Estimate a Basic Project

Estimate a Basic Project

Overview

Before you start

To add an estimate for a basic project:

1. Open Project and Job Costing > PJC Transactions > Contract Maintenance.

Click here for help on the fields on the Contract Maintenance form.

2. Use the Finder or the navigation buttons beside the Contract field to select the contract you want to work with, or type the contract code in the Contract field.

3. Use the tree to assign cost categories to the basic project.

   1. Expand the folder for the project (click the plus sign next to the project folder).

   2. Right-click the category folder, then click New Category on the menu that appears. The program displays the Category Maintenance form on the right side of the screen.

   3. In the Category field, enter the code for the category you want to add, or select it with the Finder.

   4. Click Add on the Category Maintenance form to add the Category.

4. For each assigned category:

1. On the contract tree, expand the project, and then click the category to display the Category Maintenance form.

2. On the Estimate tab:

1. Enter the quantity for the current category.

The program calculates the extended cost based on the specified quantity and the unit cost. (The unit cost and unit of measure from the category record are used as defaults, but you can change them.)

If you enter a different extended cost for a category, when you leave the field, the program recalculates the unit cost for the quantity you entered.

Note: Remember to include provision for taxes in the cost amounts.

2. Accept or change any additional information that is required for the estimate, such as the billing type or the overhead and labor amounts or rates.

For time and materials projects and for fixed price projects that use a billings and costs or accrual-basis accounting method, Project and Job Costing displays a billing rate according to the Default Billing Rate option specified for the Project. You can change the billing rate, and, if the project and category are both billable, you can change the billing type for a particular category.

The program calculates a default total revenue amount for the category according to the project type and accounting method .

3. If necessary, change the revenue amount for the category. If you change the revenue amount, the program recalculates the cost plus or markup percentage, or the billing rate.

In a multicurrency system, you enter the revenue amount in your functional currency. The program converts the revenue amount to the customer's currency, if it is different from your functional currency, using the exchange rate specified on the project's Totals tab.

3. Click the Accounts tab.

1. Ensure that the displayed accounts are the ones you require for this category.

   The accounts that appear and which ones you can change depend on the project type and accounting method.

   Depending on the project type and accounting method, the program displays the work in progress, cost of sales, payroll expense, employee expense, equipment, labor allocated, and overhead accounts from the account set you assigned to the contract.

2. If tax fields appear on the Accounts tab, enter the tax classes and the tax included status for the category.

   Tax information is required for fixed price projects that use the billings and costs or accrual-basis accounting methods — and a summary invoice type — and for cost plus projects that use the billings and costs, category percentage complete method, or accrual-basis accounting method.

4. If you use retainage accounting:

1. Click the Retainage tab.

2. In the Default Retainage From field, select Category or Vendor as the source for the default retainage options to use as defaults on payables invoice, debit note, and credit note details that use this project category.

3. If you specified Category in the Default Retainage From field, specify the retainage percentage and retention period to use for the project category.

5. If this is a labor category:

1. Click the Transactions tab.

2. Specify the default unit cost and, depending on the project type and accounting method, the billing rate settings to be used for this category in timecard details.

   The setting for the default unit cost is used for a timecard detail if the employee is not set up in Payroll. (The default unit cost for Payroll employees comes from the Payroll employee record.)

   The Default Billing Rate From option appears only for time and materials projects and for fixed price projects that use the accrual basis or billings and costs accounting method. You can specify a default billing rate whether or not the employee is set up in US or Canadian Payroll.

6. If you use optional fields, click the Optional Fields tab to check the optional fields that appear.

You can edit or delete any automatically inserted optional fields, and you can add different optional fields that you have defined for categories.

7. Click Save to save your estimate.

8. Click the Save button in the lower left corner of the Contract Maintenance form to save your changes to the contract.

After adding estimates

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