Okay, so a client has approached you to submit a bid on a construction job. You’ve looked over the job to see what it entails. How do you put together a nice looking, detailed, accurate bid for them?
Navigate to [b] Receivables, then [c] Provide a Quote.
A list of your current bids are displayed.
Click on the details tab to review an existing bid or to start a new bid.
Click on the action field to see a list of actions.
Bid/Quote Actions
Inquire
This action allows you to view, but not change, a quote.
Add
Add a new quote.
Change
Change an existing quote.
Delete
Delete an existing quote.
Print, email, or save an existing quote to an excel spreadsheet.
Renumber
Renumber to a new quote number.
Bid/Quote Fields
If you are setting up a new quote, you’ll need to tell Abio who it’s for, where it is, and the type of work it entails. You can use different checklists and cost templates depending on what work you’re doing. Here’s a description of the entry fields:
Quote No.
This uniquely identifies the quote.
Description
Describe the work you are quoting on. This will display on the default printout. If you choose to use a customized MS Word template, you can optionally include this description.
Client
Provide the following information about your client:
- client,
- department,
- title (i.e. Mr, Ms, etc)
- given name,
- surname,
- email,
- phone,
- extension,
- fax number
Project Scope
Who from your client’s workplace identified the scope of the work to do? Provide:
- who supplied the scope of work?
- was there a site visit?
- was the scope provided by email?
- was there a phone call?
- when did the communication occur?
Project Details
These fields display at the top of the default printout.
- subject – where on the job site is the work?
- site – geographic location of the work site.
- owner – who the work is being done for, if your client is subcontracting you.
Quote Details
Initially you’ll just record the date the quote was issued and when it’s good until. If your quote is successful, and you use this quote as a starting point for setting up a job, the job and area will also be recorded here.
Supervisor
Record who in the field estimated the work. You can reference them in the MS Word template for the quote.
Working Documents
In the previous lessons, we showed you how to create custom checklists and cost estimate templates. These are going to be your working documents. You can create as many as you need to suit the different types of work you provide quotes for.
The checklist style defines a checklist with categories, and each category has a number of items. The items from the checklist style you select will be displayed on the Checklist tab.
The cost estimate style defines categories of work, and each category has a number of tasks, and hourly costs per task. The tasks from cost estimate style will display on the Estimate tab.
Terms
Every quote will be based on a variety of terms. These are customizable to your business, but we give some examples here.
- billing type – is this a fixed price quote, or time & materials?
- rental period – if equipment is being left on site, what is the rental period being charged? daily? weekly?
- working hours – Monday – Friday, 8:00am – 4:00pm. You can set up different work weeks for different jobs.
- payment terms – 30 days net, 60 days net, etc.
Attachments
When you’re communicating with your clients, Abio helps you put your best foot forward by letting you customize rich text attachments to include with your correspondence.
- letter – When you email a quote, the email letter can be a rich text document merged with fields from your quote. Quote number, contact name, subject, site, and supervisor can all be picked up from the quote and incorporated into the email automatically.
- preamble – add wording to display before the quote details.
- terms – you can set up detailed legal terms and conditions. They will be attached to your email as a separate PDF document.
- conclusion – this wording will display after the list of quoted items.
Cost Estimate Line Items
Once you’ve laid the foundation for your quote, you’ll create estimates for each component of the work. The detailed breakdown for each component of the estimate is constructed on the estimate tab.
When the component item is completed and saved, a summary of the component is listed under the estimate items. You can also enter estimate line items manually.
Completing a Checklist
Click on the Checklist tab to fill in the quote’s checklist.
The checklist items you created when you defined the checklist are listed.
Click on the action field to see a list of actions.
Select Change to modify the checklist.
Check off the items that are applicable, and click the <Apply> button to save.
Completing a Cost Estimate Component
Click on the Estimates tab to start estimating the cost to do the work.
Click on the action field to see a list of actions.
Estimate Actions
Inquire
View, but don’t change an cost estimate component.
Add
Add a new cost estimate component to this quote.
Change
Change this cost estimate component.
Delete
Delete this cost estimate component. Note that you don’t have to delete the component to remove it from the estimate. You can just de-reference it from the list of components on the Details tab.
Estimate Fields
The upper part of the screen is where you specify what area of work the component covers.
Title
When you add a new component, it gets added to the component list on the details tab, with this title.
Checklist Category
When you are building your MS Word template, you can choose to report the estimate component with an associated checklist category, rather than displaying the entire checklist.
For example, you might have a subsection of the checklist that pertains to plumbing. If you link your plumbing estimate to the plumbing section of the checklist, then you can choose to report just the checklist plumbing category.
Description, Bid Overview
These fields can be included in the MS Word template to give a more detailed explanation of the work covered by this component of the estimate.
Cost Estimate Line Items
This is where you are estimating all your costs to do each component of the job. The cost estimate template you created should have a line for every possible task. If you’ve filled in the hourly rates for your cost, and the hourly rates you are bidding, all that remains is to say how much time each task will take.
Including the Cost Estimate Component
Once you complete an estimate component, it will automatically be included as a line item in the components that make up the total dollar value of the quote.
Abio lists them with their description and total cost.
You can add as many estimate components as necessary to complete the quote.
Supporting Documents
You can save supporting documents with your quote. Perhaps your client signs the quote. You may want to include the signed quote when you invoice the job. If so, you can upload the signed quote here, and set the ‘include with invoice?’ flag to ‘Y’.
