Ballparks Are For Baseball — Not Shops

It all starts with the estimate. Estimating potential costs and determining a fair selling price can make the difference between winning business and winning profitable business. 

However, creating a one-off detailed estimate can be very time-consuming, considering you may decide not to bid. 

When time is of the essence, your first estimate may be a rolled-up summary of large buckets of labor and machine hours or material dollars. Or you may copy an estimate from a similar job and adjust accordingly. 

Some companies have custom-built applications using such tools as spreadsheets to create estimates. These applications may contain specific logic unique to your company and should be retained. 

If you have a great estimating system in place and don’t want to give up your estimating spreadsheets, ensure your job shop program can integrate with them, although it’s best to integrate it all.

1. Can you start with a summary quote and add more detail later?
2. Can you easily copy information from existing quotes?
3. Can you automatically send the quote by fax or email?
4. Can you include CAD drawings and images with the quote?
5. Can you adjust profit margins at each quantity break?
6. Can you easily import quote data from external systems?