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Example - Quotations and Budgets

The Quotation register can be used to issue a quotation to the Customer and to keep a record of what was originally quoted. When the Quotation is accepted by the Customer, it can be linked to the resulting Project. Meanwhile, the Project Budget register can be used to keep a record of the labour and the Items that you estimate will be required to complete the Project. This is normally done by the project leader. This information can be copied from the Quotation. A Budget record can influence the invoicing of the Project and can later be used for comparison purposes, to test the efficiency of the quoting process. In this example, we will only use the Project Budget register.

The Project Budget screen shows that different types of Items can be treated in different ways.

The first two Items in the illustration were entered in the Item register as Service Items and therefore are treated as time spent. The sum of such Items is shown in the Sum Time field towards the bottom left of the screen. This figure will be treated as an estimate: from the two Invoice Time choices above the left-hand side of the grid, the Actual option has been selected. This means that Invoices will be created for the work actually carried out, not for the budgeted amount. So, when the work is carried out, the total shown here in the Budget record can be exceeded if necessary when invoicing.

The third Item in the illustration is a Plain Item. Each Plain Item can be treated as a Material or as a Purchase: this is determined using the Treat Item as Material on Project check box on the 'Pricing' card of the Item screen. The Plain Item in the example is a Material, so its total value is shown in the Sum Material field. This figure will be treated as a fixed amount that must be used when invoicing (from the two Invoice Material choices, the As Budgeted option has been chosen). This Item and amount will be included in the first Invoice to be raised for the Project.

The remaining Items (the stereo system, speakers and cable) are Stocked Items. Their total value is shown in the Sum Stocked field. Again, this figure will be treated as an estimate: from the two Invoice Stocked Items choices above the grid, the Actual option has been selected.