Tutorial: review and price a takeoff
A small lighting and power job priced step by step: labour, a fit time, your company's cable rules, markup, discount, fee and a Simpro price tier.
Chapters
What you'll learn
- Set labour hours on a line, and the labour rate from Simpro
- Add a fit time to every run of an item with Apply to all
- Switch your company's cable rules on for one takeoff
- Markup, discount, fee, a price tier and tax, down to the total and margin
Each step below has a ▶ time: it plays the video from that step.
The steps
- New project: name the job, choose the customer and site, and drop in the plan; its sheet number and scale are read off the drawing. On the last step, untick Run AI takeoff when the board opens and choose Open board. See Start a takeoff from plans.
- Choose the Count tool (C): the Add Count items panel opens. Tick the downlight and the double power point in your Simpro catalogue and choose Add 2 items; the downlight is ready to place, so click each one. For the power points, choose Count again and pick them under In this takeoff. Then choose Length (L), add the cable, and click along each circuit from the comms room, pressing Enter at the end of each run. Every item brings its trade price, sell price and install time from Simpro. See Counting and Lengths and drops.
- Open 2 Review and price. The Labour column is hours for each one, from the item's estimated time in Simpro. Type a new number to change it for that line; the line shows its hours and labour, and the summary updates.
- In Pricing settings, choose a Labour rate from Simpro. Its sell and cost per hour appear under Sell / cost per hour, where you can also type them.
- For a harder install, click the item's line to jump to it on the plan. In the Selection panel set Fit time (for example Difficult access (×1.25)). With Apply to all ticked, every mark of that item gets it. Then go back to 2 Review and price.
- Company rules applied lists your company's rules and what each adds. Switch a rule on or off for this takeoff only, for example Round cable up to full 100 m drums: the cable's total rounds up to whole drums, shared across its runs, and each line says what the rules added. Your company settings don't change.
- Type Markup %, Discount % and Fee %. Each appears as its own row in the summary.
- Choose a Price tier: every catalogue line is re-priced from that tier in Simpro, and a message says how many lines changed. Lines with no price in the tier keep their catalogue price.
- Type the tax estimate in the summary. The summary shows Materials, Labour with its hours, markup, discount, fee, tax and the Total, with your Cost and Margin (red under 25%). When it's right, 3 Create quote sends it to Simpro: see Send to Simpro.
More to watch
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