The Framers Forum

I have recently downloaded the Estlite trial and think i may have found the software to finally end my pricing nightmares! However I have a couple of questions regarding the pricing options.

The "Min" price value added to all processes is puzzling me. I understand that the figure is used when the dimension of the job becomes too small making the 20x16 proportional price uneconomical but don't understand why it is then added to the calculation of prices which exceed the proportional minimum charge. How do other users use this feature and should the time taken to complete each process have any bearing on this min figure?

Ed

Hi Ed,

Min is a bit of a misnomer, its real purpose is to enable you to recover the fixed costs associated with the frame element, and yes, it would include an amount to cover the minimum amount of time it would take to complete the process.

The reason the question came up was in trying to obtain prices when a frame wasn't involved - single mount cut, mount and back, mount/back/wrap. We do quite a lot of mount work only and to price these in Est would be ideal. Would it make sense to drop the min amounts for mounting quite low and recover the other costs in the mark up of the moulding?

Thanks for your prompt response.

EstLite is very flexible, allowing you to define a pricing model that suits you best.

However, you should consider the Min very carefully and try to make a realistic estimate of the associated fixed costs.

Imagine that you were in the business of hand cutting small mounts. Ignoring the material cost, Min should be the charge you would have to make per mount in order to return a profit running this hypothetical enterprise, churning out tiny mounts 8 hours a day.