Click Main Menu < File Menu, then click:
Construction estimates and bids commonly have a different format. Estimates are for internal use and should show all costs, tax, overhead and profit. Bids are customer-facing documents. Most customers don’t need to see every cost in the job. Customers certainly don’t need to see your markup. Use the Amount of Detail dialog box to adjust the level detail in bids created for customers.
For material, labor, equipment and subcontract costs, click a selection under each of the three column headings:
Show All
Subtotals Only
Omit Entirely
Show All -- All the work descriptions and costs in your estimate will also appear in the bid. Most customers don’t need this much detail.
Subtotals Only -- All the work descriptions in your estimate will be in the bid. But the only costs in the bid will be for subtotals you inserted in the estimate. If the estimate includes no inserted subtotals, only the job subtotal will appear. Subtotals Only will usually be a better choice if the estimate includes inserted subtotals and is longer than a page or two.
Omit Entirely -- All the work descriptions in your estimate will be in the bid. But you can delete costs in any category. Use this option, for example, to delete all material costs when an owner is furnishing materials for the job.
Show Only Item Totals -- Hides the breakdown of labor, material, equipment and subcontract costs, leaving only total costs.
Omit Work Descriptions -- Removes all work descriptions in your estimate, leaving only subtotal descriptions and costs.
For Markup and Tax, click a selection under the heading:
In Every Cost Item
Tax.
In Every Cost Item -- Distributes markup or tax proportionately among all costs in the bid. Use this selection to remove any mention of overhead, contingency, profit or tax from the bid. The bid total may be slightly different from your estimate due to rounding of unit costs.
At End of Estimate -- Markup and tax will appear at the end of the bid as in your estimate.
Omit Entirely – Removes markup or tax from the bid. Use this option if you prefer to add markup or tax manually.
To print the bid, click either:
Bid in PDF (Postscript) or
Bid in Word or
Bid in Excel.
The bid will arrive at your computer in a few seconds. In most browsers, the name of the downloaded file will appear either at the top or the bottom of your screen. Click that file name to open and print the bid. If you don’t see the download file name on your screen, look for the file name in the downloads folder of your computer.
Tips:
Use either the Bid in Word or Bid in Excel option if you plan to make changes to the download file. But note that totals in Word and Excel files are not formulas. If you change costs, plan to make corresponding changes to totals in the bid.
Printed bids can show your company name, address and company logo. On the Tools Menu, click Edit Company Info.
Printed bids can show your client’s name and address. On the Tools Menu, click Edit Customer Info.
Printed bids can show information about the job. On the Tools Menu, click Edit Job Info.