Setting your Default Budgets..2-3 Standard vs Service Estimates Creating a Service Estimate Creating a Service Estimate...

Transcription

1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Setting your Default Budgets..2-3 Standard vs Service Estimates Creating a Service Estimate Creating a Service Estimate ADVANCED TASKS Adjusting Pricing in an Estimate Using the Measure Site Tool in an Estimate Using Production Calculators

2 Setting your Default Budgets Before you dive deep into pricing, and especially before you get into estimating, you're going to want to setup your default budgets. You need to do this even if you don't have access to budgeting so that your cost, overhead recovery, and profit information are set accurately. You can setup LMN to use default budget(s) for pricing standard jobs (install/designbuild work) and for pricing service jobs (maintenance/recurring service work) To setup your default budgets: 1. Click the Estimate Default Budgets menu on the left side 2. As long as your company has an Active Budget, you will be able to set your defaults as shown below. Use the drop down menus for Standard and Service Estimates to select your default budget for each Estimate type. To learn more about the difference between Standard and Service Estimates, click HERE. 3. Click Save to save the budgets as your default budgets. Going forward, every new estimate you create will point to the default budget for overhead recovery and profit information. Default Budget Tips If your company does not have any Active Budgets - You will get a warning message, or you will see [SAMPLE] budgets set to default. You need to have an Active company budget before proceeding. 2

3 If your company does not have any Active Budgets and you do not have access to LMN Budgets - You will have to request that your Company's Super Admin activates your company budget before you can proceed to pricing and estimating. Make sure you're using the right budget - Check with your Super Admin/company owner at least 4 times per year to make sure you are using the correct default budget for pricing work. Using old budgets can lead to pricing mistakes. Companies with multiple divisional budgets - Users can have their own default budgets - useful for companies who operate multiple divisions. If you are a Super Admin/company owner and you create a new budget that you wish to use for estimating be sure to create a To-Do for your estimators to switch their default budgets to the new budget. Standard vs Service Estimates LMN Offers the option to do a Service estimate (ie. recurring work such as Maintenance) or a Standard estimate (ie. non-recurring projects such as construction). The main differences between Standard and Service Estimates can be found below: Service estimates offer the ability to set billing types to reflect Per Season, Per Visit or Per Hour/Unit. You will be able to generate proposals to fit your billing type (or a mixed report if you utilize more than one). Service estimates will calculate the total for all of your Per Season billing areas and will allow you to split this amount between your desired number of payments. 3

4 Service estimates have Contract Start and Contract End date fields available for selection. Service and Standard estimates have different proposal templates available for selection. 4

5 Creating a Standard Estimate To begin, click on the Estimate Menu and click on Standard. Click on +New in the top right corner. Start typing your customers name in the search bar provided and click Search when ready. 5

6 Under Lead/Customer, make any necessary changes to Contact or Jobsite. Adjust your Estimate Information as required. 6

7 Once you ve updated all necessary information, click OK. 7

8 Standard Estimate Customer Info 8

9 The Customer Info tab is where your estimate and customer-specific information will be displayed. Information displayed on this page is as follows: Project Name Estimate ID This will be automatically generated upon estimate creation. If you d like to change this ID, you can overwrite here. Estimate Date - Creation date. Division This will be the division of work the estimate falls user. These divisions were created by the company administrator in charge of setting up your LMN Account. Estimate Status Your estimate status will change as your estimate moves through your sales process. These statuses were created by the company administrator in charge of setting up your LMN Account. Exclude from Stats? If you do not want to report on this estimate s revenue, you can mark to exclude this estimate from stats. Client Name Your customer name. If you click on this button, you will be navigated to the CRM account for this customer. Billing Address This is driven from your customer s General Address as per the CRM. This would have been setup by the company administrator in charge of setting up your LMN Account. Contact Name The contact for your customer associated to this estimate. Contact Info Phone and for the contact for your customer. Jobsite Name The jobsite for your customer associated to this estimate. Jobsite Address The jobsite address for your customer associated to this estimate. Salesperson The LMN User assigned to this estimate. Estimator The LMN User assigned to this estimate. Confidence Level A visual to indicate how confident you are that you will win the estimate. Standard Estimate Work Areas + Pricing 9

10 The Workareas + Pricing tab is where your will build your estimate using your Item Catalog. To begin building your estimate, click + Add Work Area. Add your Work Area Name and Cost Code, then click OK. 10

11 Once your work area is created, click + Add Items + Templates. 11

12 Your Item Catalog will pop up next, with tabs for Labor, Equipment, Materials, Subs, Other and Templates. This Item Catalog was created by the company administrator in charge of setting up your LMN Account. To add an item from your catalog to your estimate, click the button. Adjust your Quantities as necessary. The Unit Cost, Unit Price and Profit indicated here was established by the company administrator in charge of setting up your LMN Account. We do not recommend changing these numbers unless instructed to do so by your company administrator. 12

13 The red calculator ( ) beside your Labor items is called a Production Rate Calculator. For more information on using Production Rate Calculators, please go to the section on Using Production Calculators in this document. Once you ve adjusted your quantities, your pricing will be indicated at the top of your Workareas + Pricing tab. The pricing indicated here is as follows: Total Cost The cost for your company to do this job. Breakeven The cost plus any applicable purchasing taxes, warranties, etc. plus Overhead markup. Total Price Breakeven plus Profit Margin. 13

14 Standard Estimate Client Notes You can add Terms + Conditions or Work/Service Area descriptions to your estimate by following the steps below. Within the estimate you want to add the term and condition to, click the Client Notes tab. Headers or Footers Open the text box called Estimate Header/Footer Terms & Conditions. Click the Add Terms and Conditions button in the upper right to open the Terms + Conditions panel. Click the green + button beside the term and condition name that you wish to add. The term and condition will be automatically inserted after any pre-existing text in this section. Customer Descriptions You can also follow the steps above to add Descriptions to certain Work/Service Areas within your estimate. Make sure you click on the appropriate area to add descriptions (as shown below with Patio Excavation). 14

15 Standard Estimate Crew Notes You can add Crew Notes to your estimates - these notes will display on internal documents only (such as Job Planners), these notes will also show up on your foreman's phone when they clock into specific tasks. Crew notes can be used for: Specific customer/job information. Task/Tool Checklists. Any internal communication you wish to share with your crews while they are onsite. Please note: We would suggest limiting the amount of text you include in these notes as they will be displayed on your crew's phones during clock in. Adding Crew Notes Click on the Crew Notes tab for your estimate. Select the specific Work/Service Areas within your estimate that you wish to add information to. Make sure you click on the appropriate area to add text (as shown below with Patio Excavation). 15

16 Standard Estimate Print You have now created an Estimate and you are ready to print/generate your estimate. Within your Estimate: Click on the Print tab Select the Report you wish to generate from the drop-down button OPTIONAL: you can enter a 'Custom Title' to replace the standardized name of the report you had selected OPTIONAL: you can change the 'Output As' to.pdf,.doc, or.xls file (.pdf is selected by default) Click Click Open Report Your Estimate will open up in a new tab in your browser* From here you can Save this to your computer or Print it directly from the browser *if your estimate does not appear in a new tab, please ensure you have your Popups enabled 16

17 Creating a Service Estimate To begin, click on the Estimate Menu and click on Service. Click on +New in the top right corner. Start typing your customers name in the search bar provided and click Search when ready. 17

18 Under Lead/Customer, make any necessary changes to Contact or Jobsite. Adjust your Estimate Information as required. 18

19 Once you ve updated all necessary information, click OK. 19

20 Service Estimate Customer Info 20

21 The Customer Info tab is where your estimate and customer-specific information will be displayed. Information displayed on this page is as follows: Project Name Estimate ID This will be automatically generated upon estimate creation. If you d like to change this ID, you can overwrite here. Estimate Date - Creation date. Contract Start Date Start date for your contract. Contract End Date End date for your contract. Division This will be the division of work the estimate falls user. These divisions were created by the company administrator in charge of setting up your LMN Account. Estimate Status Your estimate status will change as your estimate moves through your sales process. These statuses were created by the company administrator in charge of setting up your LMN Account. Exclude from Stats? If you do not want to report on this estimate s revenue, you can mark to exclude this estimate from stats. Client Name Your customer name. If you click on this button, you will be navigated to the CRM account for this customer. Billing Address This is driven from your customer s General Address as per the CRM. This would have been setup by the company administrator in charge of setting up your LMN Account. Contact Name The contact for your customer associated to this estimate. Contact Info Phone and for the contact for your customer. Jobsite Name The jobsite for your customer associated to this estimate. Jobsite Address The jobsite address for your customer associated to this estimate. Salesperson The LMN User assigned to this estimate. Estimator The LMN User assigned to this estimate. Confidence Level A visual to indicate how confident you are that you will win the estimate. Service Estimate Services + Pricing 21

22 The Services + Pricing tab is where your will build your estimate using your Item Catalog. To begin building your estimate, click + Add Service. Add your Service Type, Service Name, Billing Type, # of Visits and Cost Code, then click OK. Service Type would have been created by your company administrator for your LMN Account. 22

23 Once your service area is created, click + Add Items + Templates. Your Item Catalog will pop up next, with tabs for Labor, Equipment, Materials, Subs, Other and Templates. This Item Catalog was created by the company administrator in charge of setting up your LMN Account. 23

24 To add an item from your catalog to your estimate, click the button. Adjust your Quantities as necessary. The Unit Cost, Unit Price and Profit indicated here was established by the company administrator in charge of setting up your LMN Account. We do not recommend changing these numbers unless instructed to do so by your company administrator. 24

25 The red calculator ( ) beside your Labor items is called a Production Rate Calculator. For more information on using Production Rate Calculators, please go to the section on Using Production Calculators in this document. Once you ve adjusted your quantities, your pricing will be indicated at the top of your Services + Pricing tab. The pricing indicated here is as follows: Total Cost The cost for your company to do this job. Breakeven The cost plus any applicable purchasing taxes, warranties, etc. plus Overhead markup. Total Price Breakeven plus Profit Margin. Service Estimate Contracts Please note: this is an LMNPro feature. You will only be able to move forward with the below if your company is subscribed to LMNPro. For more information on LMNPro, please click HERE. Options for Creating Contracts 1. Create Contract in LMN estimating and Import into LMN Time. 2. IF job is already in LMN Time, you don't need to add your contract back in the Estimate. You can create a Contract manually right in LMN Time. *In this article, we are going to explain Option 1: 25

26 Billing Types Your Billing Type is determined on the Services + Pricing tab in an estimate and can be adjusted as necessary. Contracts will apply to your Billing Type: Per Season services. Your estimate's Per Season Total will be displayed on your Services + Pricing tab (as shown below). Billing Type options include: o Per Season - If a service is included in a contract, it will not trigger additional billing since the cost for this service is included in your monthly invoicing. o Per Visit - This option will not be included in the contract as it will be billed when the service is completed in LMN Time, triggering billing outside of the monthly invoicing. o Per Hour/Unit - This option will not be included in the contract as it will be billed when the Service is selected for the exact amount of time someone is clocked into the service in LMN Time. Once your Billing Types are indicated for each service in your estimate, you can follow the steps below to create a Contract. Creating a Contract Click on the Contract tab for the estimate you wish to update. 26

27 Click on Create a Contract for this Estimate. Enter the information in the fields provided as described below. Contract Start/End Dates - These dates will be populated based on the Contract Start and End dates indicated on your Customer Info tab of your estimate. PO Number/Contract Number - These fields are optional and can be added in if you use them currently for your business. Per Season Total - This number is driven from the Services + Pricing tab and is determined by your Billing Type selected for each service in your estimate. # of Pmts - This number is also driven from the Services + Pricing tab and indicates how you want the Per Season Total divided. Est. Monthly Payment - This number is determined by your Per Season Total divided by your # of Pmts. Day of Month - The day of the month you want to bill your customer. Please note: if you pick the 31st, it will roll back for months where there are not 31 days (ie. in February, the Invoice would generate on the 28th). 27

28 Invoice Text - Any text entered here will display on your customer's Invoices. Invoice Extras - You can determine if you would like Extras to be added to either the Monthly Billing, or if you would prefer that Extras are billed out separately (ie. Monthly Billing is generated on the 1st of each month, Extras are generated on the 15th of each month). Extras would be considered as any Per Visit or Per Hour/Unit billing as well as any billing for Activities specifically. For more information on Activities, click HERE. Tax - Tax is included in the estimate itself for anything that was entered under Services + Pricing. The Tax field indicated on the contract tab will allow you to determine what Tax you want added to your Activities. Cost Code - If you choose to calculate your Contract payments using the Recalc Payments (simple) button you will need to indicate which Cost Code you want to use. If you use the Recalc Payments (by Cost Code) button, your payments will be divided proportionally based on the Cost Codes indicated in your estimate. Disable Warnings? - Only select this checkbox if you want to hide Payment Warnings for your contract. A Payment Warning will display if your total payments in the contract is not equal to the Estimate Total as per the Services + Pricing tab (see below). Once you've updated all fields indicated above, your next step is to determine whether you want to calculate all payments using one Cost Code, or if you want to calculate payments proportionally based on the Cost Codes indicated in your estimate. Recalc Payments (simple) - This will allocate all Per Season payments to one Cost Code - as indicated in the Cost Code drop down above. 28

29 Recalc Payments (by Cost Code) - This will divide all Per Season payments proportionally based on the Cost Codes indicated in your estimate. If you'd like to add a Payment to your contract, use the + button on the right-hand side (as shown below). 29

30 From here, pick the date for your payment (which will then be sorted in the correct order - by date) and add your Amount and Cost Code. Once your Contract is set up the way you'd like, you can click save. Now you're all set to move this estimate and contract over to Time for Time Tracking and Invoicing purposes! Note: after importing the estimate into LMN Time, you will no longer be able to edit the Contract. Any necessary changes from that point will need to take place in LMN Time directly. Standard Estimate Client Notes You can add Terms + Conditions or Work/Service Area descriptions to your estimate by following the steps below. Within the estimate you want to add the term and condition to, click the Client Notes tab. Headers or Footers Open the text box called Estimate Header/Footer Terms & Conditions. Click the Add Terms and Conditions button in the upper right to open the Terms + Conditions panel. Click the green + button beside the term and condition name that you wish to add. The term and condition will be automatically inserted after any pre-existing text in this section. 30

31 Customer Descriptions You can also follow the steps above to add Descriptions to certain Work/Service Areas within your estimate. Make sure you click on the appropriate area to add descriptions (as shown below with Patio Excavation). Standard Estimate Crew Notes You can add Crew Notes to your estimates - these notes will display on internal documents only (such as Job Planners), these notes will also show up on your foreman's phone when they clock into specific tasks. Crew notes can be used for: Specific customer/job information. Task/Tool Checklists. Any internal communication you wish to share with your crews while they are onsite. Please note: We would suggest limiting the amount of text you include in these notes as they will be displayed on your crew's phones during clock in. Adding Crew Notes 31

32 Click on the Crew Notes tab for your estimate. Select the specific Work/Service Areas within your estimate that you wish to add information to. Make sure you click on the appropriate area to add text (as shown below with Patio Excavation). Standard Estimate Print You have now created an Estimate and you are ready to print/generate your estimate. Within your Estimate: Click on the Print tab Select the Report you wish to generate from the drop-down button OPTIONAL: you can enter a 'Custom Title' to replace the standardized name of the report you had selected OPTIONAL: you can change the 'Output As' to.pdf,.doc, or.xls file (.pdf is selected by default) Click 32

33 Click Open Report Your Estimate will open up in a new tab in your browser* From here you can Save this to your computer or Print it directly from the browser *if your estimate does not appear in a new tab, please ensure you have your Popups enabled Adjusting Pricing in a Service Estimate After constructing your Service or Standard estimate, you have the ability to set a Custom Price or Override the Price/Profit for your Services or Work Areas, respectively. This can be achieved by clicking on the drop-down arrow immediately to the right of the EDIT/CLOSE button on the far-left corner of your Service or Work Area. This option will not update the total price for the estimate - only per work area. NOTE: the button is titled "Edit" if your Service/Work Area is not expanded. The button reverts to "Close" if your Service/Work Area has been expanded. Service Estimates 33

34 Standard Estimates 34

35 Using the Measure Site Tool in an Estimate LMN makes it easy to take site measurements right from your desk! Here's how to do it: 1. Open an estimate for the jobsite you want to measure 2. Click the Measure Site button underneath the Estimate Client Information section 35

36 The site measure tool will open in a new window, direct to the address of the jobsite. Here's how to measure: 1. Zoom out/in on the jobsite according to its size 2. Center the jobsite in the middle of your screen 3. Click around the area you want to measure with your mouse. Points will be added. The green shaded area is the area being measured. 4. To cut out around shapes/buildings, just move one of the points next to that area. Each time you move a point, a new point will get added beside it, so you can start to get very precise in the shapes you are drawing 5. The site measurements will appear in the bottom right corner of your screen 36

37 Using Production Calculators Using a production rate calculator on an estimate is simple. Anytime you add a labor item to an estimate, you'll see a calculator button displayed beside the quantity. This is your button to launch the production rate calculator. When you click the calculator button, you'll be prompted to choose the production rate calculator that you want to use. Choose from the production rate calculators on the left side of the screen. 37

38 Next, fill in the measurements that the calculator requests. Pay careful attention to the units of measure (e.g. sq. ft) displayed immediately to the right of the Measure column. You can also edit your production rates for this specific job. For instance, using the example above, if this particular job had a complicated paver pattern, you could override your standard production rate of 25 sq. ft/man hr to a rate of 20 sq. ft/man hr. This will not change your calculator settings, it will only be applied to the calculations on this job. Where applicable, you can also round up to the nearest man hour (or more) by using the Round Up To Nearest (hrs) field. If you have a long list of tasks, you may have to scroll down to see this field. Here's what a completed calculator might look like just before I add it to the estimate. 38

39 Click OK and the final calculation will be inserted into your estimate's labor item where you initially clicked the calculator. 39