The Estimator tool is a helpful feature that can assist with the pricing and estimating of products or services that are factored by units of measurement. The Estimator tool can be turned on within the permission settings and applied on specific products or services. Please let us know if you need the estimator tool feature turned on.
The estimator tool allows you to have calculation options built into your line item, that help you determine the end-price. A product/service can be set to one of four estimator types: Coverage, Glass Fitting, Area, and Area Price.
Ex. 1 - Coverage: How much paint do we need for a job? We could sell a 1 gallon paint product. Within the product's profile page, we can set the estimator tool to 'coverage' and then set it's standard coverage to 400 sq/ft.
When we add the 1 gallon of paint to an order, we can use the estimator tool to help determine how many gallons we will need to complete a 1500 sq/ft painting job. Each gallon of paint is $60. We enter the square footage of the job in the Area field of the quantity calculator. The product is preconfigured to know that one gallon covers 400 sq/ft. We can then click the calculate button, which tells us that we would need 4 gallons of paint for a 1500 sq/ft job. Last, we can click the use estimate button to use the suggested quantity of 4. This gives us the end price of the paint being $240.
Ex. 2 - Area: The area estimator can help determine the total surface area by inputting the length x width measurements. We will use grass cutting for this example. Let's say we price grass cutting at $0.03 per sq/ft. In the grass cutting product page, we can setup an area estimator based on feet as the unit of measurement.
Then, when adding the grass cutting line item to a job, we can enter the size of the lawn to be cut (length & width). We enter that the lawn is 125ft long and 50ft wide, and then click calculate: 125 x 50 = 6250. Then, 6250 x $0.03 = $187.50 as our calculated price. Click 'use estimate' to apply the price calculation to your line item.
Ex. 3 - Area Price: This option is useful for pricing something by (price x area). Let's use epoxy floor installation for this example. In the product's profile page, we will set the estimator type to 'Area Price', and input our preferred unit of measurement for pricing. In this case, sq/ft.
Our standard price for the epoxy flooring installation is pre-set to $4.25. When adding the line item to a job, we can enter the total square footage into the pricing calculator. Let's say it is a 500 sq/ft garage. We enter 500 sq/ft, and then click the calculate button. $4.25 x 500sq/ft = $2125. We then click the 'use estimate' button to apply the calculated end-price, and save.
For Area estimates, the tool allows you to calculate the right price, without having to set your quantity to reflect the area. Sometimes you don't want the client to see the total area that you are factoring into your price, or your calculations, just the end price and quantity 1.
Ex. 4 - Glass Fitting: This is a very specialized estimator example for custom window glass installation. The window glass estimator prices an area in square feet, based on length and width rounded up to the nearest 2 inches. Let's say we have a custom window type with a base price per sq/ft of $50. In the product profile page, we set the estimator to Glass Fitting.
When adding the window item to a job, the pricing calculator allows us to enter the length and width of the glass (in inches), right down to the 16th. Let's enter 36" length and 48" width. The estimator calculation will convert the inches to feet and multiply it by the base price of $50/ft. 36" = 3ft, & 48" = 4ft. 3 x 4 = 12. 12 x $50 = $600.
The glass fitting estimator also has a built-in markup option. This can be very helpful for general markup or to factor in a markup for installation, for example. If we set the markup to 50(%), then our price will increase by 50%. So, it would now calculate as 12 x $75 = $900.
We hope the estimator tool helps you price your products/services just right. Please send us a chat if you have any questions about the estimator tool.