Selection types are what connect a decision to the right products.
What a selection type actually does
Every selection your client makes has a type. Basin Tapware is of the type Tapware, Kitchen Benchtop is of the type Stone. Separately, you build shortlists of products called item groups, and each item group is keyed to exactly one selection type.
When your client opens a decision, HomePulse checks its type, finds the matching item group on that job, and shows them those products. If a selection carries the wrong type, your client opens it and sees the wrong products, or nothing at all.
Creating them
Go to Settings and open the Selection Types tab. Like areas, these are account-level and shared across every job and template.
Click New Selection Type.
Enter the Name. It is the only field.
Click Submit.
Repeat down your list.
Each one appears as a card, four across and twenty-four to a page, sorted alphabetically. To change one, click the menu on its card and choose Edit or Delete.
The number on each card is worth watching. Under the name it reads how many item groups use that type. While you are setting up it reads zero on everything, which is expected. Once you have built an item template it becomes the fastest check you have: a selection type still showing no item groups is one your clients cannot choose products for.
A starting set
Some examples to get you started:
Tapware, Sanitary, Tiling, Flooring, Stone, Joinery, Benchtops, Appliances, Electrical, Lighting, Door Hardware, Paint, Roofing, Cladding, Windows and Doors, Heating and Cooling, Landscaping.
Add whatever else you routinely give clients a choice about, and take out anything you never offer a choice on. The exception is a fixed inclusion you still want recorded in the portal.
How granular should you go
One test answers this: if two products would never be considered as alternatives to each other, they should not share a selection type.
Nobody chooses between a tap and a light fitting, so Tapware and Lighting are separate. That covers most of the list.
Where it gets less obvious is inside a single trade. Should a basin mixer and a shower mixer share the type Tapware, or split into Basin Tapware and Shower Tapware? Both work. Ultimately this choice comes down to the selections journey you want to present to your clients.
The mistake to avoid
Do not create selection types that describe rooms. Rooms are handled by area types. If you encode rooms into your selection types as well, you end up needing a separate tapware shortlist for every room in the house, and the entire benefit of a shared catalogue disappears.
Area type controls where a decision appears, selection type controls which products are offered. Area Types and Selection Types explains this in full.
What to do next
Both axis are now set up. Next is your product catalogue. Adding your first items gets you to twenty items in about fifteen minutes.
Related articles
Area Types and Selection Types: the two axes that control everything
Creating your Area Types and Areas
Adding your first items
Attaching item groups so products appear
Choosing your selection types: broad or granular