New project estimate [in-depth guide] – Workamajig

In Workamajig, there are two kinds of estimates. There are campaign-based estimates and project-based estimates. In this section, the project-based estimate will be discussed.

We recommend creating estimates to set a target for the scope of work to be performed for the client. Any and all approved estimates become the budget. Estimates can be used for future reference to see if client proposals are correct, if the roles and assigned hours are defined correctly, and discover where your budget bottlenecks are. They can also be used to compare estimated vs. actuals to update and refine project templates to more accurate resourcing & estimating of future projects.

The idea of the project estimate is to allow you to provide an estimated target of labor & expenses for the project. You are able to create as many estimates as needed for a project, however, there is a transaction preference that can be set to only allow one approved estimate per project. Once an estimate is approved, this will be used as the project budget.

In the Estimate screen, you are further able to differentiate your estimates by checking the Change order box. This will allow you to track changes in the scope of the project. All estimates without this checked will be considered "original" budgets. All estimates with this checked will be considered "change order" budgets. This allows you to analyze the current budget. The current budget is made up of all approved estimates - original, change order, and/or additional estimates.

To gain the most benefit from Workamajig, we recommend that your estimate be based on your defined timeline and labor services/roles (task & service).

Since project estimates can be preset on project templates, you gain the added benefit of creating estimates based on project type. However, the client default settings typically dictate what labor rate & expense markup to apply to estimates copied from a template.

Add a project estimate

Open the project from any area or link: Project manager today>Views>Projects; Global search or Global views.

From the Project dashboard>Project setup: Click the Estimate tab

All existing estimates for the project will appear in a grid view

Select the plus sign to add a new estimate.

New estimate

There are four sections to estimates: Header info, Labor details, Expense details, and Settings.

Enter the project/estimate header information

Estimate name: Enter a required name for the estimate. By default, the project name will be used.

Change order: Check if this is a change order estimate. Leave unchecked if a regular estimate. By default this is unchecked.

Estimate type: Select the estimate type as described below:

NOTE: New estimates are set to the default estimate type of by task & service.

By task and service: Set by default. Based upon the scheduled tasks that are tracking budgets & expenses, this type allows you to select when and where each role will participate in the project. Expenses will also be tracked to specific tasks. Benefit: It allows you to push assignments to specific people on specific tasks. Also, it provides most reporting detail. The labor billing rate is based on project setup settings.

By task only: Based upon the scheduled tasks that are tracking budgets and expenses, it allows you to enter the number of hours and a blended rate on each task. There is no connection to specific labor Roles. Expenses will also be tracked to specific tasks. Benefit: this allows you to create a # of hours and $ amount per task estimate.

By Service Only: Based upon the designated labor Roles for the project, allows you to enter the number of hours per role. There is no connection to a specific task for labor. Expenses can be tracked to specific tasks. Benefit: This allows you to create a role-level estimate. Labor billing rates are based on project setup settings.

By task and person: Based on the scheduled tasks that are tracking budgets & expenses, and designated project team members. Labor is calculated based on the person and has no connection to roles. Expenses & labor are tracked to specific tasks. Benefit: This allows you to create a # of hours and $ amount per person & task. Labor billing rates are based on the billing rate set on the staff/freelance record.

Internal approver: select the person that will approve the estimate for your company. The default is the account manager of the project

Internal approval due date: if an internal approver is set to anyone other than the account manager, this allows a due date for the approval process to be set.

External approver: select a contact at the client company responsible for approving the estimate.

NOTE: If a name is entered, that person must approve the estimate for the estimate to be fully approved. Most will leave this section blank.

After saving the initial entry, use '...More' to open Estimate settings to edit name, description, approver, & other fields. You cannot edit 'type' after the initial save.

Enter the labor details

While you can key in all the details manually, the way is to have the schedule built prior to creating an estimate. So if your schedule is full of tasks with services assigned & allocated Hours, then using the Pull from schedule button at the top of the estimate will streamline this process to the push of a button.

Manual entry - Click Labor amount, task, and the number of hours per service expected to work on that task.

For more on this feature, please refer to the Pull from schedule [in-depth guide] .

Enter the expense details

Each expense on a project is entered as a separate item in the estimate. You can tie each estimated expense to either an item or a task depending on the options selected in the system.

To add a new expense:

In the Task box, enter the task on the project to relate this estimate to. This may be required depending on your selected options.
In the Item ID box, enter the item ID to tie this expense to. This may be required depending on your selected options.
In the Vendor ID box, you can enter the vendor ID for the company that you will purchase this item from. This is not required but makes generating purchase orders from your estimate faster later.
In the Class ID box, you will need to enter a class ID if a class is required on your purchases. If you do not require a class on transactions, you do not have to enter this. The class ID gets transferred to the purchase order when you generate a PO from an estimated item.
Enter a short description of the expense.
Enter a long description of the expense if you wish to relate more explanation of the expense to a client on the estimate.
Select Tax 1 if sales tax 1 applies to this expense.
Select Tax 2 if the sales tax 2 applies to this expense.
Select the Billable option if this expense is billable to the client.
If you have selected Allow multiple quantities on the estimate, you will see one set of boxes for quantity, unit cost, UOM, net, markup, and gross for each option. If you have not selected the Multiple quantity option, you will see only one set of boxes for the amounts.
Click Save to save the expense to the estimate.

Verify the settings of the estimate

Details

In the Primary contact drop-down, select the contact name that this estimate is for. This field allows you to select an address from the contact when printing the estimate.

In the Estimate date text box, enter a specific date you would like to appear on the estimate. If this is left blank, the system will use the date when it is printed.

In the Delivery date text box, enter a delivery date for this project. If the date is left blank, it will not appear on the printed estimate.

From the Layout drop-down, select the Layout defined under the Menu > Admin > System setup > Time & billing > Estimate layouts.

From the Sales tax drop-down, select a value from the sales tax codes defined in the system setup

From the Sales tax 2 drop-down, select a value from the sales tax codes defined in the system setup. The sales tax setup on an estimate works the same as the sales tax on an invoice.

Use the Labor taxable drop-down to select if labor should be considered taxable on this estimate. You can select:

Not taxable to exclude labor from the tax calculation
Taxable by task to have the system look at each task to determine if that specific task is taxable.
Taxable by project to have the system consider all labor as taxable on the project.
Use the lookup to select an internal approver for the estimate. There must always be an internal approver, but not necessarily an external approver. If no external approver is selected, the estimate is automatically approved when the internal approver approves the estimate.
Once the estimate has been sent for internal approval, you can enter a due date in the Internal approval due date text box. If you leave it blank, it will not trigger a notification for the estimate being late. If you enter a date and you are subscribed to get the overdue budget notification, you will receive an email when the due date for this estimate passes and it has not been approved.
Use the Lookup to select an external approver for the estimate. The lookup is restricted to contacts in the system that work for the client specified on the project. If the person selected has not been granted access to the project, they will be when you select them. After the estimate has been approved by the internal approver, it will be sent to the external approver to review. This person can log onto the system and print the estimate. They can then either approve or reject an estimate with comments. If an estimate has multiple quantities, they will be prompted to choose a specific quantity option that they are approving.
Once the estimate has been approved internally, you can enter a due date in the External approval due date text box. If you leave it blank, it will not trigger a notification for the estimate being late. If you enter a date and you are subscribed to get the overdue budget notification, you will receive an email when the due date for this estimate passes and it has not been approved.
In the Description text area, enter an optional description for the estimate.
In the Labor contingency box, enter a percentage labor contingency that you would like to add to your estimates. The system will calculate a percentage of all labor on the estimate and show this amount as a separate line below the total for the estimate. The text that is shown on the estimate is specified in the estimate template.
Select the Allow multiple quantities box if you would like to enter different quantity options for your expenses. This option will allow you to enter up to 6 different options for your expenses. In the boxes below, enter the labels as you would like them to appear on the estimate.
The Estimating services list shows the selected services for this estimate. If you click the Pencil icon, you can edit which services are used and what rate is used for that service.
The labor hours, total labor, net expenses, gross expenses & sales tax amount will be automatically totaled by the system.
Click the Save button.
Once the estimate has been saved. the contents of this screen will vary according to the estimate type & template that you have chosen.

Summary

The summary shows an estimated profit of just this estimated amount.

Notifications

You can add additional users to be emailed the estimates change in approval status.

Approving an estimate

From the top of the estimate, click the Approve button. This will cause the estimate amounts to reflect on the project's budget page and also in project budget reports.