HOW FAST ESTIMATE WORKS
Fast Estimate data can be divided into four principle parts (plus any optional modules), each with its own dedicated button:
Libraries: This is where you store files your resources (bricks, labour etc.), your own rated items and any supplier price lists or price books (e.g. Spon A&B, Civils etc.)
Schedules: Where the actual job pricing is carried out and where management tools are applied to fine tune and monitor progress. Most users will select items and resources from the library to speed the pricing process.
Organisers: Maintain details on you suppliers, clients, subcontractors and make sure deadlines are met with the To-Do lists and appointment links
Reports: Predefined and custom reports
Each of these has its own tabs to allow you to get to the data you want quickly
Note that the extended data button row will change depending on the window you have currently selected.
LIBRARIES
This section is where your libraries of resources and items are held.
Contains the following tabs:
Resources
Resources are the basic building blocks for pricing work. These may be linked to individual suppliers for order processing. You can maintain your own libraries for MATERIAL, LABOUR, PLANT and up to 7 other resource types (5 may be user-defined).
To save time during pricing, resources may be bound together into useful groups, called Composite ResourcesItems
Although not essential, a well organised library of rates that accurately reflect the costs to your business for carrying out discrete tasks can be a major time saver. Rather than building up rates from first principles each time on the bill page, simply select the rates you need from your library to place on the bill page.
Rates are made up of one or more resources with their associated quantities and are used to calculate a unit cost for a specific task.
To save time when pricing, library items can also be bound together into 'super items', called Composite Items.Price Book Items
This tab will only be displayed if you have installed one or more price books. These are read only.
Schedules
A schedule (or job) is a collection of one or more bills of quantity (BoQ), together with detailed information about the schedule itself such as key dates, key personel, site details etc.
This is where most of the program functions are found to make pricing jobs fast and accurate. You can build the schedule directly on the bill page, or you can copy existing items from your library (your own items or price books).
The schedule includes the following sections (tabbed):
Schedules (BoQ)
This is the main pricing form, giving easy access to all levels of compiled information such as Bills, key dates etc.
- Properties - General information about the job - customer, architect, profit levels etc.
- Bills - Bills are made up of one or more items, often referred to as rates. Each Bill has totals calculated per (A4) page and for the complete bill (Print options available).
- Items (or Rates) - An item is much like a task that has to be completed. These may be entered directly on to the bill page or selected from libraries. To make calculations from drawings easier, they are priced by unit of measure e.g. a m2 of brickwork. Each item has a description, unit, quantity and rate associated with it. The rate is the cost of completing one unit of the task. You can apply as many units of the rated item as you wish to calculate a total cost for completing this task (e.g. for 500m2 of brickwork, apply a quantity of 500 to the m2 rate).
Resources
This is where you review and edit the resources needed to complete the schedule
Requirements
See exactly what you will need to complete the job
ORGANISER
Contains the following tabs:
Contacts - Hold key details on the people you deal with - Clients, suppliers, architects etc. These may be linked to resources and schedules for sorting, filtering and reporting.
Tasks - A handy task list linked to your jobs and/or contacts
Reports
The output section of Fast Estimate
Tips
- Make full use of the tools offered with each form - they are there to save you time.
- Make sure your resource costs are kept up to date - errors here can be amplified in the final price.