A good quoting system for agencies and consultancies working on multiple projects is an essential part of any project estimation process. After all, the project estimate is the financial model of the job. If it's wrong you'll either upset the client with a huge quote or overruns and reduced profitability become inevitable.
Synergist's job estimating feature, which sits within the wider agency management software, provides you with all the following:
Definition: Estimates
Estimates in Synergist allow you to quickly build an accurate list of expected costs and corresponding target charge-outs for all elements of a job. This forms the internal project budget and drives the tracking of its financial health as you deliver it.
Definition: Quoting
Quotes are a client-facing version of the Synergist estimate. You send a quote to a existing or prospective client showing what costs would be involved for the work you propose to do for them.
The point of an integrated system is that it pulls essential parts of your business system together, aids efficiencies, reduces errors, saves time, avoids having to input data more than once, produces comprehensive reports and creates a logical process for managing it all.
Estimating and Quoting are a good example of this, because quotes can be directly generated from estimates and subsequently invoices created from quotes. This is a big time-saver and greatly reduces risk of errors.
There are several ways to pull the information from the estimate to the quote:
1. Quick Quote
This is a one-click option that brings the default estimate information through to the quote.
2. Build quote from estimate
This presents you with various choices such as using a standard system view, or a detailed view, or a summary view.
3. Advanced quote
This delivers several pop-up options:
Types of cost
Note that with Synergist you can add five types of cost to an estimate:
Estimate Revisions / Quote Options
These feature allows estimates & quotes to be saved as versions and later restored or compared to the current version as required. In addition lines can be edited, deleted, moved around or expanded to show more details. Items can also be marked as standard or option lines allowing for the typical flexibility required in quoting.
No more silos
Many businesses implementing Synergist show us that they previously handled estimates and quotes separately, often using spreadsheets. As quotes are legally binding, and reports lead to major management decisions, there is a great deal at stake in getting cost estimation and quotes right.
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