Estimating - Creating Estimate Items

Estimate items are the detailed line item products and services that are expected to be needed to complete a project. Estimate items may be pre-defined tasks, materials, or ordered items, free-form line items that account for outside services, or custom items specific to the individual estimate.

Adding a pre-defined Estimate item

1. Open an Estimate and display it in Edit mode if it is not already.
2. Scroll down to the Estimate Items section of the page.
3. Select the first blank line. If there are no blank lines displayed in the Estimate Items grid, click More Items ( ). Additional blank rows will be added to the Estimate Items grid.
4. Double-click and type the first few characters of the code and press Tab or use the Estimate Item Selector Tool ( ) to open a selectable list of all Estimate Items.

1. Type the quantity of the selected task, material or ordered item in the Qty cell and press Tab. This will indicate the quantity of the product or service needed and allow Job Manager to automatically calculate the total cost and total price values.

Note: The Unit Cost and Total Cost figures are the estimated costs to your company to provide the product or service to your client. The Unit Price and Total Price are the amounts your company will bill the client for the product or service.

1. Type any notes you would like to include for the estimate item in the Notes cell and click outside the line item to complete adding the estimate item to the estimate.
2. Repeat steps 1-4 for each additional pre-defined estimate item you want to add to the estimate.
3. Optional: Select and click the Up ( ) and Down ( ) arrows as needed to arrange the estimate items in the order that best suits your needs.

Adding a free-form estimate item

1. Open an Estimate and display it in Edit mode if it is not already.
2. Scroll down to the Estimate Items section of the page.
3. Select the first blank line. If there are no blank lines displayed in the Estimate Items grid, click More Items ( ). Additional blank rows will be added to the Estimate Items grid.
4. Type a code and description for the free-form line item in the Code and Description cells.
5. Type the quantity of the free-form line item in the Qty cell and press Tab. This will indicate the quantity of the product or service that will be needed to complete the project being estimated.
6. Type the unit, unit cost, and unit price of the free-form line item in the appropriate cells, pressing Tab after each cell. This will indicate the unit measurement, unit cost, and unit price of the line item. Job Manager will automatically calculate the total cost and total price values.

Note: The Unit Cost and Total Cost figures are the estimated costs to your company to provide the product or service to your client. The Unit Price and Total Price are the amounts your company will bill the client for the product or service.

1. Type any notes you would like to include for the estimate item in the Notes cell and click outside the line item to complete adding the estimate item to the estimate.
2. Repeat steps 1-4 for each additional free-form estimate item you want to add to the estimate.
3. Optional: Select and click the Up ( ) and Down ( ) arrows as needed to arrange the estimate items in the order that best suits your needs.

At this point, at least one estimate item has been added to the estimate and you may review how this has affected the total cost, suggested price, and quoted markup percentage (i.e. profitability) of the estimate.

Related Topics

"Creating An Estimate" on page 220

"Estimating: Creating Quote Items" on page 226

"Printing Estimate Information" on page 229

"Duplicating An Estimate" on page 230

"Converting An Estimate Into A Job" on page 232

"Generating An Estimate List" on page 234