To bulk update your Jobber price list, export your current Products & Services to CSV, edit the unit price and unit cost columns in a spreadsheet, then re-import the file with the "Update existing items" box checked. That single workflow lets you reprice hundreds of line items in about fifteen minutes instead of clicking through them one at a time. The catch is that the import overwrites what's already in Jobber, so the prep work matters more than the upload.
Most contractors never touch this feature. They set up their Jobber price list once during onboarding, then let it drift for two years while copper and labor costs climb underneath it. This guide covers the exact process, the CSV columns Jobber expects, and the five formatting mistakes that cause failed or wrong imports.
How to bulk update your Jobber price list in 6 steps
- Export what you have. Go to Gear Icon > Settings > Products & Services and click Export to CSV near the bottom of the page. If you have fewer than 50 items the file downloads immediately; larger lists arrive by email, split into files of 1,500 items each.
- Save an untouched backup copy. Duplicate the export before you edit anything and name it something like
price-list-backup-2026-08-17.csv. If an import goes sideways, this file is your undo button — Jobber does not have one. - Download Jobber's sample file. In the Import Products & Services section on the same settings page, download the sample CSV. Your headers must match it exactly.
- Edit costs first, then prices. Update the
Unit costcolumn to reflect what you actually pay today, then apply your target markup to produce the newUnit price. Do the math in the spreadsheet with a formula, not by hand. - Spot-check 10 rows. Pick your ten highest-volume line items and verify the new prices against a recent supplier invoice and a recent job. If those ten are right, the rest of the file is probably right.
- Import with "Update existing items" checked. Select your CSV, tick the Update existing items box, and click Import data. Leave that box unchecked and you'll create duplicates instead of updating.
Key takeaway: The export is the template. Always start a bulk update from a fresh Jobber export rather than an old spreadsheet — that way every item name matches exactly and Jobber can find the rows it needs to update.
The CSV columns Jobber expects
Per Jobber's Products & Services documentation, every import file needs these six headers. Additional columns appear on higher-tier plans.
| Column | What goes in it | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
Name | The line item title | Must match your existing item exactly to update it |
Description | Customer-facing description | Gets overwritten on update |
Unit Price | What you charge | Numbers only — no $ symbol |
Taxable | TRUE or FALSE | Blank defaults to taxable |
Category | Product or Service | Case sensitive; blank defaults to Product |
Active | TRUE or FALSE | FALSE hides the item from quotes and invoices |
Unit cost | What you pay | Select plans only; drives job costing |
On plans that include markup, there is no markup column in the sample file. Jobber recalculates markup automatically from the unit cost and unit price you import. If you update the cost but leave the price alone, the price stays put and your markup silently drops — which is exactly the failure mode that quietly erodes margin across a whole price book. If you need a refresher on which number you're actually setting, see markup vs margin for contractors, or run the numbers in the margin and markup calculator.
Five formatting mistakes that break the import
1. Dollar signs in the price columns
Spreadsheet apps love to format currency. Jobber's importer does not. A $ character in the Unit Cost or Unit Price column will cause the import to fail. Format those columns as plain number before you export to CSV.
2. Capitalized category values
The Category field is case sensitive. Service works. SERVICE and service do not. If you've been running a find-and-replace on that column, check the capitalization before uploading.
3. Blank taxable and category cells
Empty cells don't get skipped — they get defaults. A blank Taxable cell makes the item taxable. A blank Category cell files it as a Product. Neither is announced during import, so a sloppy file can quietly recategorize half your service list.
4. Files over 2.5 MB
Jobber caps imports at 2.5 MB per upload. A large price book with long descriptions will hit this. Split it into two or three files and import them sequentially.
5. Renamed items
Jobber matches on item name. If you clean up naming conventions in the same pass as a price change — say, renaming "Water Heater Flush" to "Water Heater Flush — Standard" — Jobber sees a new item and creates it alongside the old one instead of updating it. Do renames and reprices as two separate imports.
What "Update existing items" actually overwrites
Checking that box updates unit cost, unit price, description, category, taxable status, and active status for any item whose name already exists in your list. Rows that haven't changed in your spreadsheet stay as they are. Rows with new names get added as new items.
One important exception: if you sync Jobber with QuickBooks Online US, you cannot update products and services through an import at all. Those edits have to happen in QuickBooks and sync into Jobber. On QuickBooks Global you can import, but you'll get a warning that the next QuickBooks sync will overwrite your changes. Either way, when QuickBooks is connected, QuickBooks is the source of truth — update there first, then sync.
When your Jobber price list is overdue for a bulk update
Input costs have not been sitting still. Broader BLS measures covering materials and services purchased by contractors rose 8.1% year over year as of May 2026, and individual commodities moved much harder than that: copper wire and cable were up 24.2% year over year, aluminum mill shapes 48.8%, and steel mill products 6.7%, according to Associated General Contractors analysis of federal data. Lumber prices rose another 5.0% in July 2026 alone, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics Producer Price Index.
A price book that hasn't been touched in eighteen months is quoting today's jobs at 2024 costs. Practical triggers for running a bulk update:
- Quarterly, on a calendar reminder. Small, regular adjustments are easier for customers to absorb than one 15% jump.
- After any supplier price letter. If a vendor announces an increase, update the affected line items that week.
- When job costing shows margin slipping. If completed jobs are landing below your target margin on items you thought were priced right, the price book is the problem.
- At the start of your busy season. See seasonal pricing for contractors for how to time this.
If you're worried about customer reaction to a broad increase, how to raise prices without losing customers covers the messaging side, and adjusting pricing when material costs rise covers the math.
A safer bulk update workflow
The risk with CSV imports is that they're all-or-nothing and hard to reverse. A few habits that keep them boring:
- Version your files. Date every export and every edited file. Three months from now you'll want to know what changed and when.
- Change one thing per import. Prices in one pass, descriptions in another, deactivations in a third. When something looks wrong afterward, you'll know which import caused it.
- Test on five items first. Build a five-row CSV with items you can afford to get wrong, import it, and confirm the result in Jobber before running the full file.
- Keep costs and prices in the same sheet. Managing unit cost separately from unit price is how markups drift. Whatever tool holds your master price book should hold both, with the markup as a formula between them.
That last point is the whole argument for keeping a master price book outside your field service software. Jobber is where you quote and invoice; it isn't built to be a costing workbench. Pricebookr maintains your master price book with cost, markup, and margin as live formulas and syncs the resulting prices into Jobber, so bulk updates stop being a spreadsheet project. If you're building your price book from scratch, start with how to build a price book first — the import is the easy part.
FAQ
Can I bulk update prices in Jobber without a CSV?
No. Jobber has no bulk price-edit screen in the Products & Services settings — items are edited one at a time in the interface. The CSV import is the only supported way to change many prices at once.
Will a Jobber CSV import change quotes and invoices I already sent?
No. Updating or deleting an item in your Products & Services list does not change that line item on any quote, job, or invoice where it has already been added. Existing documents keep the price they were created with.
What happens if I import the same file twice?
With "Update existing items" checked, the second import overwrites with the same values and nothing changes. With it unchecked, you'll create a duplicate set of items with the same names. Always check the box when your intent is to update.
Why does my Jobber import say the file is too large?
Jobber limits imports to 2.5 MB at a time. Split the CSV into smaller files and import them one after another. Long item descriptions are usually what pushes a file over the limit.
How often should I update my Jobber price list?
Quarterly is a reasonable default for most trades, plus an off-cycle update whenever a supplier announces an increase on a material you use heavily. With contractor input costs up 8.1% year over year in 2026, annual updates leave too much margin on the table.