS correspondence

Kind is a label — it doesn’t change how the line item bills. It does let you filter the picker by what you’re looking for (“show me only Add-ons”) and shows up as a tag on invoice line items for audit context.

Choosing a pricing model

How the price is computed:

Model	What pre-fills	When to use
Fixed	The default price (for example, $450)	Flat-fee services where the price is the price
Hourly	The default hourly rate (for example, $200/hr)	Time-billable work where quantity equals hours
Retainer	The default price plus billing frequency	Recurring fees from engagement letters

When you pick a catalog item in the invoice form:

Fixed → description and unit price fill, quantity stays at 1
Hourly → description and unit price (rate) fill, quantity stays at 1 (you type the hours)
Retainer → description and unit price fill, quantity stays at 1. The recurring schedule itself is created by the engagement letter, not by this picker.

Editing a service

Click the pencil icon on a row. The same form opens with current values pre-filled. Edit and click Save.

Edits affect future picks only — existing invoice line items keep their original values. The service catalog is a template, not a live reference.

Turning a service on or off

The Active switch on each row controls whether the service appears in the picker.

Active (default) → shows in the line-item picker
Inactive → hidden from the picker. Existing invoices that used it still display the name.

Use Inactive instead of deleting when you’ve discontinued a service but want the historical records to keep their context.

Archiving a service

The trash icon archives the service. A confirmation appears:

“1040 Preparation” will stop appearing in the service picker. Line items on existing invoices keep their values — only the template is archived.

Archiving is a soft delete — the record stays for audit, just marked inactive. There’s no hard delete in V1.

To restore an archived service, flip the Show inactive toggle, find the row, and switch Active back on.

Finding services in the catalog

Above the table:

Search — by name or description
Kind filter — All kinds, Package, Add-on, Retainer, or Hourly
Show inactive — toggle to include archived services

The table updates instantly as you type.

Starting your catalog

Assure Pro ships without a default catalog in V1 — you start empty. Most firms seed it by:

Listing your top 10 most-used services manually.
Coming back when a new line item gets typed often — promote it to the catalog.

Phase 2 of the catalog will include curated starter packs (for example, “Individual tax-prep firm,” “Bookkeeping-focused firm”) that drop a recommended set in one click. Not in V1.

Empty state

When nothing’s in the catalog yet, the page shows:


┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│         📃                                  │
│    Build the service catalog                │
│                                             │
│  Reusable service templates make invoice    │
│  creation a few clicks instead of typing    │
│  every line.                                │
│                                             │
│            [ + New service ]                │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

A nudge to get started. The empty state in the invoice line-item picker offers the same “Manage service catalog →” link.

Tips

Name conventions — Start with the form (“1040 Preparation,” “1120S Preparation”) so it sorts cleanly.
Description — Use this for what’s included so a teammate (or a future you) can pick the right line.
Pricing rounding — Default price is shown to 2 decimals. Use whole dollars when you can — “$450” reads better than “$450.00.”
Hourly rates — If different team members bill at different rates, create one catalog entry per rate (“Hourly — Partner” at $400/hr, “Hourly — Associate” at $200/hr) rather than one shared entry.

Permissions

Action	Permission
View the catalog and pick in the invoice form	View service catalog
Create a new service	Create service catalog
Edit an existing service	Edit service catalog
Archive a service	Delete service catalog

Create billing alone is enough to use the picker (copying a catalog item into an invoice). You only need service catalog permissions to manage the catalog itself.

Create & edit invoice — how the picker plugs into the line-item flow.
Time tracking — uses the same hourly-rate concept on time entries.
Engagement letters — the billing-terms flow that feeds retainer and recurring schedules.