Updating the estimate and the orders

Approving a selection records what the client chose. It does not, by itself, change the estimate: the BOQ item still carries the product the estimator allowed for, and any purchase order raised from it carries that too. Update estimate is the step that makes them agree.

What it does

For each approved selection you tick, it copies into the BOQ item the selection was made against:

• the chosen product — the estimate prices from the product, so the item’s cost changes the moment it is written;
• the quantity, only where the selection’s quantity differs from the estimate’s. The BOQ item then carries it as a manual quantity, with wastage and rounding switched off, because the selection quantity is already the final figure.

And onto every purchase order line for that item that has not been sent: the product, the quantity and the product’s price.

It never changes whether an item is included in the estimate, the item’s markup, or any order that has already been sent.

Running it

Update estimate, under the Actions menu in the grid’s toolbar, shows a count of approved selections the estimate does not carry yet. Tick some rows first and use the same button in the bar that appears to limit it to those.

Before anything is written you see, for every eligible selection:

Column	Meaning
Estimate has	The product, quantity and value the BOQ item carries now
Selection	The product, quantity and value that will replace it
Change	The difference, pink when the estimate goes up

Underneath: the purchase orders that will be updated, and the sent orders that will not. The button reads Update estimate by +$1,234 — the total of the ticked rows — so the figure has to be read to be pressed.

Who can run it

Anyone with the module can preview. Confirming needs Edit permission on the costing, because it rewrites the estimate.

Afterwards

• The row shows an In estimate chip. It stays while the selection matches what was pushed; change the product or quantity again and the row goes back to Estimate not updated, and the count on the button goes up.
• Each pushed row gets a pushed entry in its history (the clock button): what the estimate had, what it has now, the orders that were updated, and — where the quantity changed — the quantity settings the BOQ item had before, so it can be put back by hand.
• The Approved – not in estimate yet filter lists whatever is still waiting.

Sent orders

A sent order is a document the supplier already has. The push lists it and leaves it alone. If the product on it has to change, do that from the order itself and re-send it; the order’s own match colour selection button pulls the approved product across.

The whole process

1. Estimate. The estimator prices the job and imports the categories that need choosing into the selections schedule — see Building the schedule.
2. Select. The interior consultant and the client make the choices, in the office or through the client’s link.
3. Approve. The builder approves each selection. Anything over its allowance is raised as a variation.
4. Update the estimate. Once approved, the selections are pushed into the BOQ items — with the change to the estimate shown and confirmed first.
5. Update the orders. The same push updates every purchase order that has not been sent. Orders raised afterwards pick the product up from the BOQ item.