Fixed Cost & Piecework Assemblies

How do I enter an assembly for a fixed price or piece work rate?

Goldenseal estimating software lets you calculate simple fixed price unit costs. You may want to set up a fixed cost Assembly in any of the following cases:

  • A subcontractor charges you an exact price per square foot or per other unit.
  • You have subcontractors doing piecework at a fixed price per unit.
  • You do piecework for others at a fixed cost per unit.
  • You have a "rule of thumb" price that you want to match exactly.

There are several ways you can enter a fixed price or piecework Assembly:

Using a Subcontractor Cost Item

The fastest way to set up for fixed price work is to create a simple Cost Item for the work, and then use that in your estimate. To do so, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Cost Items from the Costs menu.
  2. Click the New button.
  3. Type in a brief name for the work.
  4. Enter Subcontractor into the Cost Area popup field.
  5. Enter the piecework cost into the Purchase Price field on the right.
  6. Fill in any other fields that apply to the item.

When you want to include the item in an estimate, enter Subcontractor into the Cost Area column, then enter the item into the Cost Item column.

NOTE-- If the price changes, you'll need to open the Cost Item and type in a new price. The line item of work will not include any time for schedules, or materials for the Bill of Materials report.

Adjusting Assemblies to a Fixed Price

If you want to get reasonable schedule timing and material lists, you can make an assembly with regular labor and material components, and then "tweak" the quantities until it calculates the exact price you want. To do so, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Assemblies from the Costs menu.
  2. If there is already an Assembly that is similar to the one you want, duplicate. If not, click the New button create a new Assembly.
  3. Enter basic info about the assembly in the top part of the screen.
  4. In the component table, add one or more labor Cost Items and put in your estimate of the labor time required.
  5. Also add any materials you need for the work.
  6. Take a look at the Gross Price field. Is it higher than the fixed price you want, or lower?
  7. Adjust the labor hours, material quantities or material waste factors until you get the price you want.

This method takes more time than the simple cost item, but it will include a reasonable amount of time in your project schedules, and it will give you an accurate material list in the Bail of Materials report.

NOTE-- If the price of the components change, then the cost of the assembly will also change. That may be a good thing if you think the subcontractor may change their rate, but the next choice is better if you want the price to always stay the same.

Using Manual Markup

To keep a constant price for an item, you can use a Markup System that includes manual pricing, so you can type in a cost rather than having Goldenseal calculate it for you.

To use manual markup, follow these steps:

  1. Set up an Assembly with labor and material components, as described in the previous section.
  2. Click on the Markup System field, and enter Manual Pricing**.
  3. Goldenseal will let you type in a fixed amount for the resale, project and component prices. This price will stay the same even if component prices change.

** If you don't see a Manual Pricing markup system in the list, you can import it. Follow these steps:

  1. Click the manual markup link and save the text file onto your hard drive.
  2. Open your Goldenseal file.
  3. Choose Import from the File menu, and choose Other Update from the submenu.
  4. Locate the file you saved in step 1, and import it.

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