On the Edit Estimate overlay, there are many things you can customize within the Line Items table. You can change the details about an Estimate either in bulk or for individual line items.
Make Bulk Changes to Line Items
The buttons in the middle of the Estimate overlay lets you make bulk adjustments to the line items you select.
- Discount - This button applies a discount to any line items you select. You must first have Discounts set up under Settings > Discounts.
- Rate Increase - Click this button to increase rates for any line items you select on the estimate. In the Increase By field, enter a percentage followed by the “%” sign OR enter a dollar amount. It’s good practice to use the Notes field to explain why you made the rate increase (this field is for internal use and is not seen by clients).
- Schedule - If line items have a status of Won, and the Estimate Stage is also Won, then click this button to schedule the job. For more information on scheduling from an estimate, click here.
- Invoice - This button creates an invoice for the client for any “Won” items. If you select this option, keep in mind that when you schedule a job from the Estimate, an invoice for that job will be created even if you previously created an invoice from the Estimate.
- Delete - This button deletes the selected line items.
- Create Purchase Order - This button creates a Purchase Order for the products and services on the estimate. This option is great if you need to give it to a Vendor as a request for materials and/or labor for the job.
Adjust Rates, Quantity, and Calculation Values in an Estimate
On the Estimate overlay, you can adjust the rates, quantity, and more for each service or product using the columns below:
- Calc - Calculation. This column can be used as a multiplier; it can also be used in a Rate Matrix if you have one set up on the selected line item.
- Qty - Quantity. This is a multiplier and can be used with or without a Rate Matrix. This will transfer onto the job so it's best to only use it if you want the invoiced rate to be Qty X Rate for a Per Unit job.
- Rate - This defaults to the rate set on the Service, Package, or Product level. The rate is typically displayed to the client with the visit rate or the hourly rate. A Rate Matrix can be used to calculate this value.
- Visits - This is the number of visits included for the line item in the quote. This does not transfer onto the job and is for the Estimate total only. To get the total, the number of visits is multiplied by the Rate and Qty.
- Total - The system uses the multipliers above to calculate the total. Total = Calc x Qty x Rate x Visits.
- B. Hrs - Budgeted Hours. This is the total number of hours you expect your team to spend on the job regardless of the number of Resources working the job. For help with calculating the amount, hover over the B. Hrs field and click the + button to reveal the B. Hrs calculator.
- T.B. Hrs - This is the total budgeted man hours times the number of visits (B. Hrs X Visits).
- Cost - This is the labor cost for the number of budgeted hours and the labor burden of only your regular employees on the job. Other labor costs like subcontractors are accounted for under Direct Costs.
- T. Cost - The system calculates Calc X Qty X Visits X Cost to get the Total labor cost.
- Margin - The system calculates the Total minus the cost to calculate your profit margin (Total - T.Cost).
- Markup - This applies only to Products. This is the amount over cost. (Rate - Cost) / Cost)
- Adj Rate - Adjust the Rate by entering a percentage or dollar amount you want to add to or subtract from the Rate column. If you use the percent sign (%), the system assumes it’s a percentage. If you do not enter a %, the system assumes it’s a dollar amount. You can make this a negative or positive number.
For example, you normally charge $45.00 for a service, but the client has obstacles that will make the job take longer. Use the Adj Rate field to specify the extra percentage or dollar amount that you need to charge for each line item.
Estimates: Finding Line Items According to Status
In the center of the Estimate overlay, the Status tabs group individual line items according to their current status: All, Draft, Quote, Won, or Lost. This can be helpful if you want to look at line items with a particular status.