Line Items and Roll-ups

Some records belong to another record. An estimate has lines. A job has supplier invoices. A project has steps. Line items let those child records sit as a grid on the parent's page, edited in place, with totals underneath. Roll-ups carry the figures from the grid up into fields on the parent, so a job's Costing tab fills itself in.

Line items and roll-ups are a per-account module. If you can't see the options below, ask the ORCA team to switch them on for your account.

Every line is still an ordinary record in its own section, so it lists, filters, reports and exports like any other record.

Setting It Up

You need two sections: the parent (Jobs, say) and the child (Estimate Lines). The child's template needs a Linked Section field pointing at the parent. If you haven't made one before, see Creating Templates and Creating Sections.

On that Linked Section field, in the field editor in Settings, tick Show these as lines on the ... page. The blank is filled in with the parent's section name, so on Estimate Lines it reads "Show these as lines on the Jobs page".

From then on, every job shows an Estimate Lines grid under its fields.

Which columns appear. The child section's list-view fields, in order, less the link back to the parent. If none are marked for the list view, the first six fields are used. A grid never shows more than eight columns. File, Address, Ticklist and AI summary fields stay out of it; open the line itself for those.

Starting lines. Once Show these as lines is ticked, a second option appears: Start each new ... with a copy of. Pick a library section, such as a step list, and every new record starts with a copy of each record in it. Fields are matched by name and type, a picklist by the text of its option when the two lists differ, and the copies come in order of their name. If the library's records have fields the lines don't, ORCA says which ones it can't copy. A record made before you set this up shows an Add the ... starting lines from ... button on its empty grid.

The Grid on the Parent's Page

Open a job and the lines are there under its fields.

Click a cell to change it. Type, then press Enter (or click away) to save. Escape puts the old value back. Dates open a date picker, picklists and people open a list of choices. If ORCA refuses the value, the cell stays open with a red border and a message above the grid.
Add a line puts a new blank line on the grid with the parent already filled in. Click its cells to fill it in.
Add several opens a grid for many lines at once (below).
The arrow at the end of a row opens that line as a full record. Text, text area, date, number, currency, person and picklist fields are edited in the grid; anything else is changed on the line itself.
The cross at the end of a row removes the line, after asking you to confirm. Its totals come off straight away.
Totals sit under every number, currency and formula column, in the footer row. Columns named like a rate or a percentage (anything with unit, rate, each, per, percent or markup in the name, or a % sign) are left without a total, because adding up unit costs gives you a number nobody wants.
Money shows as money. Currency fields do, and so do formulas that use one, such as Qty times Unit Cost. See Formula Fields.

You only see the buttons you're allowed to use. Adding needs permission to create in the child section, editing needs permission to edit, and removing needs permission to archive.

Locked lines

Lines can be locked at chosen stages of the parent. At a locked stage the grid shows a Locked at this stage badge and nobody can add, change or remove a line. A job at Closed, for example, keeps its final figures. The stages are chosen when the ORCA team sets the link up for you.

A parent that has been frozen also locks its lines. See Freeze and Revise.

Add Several

When you've got twenty lines to put in, nobody wants to click Add a line twenty times.

Click Add several. A small grid opens with a box for each editable column, in the order shown above it, and five empty rows. A required column has a red star. Then either:

Type a line on each row, using + 5 more rows if you run out, or
Paste from a spreadsheet. Copy the cells in Excel or Google Sheets, click the first box, and paste. The cells fill across and down from where you clicked, and rows are added as needed. Put your spreadsheet columns in the same order as the grid.

A count underneath tells you how many lines are about to be added. Empty rows are left out. Click Add these lines to save them, or Cancel to close the grid and clear it.

How values are read

ORCA reads each cell as a person would type it:

Picklists and people by name. "Steel" matches the option Steel, "Sam Jones" matches the user Sam Jones, upper or lower case. A person's name has to match one active user on the account.
Dates day first, so 30/10/2026 is the 30th of October. 30.10.26, 30-10-2026, 2026-10-30 and 30 Oct 2026 all work too.
Numbers and money with or without a £, $ or euro sign and thousands commas. A figure in brackets, like (120.00), is a negative, as it would be in a spreadsheet.
Text as it comes.

If something is wrong

Lines are saved all together or not at all. If one cell can't be read, nothing is added and an error above the grid names the line and the column, with what was in the cell. For example: Line 4, Needed By ("30/13/2026"): Use a date like 2026-10-30. Fix that cell and click Add these lines again. Everything you typed is still there.

A required column left empty is named the same way. You can add up to 200 lines at once. Pasted lines keep the order you pasted them in.

Roll-up Fields

A roll-up is a number on the parent, worked out from the lines that link to it. It's how a job's Materials Budget can be the total of its estimate lines without anyone typing it.

Add one as a field on the parent's template, choosing the field type Roll-up (adds up records that link here). Then set:

Add up: which records to add up, listed as the section and its link field, such as "Estimate Lines (by Job)". If no section links here yet, you'll be told to add a Linked Section field there first.
As: Total, Count, Lowest or Highest.
Of: which field on the lines. A number, currency or formula field. Not needed for Count.
Only where: optionally, count only lines where a picklist on the line is one of the options you tick. Leave it on Every record to use all of them. This is how one set of invoices fills a Paid total and an Outstanding total.

A roll-up is not typed. On the record page it carries a small Σ beside the figure, and on the edit form it says "Added up from its lines, not typed here". The figure is stored on the parent like any other value, so it shows in lists, reports, search and exports, and formulas can use it. It's worked out again whenever a line is added, changed, moved to another parent or removed. A roll-up over money shows as money.

Roll-ups can read other roll-ups, a few levels deep. A loop between two sections isn't allowed.

A parent with no lines keeps its figure

If a job has no lines at all, its roll-up is left exactly as it was. That means a budget typed in before the field became a roll-up stays put, and the figure only changes when the first line with a figure is added. Once a job has had lines, removing the last one takes the figure to nothing.

Lines that have nothing to add up yet leave the roll-up blank rather than showing a confident £0.00. A job doesn't look costed when it isn't.

Worked Example: A Job's Costing Tab

Take a fabrication firm that runs jobs. Each job has a Costing tab with budgets and actuals.

Two child sections. Estimate Lines (Description, Category, Qty, Unit Cost, a formula Line Total of Qty times Unit Cost) and Supplier Invoices (Supplier, Category, Amount, Status). Each has a Linked Section field called Job, pointing at Jobs, with Show these as lines on the Jobs page ticked.
Roll-ups on the job. Materials Budget is a Total of Line Total from Estimate Lines, Only where Category is Materials. Labour Budget is the same, Only where Category is Labour. Materials Actual is a Total of Amount from Supplier Invoices, Only where Status is Paid.
Locked at Closed. The ORCA team locks both grids at the Closed stage, so a finished job's figures stay finished.
Day to day. The estimator opens a job, clicks Add several, and pastes forty lines from the quote spreadsheet. The Estimate Lines grid shows a Line Total for each and a total underneath, and Materials Budget and Labour Budget on the Costing tab have filled themselves in. When a supplier invoice arrives, someone adds a line to Supplier Invoices, and Materials Actual moves.
Across jobs. Because the roll-ups are real fields, a Totals report can add them up by month, client or job owner.