PREFERENCES
Use this form to set up your user preferences, system settings and default
values. We recommend you consider these settings carefully before using
Fast Estimate to price work.
This form applies to both single user and networked systems.
General
Currency Symbol - The currency symbol entered here will be used for the bill page column header and also in some reports.
Report Footer ID - Select whether to print your company name or your serial number at foot of printed reports.
VAT Percent - Enter the current VAT (tax) percentage to be applied to your schedules in order to calculate the total job price to your client. This value is applied to the Schedule Gross value to calculate the VAT component of the job for some tender documents.
For users outside the EU, this can be ignored or used to apply another percentage based added value added tax (The term VAT is easily edited in the tender documents where it is inserted as an optional data field).
Company Details
Your company details. Required for some tender and ordering documents.
Resource Types & Default Percentages
Use this form to set up the default (automatic) Overhead & Profit values for each of the Resource Types (Labour, material etc.).
You can also enter your own Resource TypesDefault Overhead & Profit Values - This is the most general application of O&P within Fast Estimate. Entering values here will apply this same value to all new schedules.
This feature is particularly useful for companies who normally apply the same overhead and/or profit to each job, or who have agreed with a major client that all jobs will be priced with a fixed profit margin.
Fast Estimate is supplied with 10 Cost Types, 5 of which are user definable (Supplied as UNUSED and may be renamed at any time).
You may also set up a default Overhead & Profit values for each of your Cost Types. This means that for all new library items, this value will be applied to the Net Rate.
Default Overhead% - Any value entered here will be automatically applied the any item using a resource of this Type
Default Profit% - Any value entered here will be applied to the Net Rate plus any Overhead to give a Gross Rate
Note: Item Overhead & Profit can of course be adjusted at the item level - these are simply 'auto' values to save you time.
Resource Type - You can change any of the UNUSED types to reflect any additional resource types you may need to more accurately reflect your cost breakdown e.g. Insurance, Management etc.
Schedule Types
You may find it useful to categorise your work by Type. There are up to 20 user-definable Types you can maintain from this form which can then be assigned to your Schedules
Default Item Font
You can apply different font attributes to item Descriptions at different levels in order to improve your bill page layout. These apply to ALL tables with items e.g. library pages, composite items, bill pages etc.
You can also apply different font attributes to your Schedule bill item reports to improve readability. See Schedule Properties for more details.User
Logon Options - Click on the boxes to select the options that suite the way you work.
Data Options - Round New Item Dims Calculations - Set this if you want all NEW dims calcs to be rounded to nearest whole number (existing calculation are unaffected).
Print Options - Show Date & Time - Switch on/off. Allow colour printing - Switch off if you prefer mono.
Notes
- Users running Fast Estimate through a network may have limited access to some settings.
- Take care when mixing item Description font and Report Font Size - the results can look odd if badly matched. Experiment with the different options to find the style that suits you best.