Following up our last Tip of the Month article regarding freight, encountering irregular items can often be a challenge when compiling your SI Project bids. Thankfully, SI v21 gives your team options on how to handle these elusive values such as equipment rental, per diem, travel expenses, fuel surcharges, etc.
The question of how you determine which SI method is best could hinge on what data from the so-called irregular items you need to list for your client in your Project report. Meaning, do you need to show your client a daily rate, a total aggregated value, or perhaps a single total for all such irregular or odd items. We’ll review a few scenarios and mention some aspects of the related functionality for your consideration.
What are some of these oddball or irregular items that teams typically need to include?
Last month’s entry explained freight values are perhaps the most commonly included oddity or irregular item that we typically encounter so, if you haven’t read that article, please click here to catch-up on it.
Beyond freight, equipment rentals seem to be another of these odd values that need to be included in either, the initial project bid, or in a follow-up change order. So what’s the best way to handle that?
-Misc. Items: Perhaps the easiest and most straightforward method in SI is to use a Project’s Misc. Item to include such evaluations related to daily or project-long equipment rentals.
In case you’re not quite familiar with this mechanism, please these steps:
In a Project, click on the New icon in the Project ribbon:
From the drop-down menu there, select Misc Item and you’ll see this overlay:
Your team only need to fill in the details for the values as seen above here. What’s great about this is that you can simply enter the price (or estimated price) in the full amount. Or, you could consider something of a daily calculation and then set the quantity accordingly.
As you see in the image above here, the value is compounded at a daily rate.
The Compute option (seen below here) also presents our users with the ability to create a formula for such allocations:
Now the corresponding presentation in your report(s) could be something like this:
Keep in mind this is the default report presentation and this can certainly be customized for your team’s specific needs.
Other methods or suggestions for adding these types of rental fees are as follows:
-A catalog item (Product or Labor): Now this method is an interesting consideration as it allows for some creative methodology as well. Meaning, you could certainly just enter the Unit Cost and Unit Price
but you also have the ability to use the Calculated pricing option as well.
Again, you can source various data fields from the Project in order to generate your amount. Once pricing is established, you can adjust the quantities of the item as well to suite you Project bid needs:
-A Price Adjustment (Product, Labor, or MISC): If your team is not already using Price Adjustments, then these are at your full disposal as well.
Once your percentage is added, it could result in something like this in your reports:
A few pointers to keep in mind when using these above options:
1. By default, Project Misc. Items are not taxable in either the SI Project or in the resultant reports. This of course is ideal as most rental fees are usually considered reimbursement amounts.
2. Catalog items, be they Products or Labor values, can be set for taxable or non-taxable consideration:
This designation can be found in the lower left corner on the Price tab when you open any item for editing. It can also be seen in the Price Layout in your Projects in case you need to alter the designation there:
- If you are exporting your SI Projects to another software, the type of mechanism you use in SI could be determined by the data that is required on that platform. For instance, many teams that use SI in conjunction with accounting software like QuickBooks, need the designation for Equipment Rental reimbursements to populate in a very specific way so they can be reconciled accordingly. As a result, it’s always a good idea to check with your accounting team first to gauge such requirements.
- The type of solution your team chooses to deploy in SI could also be related to how you want the price for the rental expense to appear in your Project reports. Keep this in mind as well along with the notion that we can help your team customize of any of your report documents to this end.
What are some other examples of these oddball or irregular items?
While there are certainly multiple evaluations teams deal with that might fall into this oddball designation, we’ll focus on just a few more here.
Per Diem: This could depend on whether or not your team wants to display a simple dollar amount entry or if something of a calculated evaluation is more appropriate.
For easy dollar amount entries, SI users can consider the following:
-A Misc Item.
-A Catalog Item (either a Product or Labor value).
For those users seeking a more formula based evaluation, one could consider the following options:
-A Misc Item using the quantity aggregation or the Compute option.
-A Calculated Catalog Item (either a Product or Labor value).
*Note the quantity evaluation in the image above here referencing a daily rate.
Travel expenses: Following our prior scenarios here, such travel expenses could also be handled in simple full amount entries (that are perhaps handled on a Change Order at a later date) or SI users can elect a Calculated evaluation.
For easy dollar amount entries, SI users can consider the following:
-A Misc Item.
-A Catalog Item (either a Product or Labor value).
For those users seeking a more formula based evaluation, one could consider the following options:
-A Misc Item using the quantity aggregation or the Compute option.
-A Calculated Catalog Item (either a Product or Labor value).
*Note the quantity evaluation in the image above here could reference a “daily” rate.
Fuel surcharges: If we apply the same utilization that we’ve reviewed above here to another oddball value like fuel surcharges, then the same type of SI mechanisms can be considered.
For the sake of being brief but redundant, they are as follows:
-A Misc Item
-A Misc Item using the quantity aggregation or the Compute option.
-A Catalog Item (Product or Labor value).
-A Calculated Catalog Item (either a Product or Labor value).
Now one additional designation to consider here. If a Catalog Item has been determined to be the best bet for your team, then you could add this as an Accessory to any other Catalog Item.
Now whether or not your team applies this type of fuel surcharge to Service Call items (as seen above here) or prefers to use them as regular items in any Project, you do still have the opportunity to use the pricing configurations of Variable, Fixed, and Calculated. This last option of Calculated gives our users the unique opportunity to select from a number of Project related fields to build the desired formula:
Just keep in mind, you can always use a Custom Field and insert your own factor for your custom formula.
A note on encapsulating all of the above in easily repeated method.
While all the above options are certainly tested and reliable usage scenarios that will serve your team well, an alternate mechanism can very efficiently and succinctly ensure that your team never omits these items and that they are grouped accordingly. That mechanism is the usage of a Package where all the Catalog Items (be they Products or Labor values) are present.
Perhaps a package like you see above here entitled Project Considerations where all the necessary values of equipment rentals, fuel surcharges, lodging, per diem, and travel expenses are already included.
Another interesting note here is that the Catalog items in your Package can be comprised of Variable, Fixed, and Calculated items to enable your team to capture the desired amounts in your Project bid estimates. A resultant report output could look something like this:
Now, since we know each team will leverage and utilize these aforementioned feature sets in their own unique method, it is strongly recommended for new (as well as experienced) SI users to reach out to our PSG team to gain further insight from our team of industry professionals with extensive SI experience.
And there it is!
SI’s features function in such a fashion that will ease the burden of including these oddball values in your bid submissions thus allowing your team to build on existing values in order to ensure a profitable future. Be sure to tune back in here for future installments on SI’s v21 and beyond.
A Perspective
Our team is continually evaluating ways to improve and enhance your team’s usage of and experience with our SI platform. Therefore, it behooves you and your team to explore these (and other features) as well by securing time with our Professional Services Group of SI/industry veterans in order to maximize your team’s ability to succeed with the software.
In Summation…
-Update to v21 if you have not already.
-Review, utilize, and deploy the features listed above here to ensure inclusion of such irregular items.
-Sign-up for webinars, training, or visit our online documentation “wiki” for tutorial assistance.
And, as always…
-Get focused, get serious, and make money.
Enjoy!
With all of that said, there’s still plenty more in store for you with SI and forthcoming product releases so keep an eye out for future updates.
We are always reviewing your Feature Requests to determine our best step forward and next course of action with future SI product releases so…“keep’em coming”!
In closing…
For more information on these and other features of SI, please see this link: D-Tools v21. You can also review our other videos and our usual support documentation.
You can also get more detailed information about v21 via our upcoming webinars and by enrolling in SI training with our PSG team. Please review our “What’s new in v21” webinar that is now available.
And don’t forget, that’s why we are here…to ensure your success with our product! Be sure to check back here next time for more on v21!!!
