Set Up Automatic Pricing and Booking

Automatic pricing lets Hometrace calculate an inspection quote from property details during manual inspection creation and public booking. Public booking lets buyers request an inspection from your Hometrace Site.

The setup spans two places:

Settings -> Services and Payments controls prices, services, fees, discounts, and automatic pricing rules.
Site -> Scheduling and Site -> Price quote control what buyers can do on your public site.

1. Set your default report price

Open Settings -> Services and Payments. The Default Report Price is the fallback price Hometrace uses when automatic pricing is off or incomplete.

This value is also the inspection report line item that automatic modifiers build from. Keep it set even if you plan to use automatic pricing.

2. Configure saved services

In Services and Payments -> Services & Fees, add the services buyers or clients can purchase, such as sewer scope, radon testing, wind mitigation, termite/WDI, pool and spa, or mold testing.

For each service, set:

Name
Description
Price
Duration

Durations affect the estimated appointment length. Service names and prices are used when the service is selected on an inspection or booking.

One-off custom services added directly to a single inspection stay tied to that inspection. They do not appear on your public site or future inspections unless you add them to the saved services list in settings.

3. Configure fees and discounts

Fees and discounts live in Services and Payments. They can be percentage-based or flat amounts.

Default fees and discounts can be automatically included on new inspections and booking quotes. Examples include sales tax, a processing surcharge, or a standard discount. Hometrace gives you the tools to add these line items, but tax and surcharge compliance is your responsibility.

4. Turn on automatic pricing

In Services and Payments -> Services & Fees, find Automatic Pricing and turn it on.

Automatic pricing can use these rule groups:

Square-footage bands: price and duration by home size. The last band can be open-ended.
Foundation modifiers: price adjustments for slab, crawl space, basement, and pier-and-beam foundations.
Year-built bands: price adders for older homes or any age ranges you configure.
Distance pricing: price by driving distance from your home base to the property.

Changes autosave as you edit. If a section has no rows yet, turning it on seeds starter rows that you can change or delete.

5. Square-footage bands

Square-footage bands define the main size-based price and duration. A typical setup might be:

0 to 1,500 sqft
1,500 to 2,500 sqft
2,500 sqft and up

Each band has a price and duration. If a buyer enters square footage that does not fit any band, Hometrace cannot calculate an automatic quote.

6. Foundation modifiers

Foundation modifiers adjust the total based on the foundation type. Configure a value for each foundation type you want to support:

Slab
Crawl space
Basement
Pier-and-beam

In the public booking flow, buyers can select "Other / not sure". If required information is missing, Hometrace falls back to a manual review flow instead of showing an inaccurate quote.

7. Year-built bands

Year-built bands add price adjustments based on the age of the home. Use them for older homes, historic homes, or any age range that usually changes inspection effort.

These are adders, not replacement prices. They apply on top of the default report price and the matching square-footage band.

8. Distance pricing

Distance pricing adds a travel charge based on driving distance from your home base to the property.

To use it:

Turn on distance pricing.
Choose a Home base address from the address suggestions.
Configure mileage bands and prices.

Hometrace only enables distance pricing when the home base has both a saved address and a saved Google place ID. In the public booking flow, buyers must select an address suggestion so Hometrace can calculate driving distance. If either side is missing, the quote remains unavailable until the inspection is reviewed manually.

Distance bands are flat prices per mileage range. The final distance band can be open-ended.

9. Enable booking on your site

Open Site -> Scheduling. Configure whether buyers can request inspections, your booking mode, slot length, notice window, and availability rules.

Scheduling controls booking requests. Pricing controls quote calculation. You need both configured for buyers to request an appointment and see an automatic quote.

10. Display quotes during booking

Open Site -> Price quote. Turn on Display on booking flow.

This setting controls public visibility only. It does not duplicate the pricing editor. If automatic pricing is incomplete, Hometrace shows what still needs attention and hides automatic quotes from buyers.

What buyers see

When public booking and quote display are on, buyers can:

Enter property and scheduling details.
Select saved add-on services.
See an estimated total when the pricing rules have enough information.
Submit a booking request.

Hometrace stores the quote with the booking and inspection so the invoice can reflect what the buyer saw. If an inspector manually edits an automatic line item later, the inspection is treated as a manual override.

Troubleshooting

No quote appears: check that automatic pricing is on, default report price is set, square-footage bands exist, and the Site price quote toggle is on.
Distance pricing will not stay on: choose the home base from address suggestions so the place ID is saved.
Travel distance is missing: the property address must be selected from suggestions during booking.
Services show a +0m duration: set the service duration in Services and Payments.
A one-off custom service appeared where it should not: add saved services in settings for reusable services; inspection-only custom services should stay local to that inspection.

Next step

Open Settings -> Services and Payments to configure prices, then open Site -> Price quote to display quotes in the public booking flow.