Estimating

The estimate screen is where you can create and edit estimates for all your expected costs as a job or phase budget.
Estimates in Synergist are for you to predict your costs, recommended charge outs and profits, it is not an area that is designed to be shared with clients.

Time / material estimates can be created from the estimate tab of both job and phase via the quick estimate interface.  Purchase / expense estimates must be created via the estimate tab of a phase using the 'New' button.  This allows you to estimate for any type of cost one line at a time:

The Quick estimate option is for time and materials only, which opens up a new work area for you to pick from a list of all charge and material codes each in one go:

The top section of this interface allows the estimated items to be assigned to a specific resource.  You can switch between resources and add estimates for each in turn.  The charge code type drop down is a filter that can be used if you have a large number of charge codes and wish to limit the number displayed.  You can set up and assign charge code types in file maintenance.

Switch between the 'Time' and 'Materials' tabs in order to switch between time and material estimating.

At job level, the quick estimate interface allows time and materials to be estimated for every phase.  The screenshot below shows three phases, the number of charge codes displayed has been reduced to just those in the "Design" charge code type:

The estimate tab then displays these estimates alongside any actual costs that have been added.  The filter button allows you to adjust the appearance of the estimate by including certain narrative lines, such as phase description, and to show / hide certain types of cost.  You can also apply roll-up settings to different cost types.  All these display settings can then be saved as a view which can be applied easily via the 'Views' button.  Saving a view as default means that is is applied automatically to new estimates.

You may also have the 'Revisions' button where you can save and restore estimates.

The time and bookings view provides a simple in-line edit facility for time estimates which also allows visibility of time remaining to be booked, and an interface to create calendar bookings directly from the estimates.  Read more about this interface here.