Not keen on reading? You can watch a 4-minute video on this same article here.
Mary Beth here! As a co-founder at Materio and someone who helps teams get started all day long, I'm going to share some pro tips for getting started really fast and making sure your project is immediately setup for success.
Tip 1: Put the “Simple” Address & Client’s Last Name
So first off, when you start a new project, I recommend putting a simple address. You don't need city, state. And then I like to put my client's last name, incurred the C's that just helps at a glance know where they are. Another pro tip is to add the other team members that are in your system when you first create the project. This means that you don't have to do it later.
Tip 2: Upload a floor plan or start a mood board
When you get started, if you have a floor plan, it's going to make setting up your project more clear and easy, but if not, you can always skip and start without it. When uploading a plan page, it must be in .pdf format.
You can also create a mood board and upload multiple file types of images into the board.
Tip 3: Name your plan pages or mood boards
Name your floor plans. When you upload 10 pages, it can get confusing as you start to estimate and share with your team and clients. To start, name your plan pages or mood boards upfront. For example, you may name your first-floor plan "Main Floor" instead of the default "Page 1" or your mood board would be well suited to read something like "Kitchen Vision," so it can clearly communicate to your clients.
Tip 4: Use Materio’s starter outline to its fullest potential
To build out your project's scope of work you have to start with Materio's Scope Generator. This helps you get a project outlined quickly. At a minimum, add your locations and categories of work. When you select the categories of work you will be prompted with "chips" to select items. To get your selection checklist generated ASAP, be sure to select the relevant items. You can always customize this further, later on.
The last step of the scope generator is the markup. Be sure to include your markup style here. If your firm includes a markup on each item, hidden from clients, then be sure to put this in. For example 40% markup on each item. This will save you from adding it individually later.
Tip 5: Estimate pricing in the scope list, without clicking into the item detail panel by clicking "TBD"
To quickly estimate items, click the orange "TBD" text. This will pop out a dialog that allows you to add a cost, tax, and qty type. Great news, you don't even have to press save. Just hit "ENTER" on your keyboard.
Tip 6: Adjust Quantity and mark plans by clicking "QTY" to create a connection between the scope of work and the floor plan
To adjust the quantity of an item or to change the unit type (Days, Hours, Weeks, Square Feet, Linear Feet), click the prefilled quantity that's given. When you do this a small modal will pop out so you can edit. Here is where you can click mark plans to initiate plan markers. Plan markers create connections between the scope of work and floor plans or mood boards.
Tip 7: Setup your locations at the beginning
When you generate scope Materio provides standard room and bathroom counts, and more specific default locations like "Library." Your project may require more custom locations. In order to manage locations, go to the gear at the top right of your scope and select "Manage Locations". Here you can edit bedrooms. Pro tip is to name this all upfront so as you build scope the right locations are there. For instance, if Materio's default is "Bathroom 3," you may want to name it "Bath 3 | Guest Bath" so it is easier to locate and correctly match when making selections.
Tip 8: When you add custom items, enable “Client Selection” right away (when applicable)
You've used the scope generator, but that's just a starting point. Once you get to adding custom items, you'll need to turn on "client selection" when applicable. For instance, if I want to add a faucet in the bathroom, you will add the item and then hover over the 3 dots to select "enable selection," When you do this, you will see a question mark appear on the item. This indicates it needs a selection and now also lives in your selections workspace where you can easily add options and get approval from your client.