A user operating a sign and graphics business spends time and materials in some cases creating estimates for their customers, it could be design mockups, or smaller scale signs, etc. that are needed in order to bid on a project.

For those users interested in tracking the total costs associated with a project it is important to capture the costs attributed to the estimating phase of that project in addition to the actual order.

Previously, if users were interested in tracking the costs associated with an estimate they posted part usage cards for the estimate. When a user added these costs to an estimate, and then converted the estimate to an order - the actual costs remained on the estimate. This caused the total profitability of the order to be understated because the order did not include those actual costs from the estimate thus the actual costs on the order were artificially low.

The purpose of this project was to allow the transfer of actual costs from the estimate to the order/service ticket when the estimate is converted.

An option in Production > Production Setup > Part Usage Creation was added to support the ability to transfer actual costs from Estimates to Orders.

When an estimate is converted to an order (or Service Ticket), the following actions take place (though not necessarily in this order):

• All estimate line items (ELI) parts with actual costs are matched up with their corresponding order line items (OLI) parts.
• If the ELI part that had actual costs does not exist on the new OLI, that part is added as a manually added part.
• If there are multiple actual costs usage cards posted against any one line item part, they are consolidated into one total.
• A negative usage card is posted to the estimate for all actual costs against the ELI parts. The description on the activity or usage card will read “Costs transferred to Order #1234”.
• A positive usage card is posted to the order for all actual costs against the OLI parts. The description on the activity or usage card will read “Costs transferred from Estimate #1234”.
• The part cost as it is in the estimate will be used.
• The posted date of the part usage card on the order will be the date the estimate was converted to an order.