Building the schedule

Build the schedule before the client’s first selections appointment, not during it.

Rooms

Rooms, under the Actions menu in the grid’s toolbar (it opens when you hover), adds, renames and deletes rooms. Name them as the client does — Kitchen, Main bathroom, Ensuite, Laundry, Bed 1.

Use the room names from the drawings so there is no ambiguity about which bathroom is which.

An item can belong to more than one room — a floor tile usually does. The Rooms column shows where each item goes; click it, or the house button on the row, and tick the rooms. To put a set of items into a room in one go, tick them and use Add to rooms in the bar that appears. Switch the grid to By room and it lays the whole schedule out room by room, which is how a site walk happens; the room dropdown narrows it to one room at a time.

Categories

Add Category creates a category within a room. Category Name names it.

Group by the kind of decision, because that is how selections actually happen:

Tapware
Tiling
Benchtops
Cabinetry
Appliances
Flooring
Paint
Door hardware
Lighting and electrical

A client picks all the tapware in one conversation, not one tap per room.

Importing the items

Add Category and import items creates a category and brings in the BOQ items in one step. Add All and Add All Included bring in items in bulk.

Price List Heading and Look Up help find what you are importing.

Importing rather than typing is what keeps the schedule tied to what you priced. An item typed in by hand has no allowance behind it, so nobody can tell whether the client’s choice costs more than the contract carried.

Show the allowance

This is the thing that makes the whole schedule work.

Every PC and PS item should show what the contract allowed. A client choosing tapware needs to know they have $1,200 to spend, or they will choose $1,900 of tapware and be surprised by the variation.

State the allowance in the client-facing note

“Prime cost allowance $1,200 supply only. Selections above this will be adjusted by variation.” One sentence, on every PC item, and most selection disputes never happen.

Group Items

Group Items collects items for bulk handling — useful when reorganising a schedule that has grown, or moving a set of items between rooms.

Worked example

The Hendricks extension schedule, before the first appointment:

Room	Category	Item	Allowance
Kitchen	Tapware	Sink mixer	$340
Kitchen	Benchtops	Stone benchtop, 20mm	$3,200
Kitchen	Appliances	Oven	$1,400
Kitchen	Appliances	Cooktop	$900
Main bathroom	Tapware	Basin mixer	$280
Main bathroom	Tapware	Shower mixer	$320
Main bathroom	Tiling	Floor tile	$55/m²
Main bathroom	Tiling	Wall tile	$48/m²
Laundry	Tapware	Laundry mixer	$260

Nine decisions, each with a number against it. The client can work through it themselves, and every conversation starts from a known budget.

Before the appointment

1. Every PC and PS item is on the schedule.
2. Every one shows its allowance.
3. Products have images and URLs where you have them — see Products.
4. Items are grouped the way a person would choose them.
5. Anything with a long lead time is flagged in the note.

That fifth point saves jobs. A client taking three weeks to choose a cabinet with a six-week lead time has just moved your completion date, and the time to tell them is before they start deciding.