What does the Estimating and Costing module do?
The Estimating and Costing module helps you estimate the cost of manufacture of a part before you make it. It also calculates the actual cost of making each part.
Key features
- Constructs temporary bills of materials and manufacturing process layouts.
- Estimates costs for different works order quantities.
- Separates estimate information from production information.
- Calculates actual costs and compares with estimates.
Is it suitable for my business?
The module requires the Purchase order processing module. If you are using this module, then the Estimating and Costing module should be suitable.
Cost elements
The module works with the following cost elements:
Raw material costs
It obtains raw material costs from the Purchase order processing module. If an estimate requires a raw material you have not purchased before, you can create a temporary raw material in the part master file and obtain costs for it from your suppliers.
Machine and labour hourly rates
Sub-contract costs
Estimating
When you receive a request for quotation from a potential customer, you set up a bill of materials and a manufacturing process layout for the parts as though you are going to get the business. You mark this information as temporary, so that it does not appear in production reports. You can copy existing bills of materials and process layouts to speed up this process.
You next enter one or more order sizes, and the software will calculate a manufactured cost for each different order size, taking into account raw material volume discounts, and setting charges.
The software will add a percentage mark up to give a proposed selling cost if you wish.
Receipt of order
If you receive an order from your quotation, you can tell the module to convert the temporary parts, bill of materials, and process layouts into production information. You can make the estimated costs into the standard costs for that part and its raw materials at the click of a button.
Costing
When a works order is complete, the module will calculate its actual cost of manufacture based on the number of hours actually taken to perform each operation, and the actual purchase price of the raw materials used. It produces reports which compare actual costs with estimates.