Two settings control the shape of your selections process, and they work independently of each other.
Area Type controls where a decision appears.
Selection Type controls which products are offered.
Area Type: where a decision appears
Selections are not attached to a specific room. They are attached to an area type.
So you build one selection group for the area type Bathroom, holding the eight decisions any bathroom needs. On a job you add two areas, Main Bathroom and Ensuite, both of type Bathroom. Both pick up all eight decisions. Add a powder room next week and it picks them up too, with no extra setup.
The multiplication cuts both ways. Four bedrooms of type Bedroom, each with five bedroom selections, is twenty decisions for your client rather than five. Whether that is what you want depends on how you build, and Three ways to define your areas works through the choice.
Selection Type: which products are offered
This axis has nothing to do with rooms.
Every selection has a selection type. Basin Tapware is of type Tapware, Kitchen Benchtop is of type Stone. Separately, each job carries item groups, and an item group is a shortlist of products keyed to exactly one selection type.
When your client opens Basin Tapware, HomePulse finds the item group on that job with the type Tapware and shows them those products. The room they are in makes no difference.
Items in your catalogue carry no selection type of their own. That is what lets the same tap be a standard inclusion on one job and a four hundred dollar upgrade on another.
If a selection has no matching item group on the job, the product screen will not load. Attaching item groups so products appear covers that.
Why they are independent
Because neither axis drags the other along, you can change one on its own.
Add a fourth bathroom to a house type and it is one new area. All eight bathroom decisions appear in it, drawing on the tapware and tiling shortlists you already have. No product setup at all.
Add a new tapware range and it goes into the Tapware item group. Every tapware decision in every area now offers it. No area or selection setup at all.
Examples
I want the Wall Tiling decision to appear in every Wet Area on every job, regardless of room. Attach it to the area type Wet Area.
I want my six stone options shown whenever a client opens any benchtop decision. Attach them to the selection type Stone, as an item group on the job.
What to do next
Your first 40 minutes: from empty account to live client portal puts this into practice on a real job.
Related articles
Areas, Selections and Items: the three things that make HomePulse work
Three ways to define your areas, and what each one costs you
Choosing your selection types: broad or granular
Creating your Area Types and Areas
Attaching item groups so products appear