GUARANTEED GREAT IDEAS! Estimating Tips from Real Clients & Profits Users These Clients & Profits users share their tips on how they manage estimating better: Clone, clone clone. Cloning makes an exact duplicate of an existing job, down to the estimate amounts and disclaimer. Jobs that are repetitive (or typical) can have their specs, job tasks, task notes, budgets, and estimates cloned into new jobs. Cloning jobs is much faster than adding a new job, and any part can be changed once it is saved. -- Wendy Brock, Aller & Rasmussen, Salt Lake City, Utah Plan for contingencies. Estimating is not a perfect science. That's why there's contingencies. The contingency option alleviates the need for having to document small increases to estimated costs. In situations where even the contingency is exceeded, but be sure to add change orders. -- Shawn G. Zwilling, Axcess Group, Atlanta, Georgia Showing "No Charge" Tasks. A no-charge task may be added to an estimate for different reasons: To show a client-paid cost, to highlight a task with costs included elsewhere, or because you may not know it is real estimate amount yet. The job's Estimate Option window includes a field labeled "show zero as" just for this purpose. Any text entered into this field will appear on the printed estimate on tasks without estimates. -- Danni Sandroni, Merkel Schleicher, Orlando, Florida

Q. How do I show sales tax on estimates?

Sales tax is calculated from the estimate amounts for each job task. Each task has a sales tax setting, either taxable or non-taxable, for one or two different sales taxes. The sales tax settings are copied from the Task Table to the job ticket every time a new task is added. The job task's sales tax settings can also be edited. The sales tax rate is copied from the client account. When the estimate is printed, you'll see asterisks indicating taxable job tasks.

Q. We frequently add the same tasks to new job tickets. Is there a shortcut?

Yes! Job templates can be created that contain standard selections of tasks. The job template is part of the job type/spec sheet, so you can set up dozens of different templates. When a job is added, you'll be prompted to choose a job type. When the job is saved, the template's tasks will be copied automatically. Of course, job tasks can be added, edited, or removed from a job ticket later.

Q. We print estimates on a laser printer. How can we print several copies of the same estimate?

Up to five separate copies of an estimate can be printed by entering distribution names in the job's Estimate Options window. Then choose the "print distribution copies" option when the estimate is printed. A separate estimate will be printed, with the distribution name (such as AE, Client, Job Jacket, etc.) appearing at the bottom of the page.

Q. Can estimates be faxed directly from Clients & Profits?

Yes! With a modem and fax software like GlobalFax by Global Village, it's easy to fax estimates (and any other report) directly from Clients & Profits. In fact, any report can be printed directly to a fax machine--it's no different than printing to a laser printer. On a Mac, most fax programs let you choose the fax by holding down the Option key (or something equivalent to the Option key) then choosing Print... from the File menu. In some cases, however, some reports are printed without choosing Print from the File menu (for example, reports printed from Lookup windows). In these cases, choose your fax software in the Chooser first. Once chosen, any report will be printed directly to the fax. When you're finished faxing, open the Chooser then select your regular printer. In Windows, make the fax driver the default printer then print normally.

Q. Is there a program that would spell check Clients & Profits?

Yes. A spell checker is built into Clients & Profits Classic 4.0, Clients & Profits Pro 4.0, and Job Tracker 4.0. Spell checking can be added to older versions of Clients & Profits using third-party applications such as Spelling Coach Professional by Deneba Software. It costs less than $100 and checks your spelling as you type, so it works with any program (including E-mail). Call Deneba at (305) 596-5644.