Estimate Works - Producing Painting Estimates

*IMPORTANT Make sure that you have entered your company defaults before you begin to do an estimate. See Setting Company Defaults for more information on this topic. Also see Setting Interior Painting Defaults and or Setting Exterior Painting Defaults for further information on the default settings applicable to each type of estimate.

Begin by opening either the Interior or Exterior Painting Estimating form, from under the View, File menu or the toolbar button of the main program.

Start with the Client Information. Click 'New' to add a new client or import a client from Outlook or 'Find' to select a current Estimate Works™ client. (more info...)
Move to the Work Site tab, type in the address of the job site (or click Copy Billing Information to copy from the Client tab), type of project and other comments etc. (more info...)
Now start by adding information to the first room or area (more info...). First select the Room/Area description.
Then add the room's length and width and height (interior) or wall width and height (exterior). You will now see the total sq. ft..
Now select the type of work and materials from the Job Items grid. First select the type, then the description of the item.
Add any additional comments to the Room or Area Colors/Comment text box.
When done the first room or area click the New Room or New Area button to create another.
If this is a contract you may want select a payment plan. Use the Payments & Dates tab (more info...) to select dates and payments from the defaults. You can also select the start and end date for the contract and even export these to Outlook if desired.
Now move to the Details & Totals tab (more info...). Check Estimate Includes to ensure the text you want to appear on the estimate or contract is included.
Add any additional Extra fees such as equipment rentals etc. to the estimate.
Check that the Setup/cleanup factor is appropriate and that the correct tax settings are selected.
You are ready to write an estimate and contract or other report. Click Save to save the current estimate record.
Print the current estimate by clicking Print to open the Print Document form. Select the proposal template document to be used and the style you wish to use. Click Print Document to write the details in the current estimate into the selected document (more info...).

The estimate includes all included charges described on the Details & Totals tab, any extra charges as well as description of the paint and/or wall coverings. Additional fields such as payments, included and excluded items etc. can be added or removed from the proposal documents as needed.

The New button will completely clear the screen of manually inputted data to allow you to begin a new estimate.
The Open button will display a list of all previous estimates so they can be selected and re-opened. This list can be sorted by client or date by clicking on the headers of the list.
The Delete button will completely remove the current estimate from the database.

The Cost Multiplier field on the Payments & Dates tab is a multiplier used to adjust the final total of the estimate. The Cost Multiplier designates a percentage cost. By increasing this value to 110% your have now added 10 % to the total fee structure by decreasing the value to 95 % you are giving a 5% discount.

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