Use this article when you want different markups to apply to each quantity band rather than having one rate take over for all output once a threshold is crossed. After this you will have a pricing rule whose price table applies each bracket's markup only to the output that falls inside that band.

Before you begin

You must have an existing pricing rule, or create one first. See Set up pricing rules.
Graduated tiers apply to the Use price table action, so the rule needs at least one price table action to switch to graduated mode.

Steps

1. Open the price table action

Go to Estimate Setup → Pricing rules, then open the rule you want to configure (or create a new one).

In the Actions section, choose Use price table as the action type. The price table editor opens below the action row.

2. Switch Tier mode to Graduated

Tier mode controls how the table's brackets are applied:

Volume — the bracket that matches the job's input value applies its markup to all output. A single bracket wins and sets the rate for everything.
Graduated — each bracket applies its markup only to the output that falls within that band. Output is sliced across every bracket it crosses, like income tax bands.

Set Tier mode to Graduated.

If any existing table rows use a sub-action that graduated mode does not support (such as sell-price or VA-per-press-hour overrides), the editor will block the switch and name the affected rows. Change or remove those rows before switching.

3. Choose what to base the brackets on

The Based on dropdown sets the input axis — the value the brackets are measured against.

Option	Unit	Use when
Quantity	copies / units	Discounts scale with how many copies are ordered
Total sheet count	sheets	Sheet-based press costs scale across the run
Total inner pages in the order	inner pages	Book products where page volume drives paper cost more accurately than sheet count
Total square meter in the order	m²	Large-format or area-priced products
Total square inches in the order	sq in	Same as above, imperial measure
Product price	currency	Not available in Graduated mode

Total inner pages in the order is calculated as quantity × inner page count per copy. For a 256-page book at 200 copies the value is 51,200. Use this axis when your book pricing tiers reflect cumulative page volume across the order rather than copy count or sheet count.

4. Add contiguous brackets

Each row defines one bracket. Graduated brackets must tile continuously with no gaps or overlaps.

Fill in the fields below for each row:

Row structure

Operator — use Between to define a closed band (e.g. 1 to 10,000), Greater than or equal for the open-ended top bracket. The interpolation operators (Equal to, More than, Less than) are not available in Graduated mode.
From / To — the lower and upper bounds of the bracket, in the units of the Based on axis. The last bracket's upper bound is left open.
Sub-action — the markup change to apply to output in this bracket. Supported: increase or decrease any cost bucket (substrate, labor, machine, delivery, outwork, other material) or all markups combined. Set-to actions are also supported.
Value — the percentage or amount for the sub-action.

Use Add row to build additional brackets. Drag rows to reorder.

Once all brackets are defined, the editor validates continuity. If a gap or overlap exists between any two adjacent brackets, a red inline message names the boundary where the problem occurs. Fix the From/To values on the affected rows before saving.

How graduated differs from volume — a quick example

Suppose you set up three brackets on Quantity: 1–10,000 at +50% machine markup, 10,001–20,000 at +30%, and 20,001+ at +10%. A job for 15,000 copies is treated as:

Copies 1–10,000: machine markup increased 50%
Copies 10,001–15,000: machine markup increased 30%

In Volume mode the entire 15,000-copy job would use the +30% bracket. In Graduated mode the higher-margin band still applies to the first 10,000 copies. This produces a smoother price curve with no sudden drop when an order crosses a tier boundary.

5. Save and apply

Select Save on the rule. The Pending Changes badge in the sidebar increments.

Select Apply Changes to activate the rule. Create a test estimate for a product that matches the rule's conditions, then open Price Breakdown and confirm the rule appears in Pricing rules applied with the correct graduated effect shown per bracket.

Things to know

Brackets must be contiguous. Any gap or overlap between adjacent rows blocks saving. If the values come from an import or copy-paste, check that the upper bound of each row matches exactly the lower bound of the next.
Product price is not available as an input axis in Graduated mode. It can only be used in Volume mode. If you switch an existing Volume table that uses Product price to Graduated, the editor will prompt you to change the axis first.
Graduated and Volume are per-table choices. Tier mode is set on each price table action, so one rule can use a graduated table while another rule uses a volume table.