Service market value

Market value is what a service like yours sells for on the open market. Priscale keeps it on its own step of every service, so you decide what the work is worth out there before you decide what to charge for it. This page covers the mechanics: where the step lives, the two ways to fill it in, and what happens downstream once it's set.

Where the market value lives

Every service moves through three steps, shown alongside the service: Adjust Service (or View Service, once the service can no longer be changed), then Market Value, then Adjust Price. Open the Market Value step and you get two cards side by side:

• Market Prices lists the prices you have already logged from past work and from competitors, so you can adopt one of them.
• Market Value shows the number currently set for this service. If you haven't set one, it reads "No market value yet. Pick a price from the table or enter your own."

Set the market value

There are two ways to fill in the value, and you can switch between them at any time while the service is still editable. Whichever you use, the newest choice replaces whatever was there before, and Priscale confirms it with a "Market value updated" message. If the service is still a Draft and already has at least one task or material, setting the market value moves it to In Progress.

Pick a price you have already logged

The Market Prices card lists the prices you have recorded, highest first. Each row gives you:

• Price, the amount that was quoted or paid.
• Tags, the labels attached to that price, so you can tell at a glance what kind of work it covers.
• Competitor, the competitor the price came from, if you recorded one.
• Paid, a green check when a customer actually paid that price. When nobody did, the mark is a grey ✕: on prices you logged by hand it means the price was only a competitor's offer, and on prices that came from an estimate or a product it simply means unpaid. Hover the mark for the reminder "Did a customer pay this price?"

Use View to open a price and read the full record before you commit to it. When you have found the right one, select Use this and it becomes this service's market value straight away.

Two controls decide how much of your history you are looking at:

• The Same tags as this service switch limits the table to prices that share at least one tag with the service. It appears only when the service itself has tags, and when it does, the table opens already filtered: the switch is on. Turn it off to see every price you have logged.
• The search box narrows the list by competitor name.

The table shows ten prices per page; use the pager below it to reach the rest.

If nothing has been logged yet, the card shows No market prices yet instead of a table. Add prices from the Market section first, then come back; Manage market prices in the Market section takes you there.

TIP

Prices with a green Paid mark are the strongest evidence you have, because someone actually paid them. A competitor's advertised price tells you what the market is being asked for, which is useful but not the same thing.

Enter your own market value

When no logged price fits, select Enter your own market value. Type the amount in the Market Value field and select Save Market Value. This is the right route when you know the going rate from experience, from an industry report, or from a conversation with a client, and you have nothing recorded that matches.

WARNING

You can only change the market value while the service is still open, meaning its status is Draft or In Progress and any estimate attached to it can still be edited. After that the page shows "This service can no longer be changed", the Use this buttons are greyed out, the Enter your own market value button and the How do I determine the market value? link no longer appear, and the market value stays on record as what you decided at the time.

How market value feeds the price

The market value is one of the key figures behind the pricing spectrum on the Adjust Price step, together with the production cost of the tasks and materials on the service and the budget you recorded for the job. The spectrum uses them to lay out a range of prices and to recommend the ones that fit your situation.

Two things follow from this:

• A service can't be priced without it. Go to Adjust Price before the market value is set and you get a "More information needed" notice with a Set Market Value button that brings you back here. The same notice appears when the service has no tasks or materials yet.
• Changing it updates the spectrum. If you revise the market value later, the pricing spectrum for that service picks up the new figure on its own. You do not have to rebuild anything, though it is worth reopening Adjust Price to check that the price you selected still sits where you want it.

For how to arrive at a number you can defend, rather than how to record it, see Determining market value. While the service can still be changed, the Market Value step links to that guide too, under How do I determine the market value?

What your plan includes

Logging market prices is part of the Freelancer and Business plans. On the Part-Timer plan the Market Prices card is still there and you can still adopt any price already on it with Use this, but you cannot log new ones: the Market Prices item in the Market section carries a lock, and an Upgrade to unlock this feature notice appears below the cards, saying the feature requires the Freelancer plan or higher. Account owners get a View plans button with it.

Entering your own market value works on every plan, so you can always set a market value by typing your own number.

See Plans & billing for what each plan covers and how to change yours.

Related pages

• Managing services covers creating a service and moving it through its steps.
• Pricing a service explains the pricing spectrum this value feeds.
• Market prices covers logging the prices that show up in the table here.
• Tags explains the labels that make the Same tags as this service filter useful.