Many times when estimating, there are not specifications for ALL products. It is often left up to the general contractor/subcontractor to determine the product that will be used on a project.

For this reason, material substitutions would provide an efficient way to find cost savings. The way the parts table is setup, is appears that it is designed to be used as one manufacturer part per part record in Sage. I initially thought could try to create "generic parts", such as '3/4" EMT', and then have the various brands of 3/4" EMT listed under the Vendor Order number. Unfortunately, there is not a way to efficiently update prices according to this criteria.

An even better solution would be to add a material substitutions table, where each part could have a list of other parts that could be substituted in its place. This way, individual parts from various manufacturers could be updated using the "Add Parts/Update Prices" window functionality exactly as it exists right now in the software, but Takeoffs could have a feature to find the lowest cost material.

The table design would also allow allow users to design part substitutions where quality is important (for example, copper wire could be substituted in place of aluminum, but in many instances aluminum wire cannot be substituted on copper wire).

Lastly, this table should be able to be updated en masse, just like how the rest of the parts qualities can be managed.

by: Ryan B. | over a year ago | Estimating