Estimating
What this covers
Section titled “What this covers”Before work begins, a job has to be priced — and the price has to be something you can read, question, and defend line by line.
Two objects do that work, and keeping them apart is the whole of this page:
| Object | What it is | Where it is built |
|---|---|---|
| Estimate | The priced build-up, broken out by Cost Code with markups applied | Legacy KI (Estimating) |
| Proposal | The client-facing PDF the Estimate generates the pricing for | Legacy KI, assembled and uploaded in the Admin Portal |
A Legacy KI “Proposal” is a KI Estimate. The word proposal was reused for the client-facing document, which is why the rename is one of the three worth learning properly — see section 4.1.
There is no object in KI called a quote. Older documents and older pages on this site used that word for both of the above.
How an Estimate is built
Section titled “How an Estimate is built”Lines are organised by Cost Code. Every line is classified by Cost Code — the category that separates framing from plumbing from tile. That classification is what lets the Estimate, the budget, and the eventual actual cost be compared line for line instead of as three unrelated totals. A number on a proposal can be followed all the way through the project.
Markups are applied on the build-up, and the Estimate generates the pricing PDFs that go into the proposal.
Because the Cost Code library is shared across the company, past jobs price future ones: estimating a kitchen is easier when the last four kitchens booked their costs under the same classification.
Two PDFs, and the difference matters
Section titled “Two PDFs, and the difference matters”Every Estimate generates two documents, and sending the wrong one is the mistake this section exists to prevent.
| Document | Where it goes |
|---|---|
| Proposal (No Spread) | Logged internally. Never emailed. |
| Proposal, with spreading enabled | Sent to the client. |
Spreading distributes general conditions, general requirements, supervisory labour and markup into the line items rather than showing them as separate rows. The spread version is the client-facing document. Check which one you are attaching before you send anything by hand.
Proposals email from proposals@knottyiron.com and carry a single office phone
number. That address is a leftover from the name KI used to carry; see the
FAQ. If a client replies to a
proposal and the address looks unfamiliar, that is why.
Bidding
Section titled “Bidding”Pricing here sits behind a competitive bid. Invitations to Bid go out to subcontractors, their numbers come back, and bid tabulation compares them side by side to pick winners. All of it runs in Legacy KI, alongside the Estimating module itself.
Proposal templates and the trend log are Legacy KI screens too.
There is no Client Portal on this instance, so a proposal reaches the client outside KI and approval is not recorded against the record.
Related
Section titled “Related”- Contracts and change orders — what an approved proposal becomes
- Budgets and cost control — how priced lines become the cost plan
- Purchasing and vendors — the vendor side of a priced scope
- Part 2 — Objects and rules — Estimate, Proposal, Cost Code, and the financial rules