(don't confuse this with the Job Estimation tool in Production Manager)
The Estimator is a tool for producing price estimates of your job. Job Estimation stores accounting information for each job, automatically calculates cost, and gives you a price estimate. The information can be changed and customized to reflect your costs and needs.
This feature is intended as a guideline. All results should be thoroughly reviewed before basing any business or financial agreements upon them. The estimator is meant to act as a mathematical tool for your use. It does not compare any prices or values against any existing standard or average.
The estimation is calculated based on some elements of your design, like the number of characters or the material area. These values are automatically gathered from your document. Other values like preparation time must be manually entered when doing job estimation.
The cost elements used in job estimation are grouped by Category, Item, and Type.
Using Job Estimation
- From the Edit menu, click Job Estimation.
- Select the Form type. These forms are preset forms with. You can use or edit the existing ones or you can create your own, as shown below.
- When you select a form, it will clear out the existing form and values, so be sure to change only when you're sure you won't lose work.
- Add or Delete Items as required (see below for more details)
- Select an Item in the list and (where applicable) edit the Unit Cost, Quantity, and One Time fields for the selected item. Repeat this process for all items that need any correction.
- Edit the Quantity and Tax rate fields. This Quantity field is for the whole job (how many copies of this job will they need?)
- After the estimation is completed:
- Print an invoice by clicking Print. This will open up the Windows printer dialogue box to print to your Desktop Document Printer.
- Save the estimation values as a text file by clicking Export. This will save it as a raw text file.
- Print an invoice by clicking Print. This will open up the Windows printer dialogue box to print to your Desktop Document Printer.
The total value will be automatically inserted in the Job Info - Job tab. You can see this by going to Edit > Job Info...
Customizing Forms
- From the Edit menu, click Job Estimation.
- Select the Form type to be changed.
- Change the form by clicking the buttons described below:
| Add Item | Adds a new item to the list. Click this button and select the Category, Item, and Type in the Add Item dialog box. If the item is one that only incurs a one-time cost for the entire run of finished pieces (such as design time), check One time. |
| Change Item | Select an item in the list and click this button. Then select the Category, Item, and Type. The new item will replace the selected item. |
| Delete Item | Select an item in the list and click this button. The item is deleted from the list. |
| Delete | Deletes the entire Form type from the list. |
- After all the changes are done, click Save to save as a new form.
- Enter a name that will appear in the Form list.
- Click OK.
Customizing the Item List
The Estimation Editor allows you to customize your prices to correspond to your normal charges. You'll notice these options are similar to the options when you clicked Add Item... These are the items and values you are making changes to.
Once you make a change to the Estimation Editor, that change will be used in every future calculation until you alter or remove it.
- Select the Estimation Editor tab.
- Select the Category type that will be changed.
- Adjust the following parameters:
| Built In | Items and types that are automatically computed based on design information such as color count and editing time. |
| Color Printing | Items and types used in color printing. |
| Material Area | Computes based on the size of the drawing objects. |
| Services | Single item and type charges and non-automatic items. |
| Substrate | Computes by item and type based on drawing size. |
| Text Size | Computes by item and type based on the number and size of each character. |
- You can create a new category by clicking the New button. Clicking Delete will delete a category and all of its items and types.
- To create or delete an item or type inside a selected category, click the buttons described below:
| New Item | Click this button and type the new item name to add a new item to the Item list. |
| Delete Item | Select an item in the Item list and click this button. The item is deleted from the list. |
| New Type | Click this button and enter the new type name to add a new item to the Type list. |
| Delete Type | Select a type in the list and click this button to delete it. |
- To change a specific item and type, select them from the list and change the following fields:
| Cost | Allows you to enter a new default cost per unit for the selected item type |
| Markup | Percentage of an item's cost to include a markup for profit margin and to cover the cost of wasted materials. |
| Minimum | Allows you to enter a new minimum charge for the selected item and type. To remove the minimum charge, enter zero (0.00). |
| One Time | Use this option when a particular item will be charged for only one time, independent of the value set in the Quantity field. |
| Unit | This is the unit of measure by which the row is calculated, such as per inch, square foot, per hour, day, week, or month. |
- To print a list of all the categories and their items and types:
- Click Print.
- Select a printer.
- Click OK.
- Click OK to close the Estimator.