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IntelliQuote for Windows is a cost estimating program for your Windows PC. Although written specifically to address the needs of the metal fabrication industry, it can be customized to allow the user to estimate the amount of hours and dollars to produce any product.
IntelliQuote was written by Dale C. Murley who has been involved in computer aided cost estimating since 1980 when he wrote his first computer aided cost estimating program for use on the original IBM PC.
IntelliQuote is supported on several computer platforms, including Windows CE Handheld PC and Palm-sized PC, and Windows 95/98. The official distribution site is: http://www.DCMsoftware.com
Disclaimer of Warranty and Limited Warranty: This software (including instructions for use) is provided 'as is' without warranty of any kind. Further more, DCM Consulting does not warrant, guarantee, or make any representations regarding the use, or the results of the use of the software or instructions in terms of correctness, accuracy, reliability, currentness, or otherwise. The entire risk as to the results and performance of the software is assumed by you. If the software or written materials are defective you assume the entire cost of all necessary servicing, repair, or correction.
Copyright 1999 by Dale C. Murley
Main Options
New: When you press this button, the current quote data will be erased, allowing you to start with blank fields. If previous to this, you had a quote loaded, a few of the fields such as customer and quoted by will remain with the previous information. Rate, Hour, and Material markup factors are all reset to a value of 1.
Open: Selecting this option will display the Open Quote form. You may either open the quote filename directly, or search the database of quotes for the one you want. The selected quote will replace all of the present quote data.
Save: Press this button whenever you wish to save the current quote data. The current quote will be saved under the name contained in the field 'Quote filename' found in the 'Heading' menu. After saving the quote, a message box will appear informing you that the quote was saved.
Rept: Selecting this button will cause the report form to be displayed. You may select from any of the report options which will generate a report based on the current quote and open up the report editor in case you wish to print the report or make changes to its content.
?: Press the Help button whenever you need more information on a topic. IntelliQuote will attempt to display what it feels is the most relevant information relating to the current menu you have displayed. You can also browse the contents of the entire help file if the default topic does not sufficiently answer your question. For Windows 95/98 users, press the "F1" key to open up the help file.
Heading
Quote filename: In this field you enter any legal Windows filename where the quote data will be saved. By default the program assigns a filename based on today's date. You may choose to add an ending such as "-01", "-02", etc. to distinguish the various quotes created on this date.
RFQ Id: At times the customer requesting the quotation will provide you with a reference code that they may want you to refer to in the quote submission.
Date: The date the quote is created. When beginning a new quote, the current system date is automatically entered here.
Customer: You may enter the customer's name here, or choose from the customer list if you have created one. (see help section on Databases).
attention: If the quote is to be directed to the attention of someone specific at the customer's business, place the name here.
part number: You may enter any characters in this field that identify the part you are quoting. Oftentimes you will put the drawing no. if you are quoting from a blueprint.
description: If you like, enter a description of the item you are quoting to help to identify it.
quote by: The name of the person quoting this item.
del'y date: The date the is expected to be delivered. You may enter any characters is this field. (ex. 4 weeks A.R.O., 01/01/2000, ASAP )
Labor
Select Operation: From this pull down list select the labor operation you wish to quote. Until you make a selection, some of the other options on this menu will be disabled.
N (notes): Selecting this button will cause the Notes form to open up, which will allow you to key-in notes that you wish to accompany the current operation.
H, M, S (units): This command button is used to change the unit of time you are using to quote the current operation. If it displays 'H' (hours), by pressing this button the units will change to 'M' (minutes). Pressing another time will change to 'S' (seconds). If you select it again, it will change back to 'H'.
Setup: in this box, you may enter the time allotted for Setup of the current operation. Once the cursor appears in this box, you may see the 'WIZ' button highlighted which would indicate that there is a Wizard available to use with this operation. Each operation MUST have a value for setup time.
Run: in this box, you may enter the time allotted for Running each part of the current operation. Once the cursor appears in this box, you may see the 'WIZ' button highlighted which would indicate that there is a Wizard available to use with this operation. If there is no run time, you may leave this field blank.
List box of operations: As you 'Accept' each new operation, a description of the operation is added to the list box. By selecting an item from this list, you may edit the time value or remove it from the quote.
Accept: When this button is enabled, pressing it will add the current operation to the quote. If you have not entered a time value for this operation, it will be disabled. If you are currently editing a labor operation, when you press 'Accept' the new values will be saved.
Edit: If you have selected a an existing operation, by selecting this button, you will be able to change time values associated with this operation.
Material
Select Material: From this pull down list select the purchased material you wish to quote. Or you may enter the description of a Custom material. Until you make a selection, some of the other options on this menu will be disabled. In order to change the description of a Custom material, you must first erase it.
N(notes): Selecting this button will cause the Notes form to open up, which will allow you to key-in notes that you wish to accompany the current operation.
Cost: Each, Lot: This option button is used to indicate if the material cost applies to each individual part, or the entire lot of parts. If it applies to the Lot, then the cost will be divided by the quantity of parts being quoted.
List box of materials: As you 'Accept' each new material, a description of the material is added to the list box. By selecting an item from this list, you may edit the dollar value or remove it from the quote.
Wizard: If a wizard has been created to quote the current material you will see the 'WIZ' button highlighted which would indicate that there is a Wizard available to use with this item.
Accept: When this button is enabled, pressing it will add the current material to the quote. If you have not entered a time value for this operation, it will be disabled. If you are currently editing a material, when you press 'Accept' the new dollar values will be saved.
Edit: If you have selected a an existing material, by selecting this button, you will be able to change dollar values associated with this item.
Totals
Qty: In this column, key-in the quantity of parts you are quoting. You may enter up to 5 different quantities to quote. As you enter or change the quantity of parts, the dollar and hour values will automatically be updated.
Hrs: Selecting this button will cause the display to change, now showing you the hours associated with this quote. Afterwards the text on the button will change to '$' which if depressed will again show you the dollar values associated with this quote.
Options
The options available are divided into the following menus.
Getting Started
Getting started after registering your copy:
As soon as you run IntelliQuote after having entered your name, company and access code, you will no longer be using the sample databases for: Customers, Labor Operations, and Materials. For that reason you will immediately be reminded of the need to create these databases. We recommend that you do this immediately. Also, the report text heading that appears on the reports needs to be changed to reflect your company's name and address.
Creating a Customer list:
Select the tab labeled "Options" then select "Tools". Now select the button labeled "Customers".
This will open up a new form that will display various options for creating and editing your Customer database.
To add new customers:
Type in the "Customer Name". Now assign this customer a number from 1 to 32000. This number will become an "ID code" that refers to that particular customer. When you are satisfied that the customer name and ID code are what you want, press the button labeled "Add as New". Immediately this item will be added to the pull-down list box at the top of the form. Use the above procedure to add all the customers you wish to add. If you wish to make any changes to customers you have added, use the pull-down list to select the customer you wish to change or remove. To make changes, after selecting simply key-in the new information for name or ID. Then select the button "Replace Old" to replace the previous customer information with this new information. If you wish to completely remove a customer from your database, after selecting it from the list-box, press the button labeled "Remove".
After you are finished adding or editing customer information, select the button "Done" which will save all the changes and additions you have made. Important: If you close this form without pressing "Done", any changes you had made will be disregarded and the original database will remain intact.
Creating a Labor Operations Database:
Select the tab labeled "Options" then select "Tools". Now select the button labeled "Operations".
This will open up a new form that will display various options for creating and editing your operations database.
The procedure for adding or editing Labor operations is very similar to that of adding Customers. The only significant difference is that there are more pieces of information to enter for each operation. For that reason we will only consider the unique features associated with adding Labor Operations.
When Adding operations, you must key-in a: "Description", an "ID Code", the "Rate" (in dollars per hour that will be charged for this operation.). You must also select the default "time units" that will be used to quote this operation. Of course at the time of actually quoting the operation you may select a different time unit than the default units.
The boxes labeled "Setup Wizard" and "Run Wizard" are for reference only and under normal circumstances you should not add or remove any information contained in these two fields.
One very important consideration has to do with assigning the "ID Code" to each operation. When you are creating quotes, the labor operations are presented by order of the ID code for each operation. In other words, operations with lesser code values are presented before operations with greater numeric value. These numbers must be whole number values between 1 and 32000. You must not use the same ID code for two different operations. Also, once you have assigned an ID code to an operation you should NEVER change that code number. For this reason you should plan your code assignments ahead of time to prevent the possible future need to change a code for an operation. It is therefore suggested that you allow "space" between operation codes. For example if you assign the ID code "100" to your first operation, perhaps you would use the code "110" to your second operation. This way you could always add new operations between any existing operations.
One other important feature we have not yet mentioned is the ability to create helpful notes that are associated with each operation. To take advantage of this feature, after keying-in your description and ID code, press the button labeled "?" found near the Bottom of the form. This will cause a small form to open up which has a box where you can enter any type of notes that may be of aide to you in quoting this operation. Once you have entered all the notes you want, press the "Save" button located on this form. After you have finished entering all the information for this operation select "Add new" to add this new operation to the list box. Once you have finished all your additions or changes remember to select "Done" which will save this information to the operations database.
Creating a Materials Database:
Select the tab labeled "Options" then select "Tools". Now select the button labeled "Materials".
This will open up a new form that will display various options for creating and editing your materials database.
The previous instructions that applied to editing the Labor operations database also apply to the Materials database.
Changing the Report Heading Text:
Select the tab labeled "Options" then select "Report". Now select the button labeled "Edit Report Text".
This will open up a new form that will display various opens for creating and editing the text values that appear on the various reports.
Select the item you wish to change, and key-in the text you would like to appear. When finished, select "Done" to save any changes you have made. The values for "Report Title", "Introduction", and "Quote ending" only apply to the "Quote" report that is intended to send to your customer. The other values apply to all the reports.