Product Overview
Section 5 - Job Costing and Quotation
Now that we have accurately simulated laying out all of the materials on the roof, we now need to use those quantities, and the costs associated with them, to generate the necessary outputs. This may be a quotation to the customer, or an order to the supplier, or even an invoice for the job when completed.
30. Using Stage Manager to break up the quote, order or invoice
When it comes to generating the required outputs for the job, there are often times that the job will be completed in stages, and each stage may be separated by weeks or months. You may have had to quote for the job in stages or as a total package but you will almost certainly want to order your materials and generate your invoices based on those stages.
We have built in a feature called Stage Manager and this allows you to define each stage (shown below) and then nominate which roof planes are to be completed as part of each stage. As you can see from the box on the next page, you can even break each stage down into the individual processes applied to the roof. For example, you may want the flashings and downpipes to be fitted to both Stage 1 and Stage 2 roofs simultaneously, but you may want to separate the actual roof cover for each stage. We have built in sufficient flexibility to cater for the majority of business practices.
31. Using Quote Groups to break quote down into separate
values
In response to customer feedback, we have further increased the flexibility of generating the outputs. Our software has always allowed the user to create their own templates and forms so that the software will output quotation forms and order forms that closely resemble their existing methods.
We have now added further flexibility to allow the customer to break the quotation down into a series of groups. These groups can be defined by the user and will be separated out on the forms to show individual quotes for these groups.
As an example of these differing groups, you may need to provide a price for
the main roof material as one value, but then a total price for all flashings
as a separate price, and then maybe another price for the insulation and purlins.
When you are generating the Quotation, you can view the contents of each group
and modify the costs associated if required.
This should allow you to present a quotation breakdown to your customer if required. There may be up to 10 different groups defined.
Whatever type of roofing you are into, you may also need to allow for a labour content within your quote, unless you are a manufacturer, providing an estimating service.
Within our software, we have built in a great deal of flexibility when it comes to calculating the labour for a job. When you first receive the software, you will set up a series of labour rates. It may be that you have one series of labour rates for applying a plain tile, a different one for concrete tiles, a different one for a BHP panel and a different one for a Kingspan panel. You can set different labour rates for different pitch intervals on the roof, as well as different storeys on the roof.
Also, when defining flashings, you can set a specific labour rate for applying that one flashing, irrespective of where it used on the roof.
Shown below is the Labour Pay Rate box and is where you set the labour rate for each feature of the roof. The one below is the set-up for tiling but we have a similar process for metal roofing.
Having selected the appropriate labour rate for the job, you still have the
flexibility to vary the labour rates for any part of the roof, once you
get to the Supply & Install menu.
33. Supply Only or Supply and Install Quotes
Obviously, all of the processes we have employed so far are ultimately designed to allow you to generate a quotation for the job in question, as well as generating any other associated reports that you wish to print out. Now that we have reached this point, all we need to do is to select Supply Only (if you are quoting materials only - no labour) or Supply & Install. This will then bring a screen similar to the one shown and will detail every single component required for the job.
We have shown above, just one of three pages of quotation for this particular
job (in this instance the job incorporates tiles and accessories, flashings
and insulation). In addition to automatically including the accessories and
trim as required, we have also built in the ability to allow the user to add
additional miscellaneous items and extra items that may be required, that are
a function of the job, not a function of the roof.
Although the software has automatically worked out the correct quantity of materials and prices for the job, the user is still able to over-write any quantities and prices, without affecting the pre-defined database prices.
The Labour subtotal (seen below) can also be viewed
by clicking on the appropriate button.
There may be times when you are asked to provide several
quotes for the same job with different roof materials, or it may be that
you needed to recall a quote that you generated 3 months ago, that included
a number of miscellaneous items and extra line items. Now you can Save
and Load quotes when you get to the Supply or Supply/Install stage. This
is a very useful feature and allows you to save any number of quotes
within the same job for instant recall.
To go to the next section - Section 6 - Sharing Data - Click Here
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