If you are like many estimators, you complete a Bid and then someone comes along and says they want a "simple change". For example, let us say you are a drywall contractor and you've finished your Bid. Originally, the client specified normal 5/8 inch drywall so you used the appropriate Material when building your Conditions. Once you've completed the Bid, however, you determine that although you priced 5/8" wallboard, you really needed 5/8" moisture-resistant wallboard, or the client comes back and says, "Can you change that to...".
Quick Bid makes it very easy to swap-out a Material for a similar Material, anywhere it is used in the Bid.
First, open the Material Tab.
In our example, we are going to work with "X58" (5/8" drywall board) and swap it out with "X58MR" (moisture resistant drywall board).
Locate the Material you want to swap out. In this case, you will notice we have four entries for X58 because there are four distinct sizes (4'x 8', 4'x 9', 4'x 10', and 4'x 12').
We will select the 4'x 9' size to start - if we click "View conditions in use" we can see in the Condition's Item Detail Grid where this Material/Size is used.
Right-click on the Material/Size you want to replace and select "Replace Material where in use"
If a selected Item is included in an eQuote, the option to Swap Materials is disabled.
The program displays a dialog box explaining the Material Swap matching rules:
Items to be swapped must match the following criteria:
- In the Item Detail, on the General tab, the Items must use the same Item Setup and UOM
- In the Item Detail, on the Calculation tab, the Items must use the same Condition Quantity for calculation (if the calculation method doesn't match, that's OK, the Item Detail Quantity will be set to "Manual" entry but the original Item Detail Quantity will be the same)
- In the Item Detail, on the Sizing tab, the Size Method must match
- In the Item Detail, on the Material Pricing tab, the Material Pricing Method must match
- In the Item Detail, on the Labor Pricing, the Labor Pricing Method must match
When you click Continue, you are presented with a Master Items list, filtered to Materials that are compatible replacements for the Material you are swapping out (Setup, UOM, Calculation, Sizing, etc.).
You can remove this filter by unchecking "Show matching items" but you cannot select any Item that doesn't match the criteria indicated above.
Highlight the Material you want to 'swap in' and click the Select button.
You will be given no further confirmation that the Material Swap will occur. Once you click Select, Quick Bid performs the Material Swap. If in doubt, click Cancel.
In our example, we selected X58MR and allowed Quick Bid to change the Material for the "4' x 9'" size only...
Additional Considerations
- Section, Labor Code, Item Detail Quantity, and Labor Production rates are not changed when Material Swap is used. We assume you set these the way you like and simply want to swap out one Material for another. You can go back and review each Condition to verify you are satisfied with the result.
- If the Item you are swapping a Material with does not have a matching size already, you will be asked if you want to add it:
This does not add the size to the Master Item, only to the Bid-level Item.
- If you choose "No", the Material Swap is canceled.
Seeing as we are on the topic of Materials and Labor, what happens if you are working on an older Bid and you know Material and Labor pricing has changed. You could edit the pricing on the Materials and Labor Tabs, however, if you simply want to update your Bid to match the database's current pricing, we make that easy, see the next article...
Making Adjustments to Materials Used, Suppliers, and Material Costs