Estimating Trades, Parts and Other Costs

When you estimate you add:

The trades you will need for the work, and the estimated hours.
Costs other than labor or parts, such as transportation or administrative costs. You can add these costs by type to better track them.
The parts needed for the work, and how many. When you select a part, you also select a storage location. If the part is not available in the selected storage location, the status of the Part is set to "Not In Stock.' See Maintaining an Equipment Parts Inventory for more information.

Estimation and scheduling steps are always available for supervisors for any approved work request before it is issued. The estimation step is required only if the SLA for the work request defines it to be.

When working from the Building Operations Console, required steps have a red star to indicate they are required. When the estimation is required, the Issue button is not enabled until the estimation and any other required steps are done.
When working from a mobile device, if the estimation step is required by the SLA for the work, and you try to issue the work request before it is estimated, you get a message letting you know that you must first estimate the work.

Note: Once a work request is Issued, estimated hours and scheduling information cannot be changed. If the work is not yet Issued, the setting for the application parameter, EditEstAndSchedAfterStepComplete, determines whether or not supervisors and craftspersons can make changes to estimation and scheduling steps after these steps are completed. See Application Parameters for Using the Building Operations Console.

Note: Craftsperson assignments that contain estimated hours cannot be removed from an Issued work request. However, supervisors can edit craftsperson assignments by returning an Issued work request back to the A or AA status. See On Demand Work / Building Operations Console

Estimating parts and storage locations

When you use the Building Operations Console, your deployment is automatically set up for tracking parts in multiple storage locations. Storage locations can be whatever you define them to be. For example, a warehouse, a storage closet, and a craftsperson's car could all be storage locations.

If you do not have multiple locations to track, you can use the default location 'Main' for all parts.

When estimating parts needed for work, you must select a storage location for the part. There are several ways to make this selection:

When the part is available at the desired location, select the Part Code and Storage Location Code simultaneously from the Find Part form. This is described in the below procedure.
When the part is not available at the desired location, select a Part Code and Storage Location Code simultaneously from the Find Part form, and then change the Storage Location Code field to select the desired storage location. The part will be reserved to this location as Not In Stock. This is described in the below procedure.
Type in a Part Code (or use the auto-complete feature), then select a Storage Location Code, either by typing or using the Select Value – Storage Location form.
Use the map to find parts by location. See Finding Parts for Estimates Using the Map.

Note: The act of reserving parts that are Not In Stock (or any other status) will not initiate a storage location transfer. Storage Location transfers are the responsibility of the inventory manager in cooperation with the local storage location managers who should review inventory levels, and act when the level of parts is critical. However, you can add a part to inventory at the same time that you reserve it, if you have purchased the part yourself. See Reserving New Parts.

Returned estimates

If an estimate that you submit requires approval, and the approver rejects the estimate, it will show up in your queue, so that you can enter a new estimate. As the estimator, you can make changes or add information based on the approver’s comments.

Benefits of estimating

Estimating provides the following information:

Estimates the cost for doing the work. The application calculates estimated costs based on the hourly rate entered for the trade. You can see the estimated costs on the Work Request Details screen.

Note: If you first estimate the number of hours for the trades needed for a work request, and then later schedule the work by adding a craftsperson's estimated number of hours, the application uses the craftsperson's estimated hours to estimate labor costs, rather than the estimated hours you entered for the trade.
Reserves parts from the parts inventory so that the workers will have all parts needed for the job when they go to the site. To have the system reserve parts, you develop a parts inventory. See Maintaining an Equipment Parts Inventory.
Aids in scheduling work because the required trades and tool have already been determined.

Having this information helps you schedule work more efficiently, and to capture all costs associated with the work.

Results

Generate the Archived Work Requests by Trade report: By entering the trade required for the work, you can generate the Archived Work Requests by Trade report. This report shows the number of work requests for each trade by month for a selected year. This enables you to assess which trades might be over or understaffed.

Supervisors can estimate work from the Building Operations Console or from the Maintenance Mobile App.

Working from the Building Operations Console

Procedure

You can estimate a single request, or multiple requests at once if you are entering the same information for them.

You can work from any of these locations:

Bldg Ops Console - Estimate Work Request for either a single or multiple work requests
Bldg Ops Console - Work Request Details / Update Work Request
Mobile Maintenance Application: Update Work Request. Tap Estimate for a work request that is Issued or past Issued and then work from the Parts tab .
Mobile Maintenance Application  Estimate (Parts tab)

To estimate work requests:

From the Building Operations Console, locate the work for which you want to estimate trades, parts, and any other costs. You can estimate work that has been Approved, and you can select multiple requests.
Do one of the following:
- To update a single work request. click the Estimate button in the row for the request.
- To update multiple work requests, select the check boxes for the work, and click Estimate at the top of the console.
  The Estimate form appears.
Add Trade estimates:
1. In the Estimate Trades section, click Add Trade.
2. On the Add Trade form, click the Select Value button in the Trade Code field.
  The Select Value - Trade form appears.
3. Select the trade from the list.
  If the trade you need is not on the list, click here.
  1. In the Select Value - Trade form, click Add New at the bottom of the form.
    The Add New Trade form appears.
  2. Enter the Trade Code. This is a unique identifier for the trade. For example, enter Electrician-I.
  3. Enter the Trade Description. For example, for Electrician-I, enter Master Electrician.
  4. Enter the Hourly Rate for this trade. If you are using a trade that came with the sample data, and you are using trades to estimate costs, make sure that the hourly rate matches the hourly rate at your organization.
  5. Enter the Standard hrs. available/day. This is used on the Planning Board when you are clicking and dragging to assign craftspersons to work requests.
  6. Click Save.
4. On the Add Trade form, enter the Estimated hours.
5. Click Save.
Reserve Parts.
The Estimate and Reserve Parts section includes the Part Status, so you know whether the parts for that estimate are 'Reserved,' 'In Stock, Not Reserved,' or 'Not In Stock.' If an estimate has the status 'In Stock, Not Reserved.," you should review this estimate to determine if you want to reserve the parts for it.

Note: If an existing estimate has the Reserve button, this means that the estimate has the status 'In Stock, Not Reserved.' This status indicates that there are sufficient parts for this estimate, but not for all work needing this part. For this reason, you must determine how you want to distribute the limited number of parts. If needed, you can use the Reserve button to reserve the parts for this estimate. See Updating Part Estimates

To reserve a part that is available in the desired storage location:
1. Expand the Estimate and Reserve Parts section. and click Add Part.
2. Select the part you want to reserve.
3. In the Find Part form, click the Select Value button in the Part Code field, and select the Part Code-Storage Location Code combination in the list.
  The form closes, and the selected Part Code and Storage Location Code are copied into the Add Part form.
4. Enter the Quantity Estimated.
5. Click Save.
  The Part is saved to the Work Request (WRPT) for the desired storage location, and is given a Status of either Reserved or Not In Stock based on the Quantity Estimated and the Quantity Available of that part in that storage location.
  The Quantity fields are recalculated for that storage location and part in the Parts in Storage Locations (pt_store_loc_pt) table, as well as the Parts Inventory (pt) table.
To reserve a part that is not available in the desired storage location.
1. Expand the Estimate and Reserve Parts section. and click Add Part.
2. In the Find Part form, click the Select Value button in the Part Code field for the part you want to reserve. Even though you do not see the part listed at the desired location, select a Part Code-Storage Location Code anyway from the list.
  The form closes, and the selected Part Code and Storage Location Code are copied into the Add Part form.
3. Click the Select Value button in the Storage Location Code field
4. Find and click on the desired Storage Location Code.
  The form closes, and the selected Storage Location Code is copied into the Add Part form.
5. Enter the Quantity Estimated.
6. Click Save.
  The system creates a new record in the Parts in Storage Locations (pt_store_loc_pt) table for the selected Part and Storage Location.
  The Part is saved to the Work Request Part Usage (WRPT) table for the desired storage location, and is given a Status of Not In Stock.
  The Quantity fields are recalculated for that storage location and part in the Parts in Storage Locations (pt_store_loc_pt) table, as well as the Parts Inventory (pt) table.
To edit an existing part estimate:
1. Click on the estimate.
2. The Edit Part form appears.
3. Enter the Quantity reserved and click Estimate.
Add other costs. You can add costs other than labor, parts, and tools. For example, if the work requires a permit, you could enter that cost here.
1. In the Other Costs section, click Add.
2. The Add Other Costs form appears.
3. Select the Other Resource Type from the list to describe this cost. For example, select Administration, or Transport to describe costs associated with these activities. Enter a description of the cost in the Other Resource Description field.
4. Optionally, enter:
  A description of this cost.
  The quantity used.
  The units.
  The Estimated Cost per unit.
5. Click Save
The Summary of Costs section of the Estimating form is updated with the Other Cost information you have entered