Process Questions

[cpot25]

I've got a question for anyone out there willing to answer.

How are other companies processes working with regards to quoting/estimating/pricing? I feel like our system is broken and i'm not sure if it's just us or maybe someone has re-invented the wheel.

Our current process is sales/business development gives our estimator a sign package which includes drawings, quantities and location of install. From this, he prices everything and then writes a sell price on the drawing. If there's 10 pages in the package with 10 different sign types then each page will have it's own price and then we plug that information into quickbooks. This tends to lead to lost paper and then no record of the estimator pricing like he did.

Are there better ways?

 

[Rick]

I'm assuming you are an Architectural Sign Shop...

We started out by developing a documentation process based on the SEGD model.
It starts with developing sign types... for instance Apartment Signage usually has a variety of signs.

Sign Type A - Exterior Identity
Sign Type B - Exterior Wayfinding/Vehicular
Sign Type C - Exterior Operational
Sign Type D - Interior ID - ADA/Code
Sign Type E - Amenity/Operational/ID - Non-code related
Sign Type F - Fire Code Related
Sign Type P - Pool Code Related

The sign types are the page numbers so a monument might be

A01.00 for the monument design
A01.01 for the photo or 3D rendering
A01.02 for the construction details

On the location plans the monument would be:

A01 and depending on how many monuments, followed by the quantity number so if there were 5 monuments the last location would be A01.05

Same thing goes for the message schedule.

Once that is done. Your estimator can refer to Sign Types instead of pages, when looking at location plans and message schedules, the sign types should make it easier to refer to the design... we also color code.

Then your estimator can write out the referenced sign types instead of scrawling them on the pages. When they are emailed, you have a record of it.

We also keep records and database on Excel and Filemaker Pro so that if signs are similar, it make estimates a lot easier.

 

[cpot25]

Thank you for the detailed response. We are an architectural sign company and it's funny that you used apartments because a lot of our business is multi-family. We have a system for sign types, (SRP for Support Room Plaque, ISI for Inner Stairwell, etc) so that's working beautifully. We are also using Filemaker as it pretty much runs out business, outside of any financial data which is still housed within Quickbooks, but we don't use a system so similar sign types could be priced differently depending on several factors.

I do like the potential for sending emails and just using the sign types within the body of the email which allows us to have a record of it. It does seem somewhat archaic but probably pretty effective.