What is a deal?

IN THIS ARTICLE

The deal hierarchy

Unlike a flat spreadsheet or price list, Estii has a hierarchical commercial model to make collaborating on deals more efficient, scalable and automated. The structure can provide a bit of a learning curve, but once you gain familiarity with its structure, you'll be able to estimate and manipulate complex budgets with ease.

The illustration below shows the overall deal hierarchy and key elements within them.

Deals are structured as a hierarchy of objects

Deals

The deal header provides a summary of the deal value and status

• Progress the deal status (approve, close, etc)
• Present and export proposals for customers (the play icon)

The deal header

Overview

The overview tab provides a summary of the deal budget, timeline and workflow.

• Budget breakdown by category across phases
• Budget breakdown by phase
• Timeline breakdown by phase (duration, resource count)

The deal overview screen

Estimation

The first stage of the deal creation workflow is estimating requirements and deliverables.

Estimates are organised within each phase using the following hierarchy:

Phase → Category → Section → Item → Line item → Estimate

• Categories are configurable containers defined by your phase template. Each category controls which resource types and pricing models are available
• Sections are optional groupings within a category, useful for organising related items with subtotals
• Items are collections of line items related to a functional area or deliverable
• Line items are individual requirements or tasks, each with one or more estimates

Editing items, line items and estimates

Phases

Each phase contains a separate budget and duration. You can view or create phases from the overview, or switch between phases from other deal pages.

Deal phases on the overview screen

Items

• Items contain line items and estimates
• Items have priority and risk/contingency level
• Items provide a roll-up of the total units (effort) and value (price) of all line items

The estimates screen

Line items and assumptions

Line items are a fundamental element of Estii — where you describe and estimate individual requirements within an item.

• Line items contain a description of the included requirements or deliverables
• Line items contain zero or more estimates — resource allocations of effort or cost
• A line item with zero estimates is called an assumption

Each estimate is a calculation of effort (for example 10 days x web stream) or cost (for example 5 x daily travel cost) that is automatically converted into a monetary value and rolled up into the total value for the parent item.

Choosing an estimate's resource

Contingency and risk

Contingency is defined as a range (default, min, max) in Settings > Rates and currency

Contingency is automatically applied to items based on their risk level (none, low, normal, high) and added to the raw time estimates.

Risk is also used to help automatically prioritise items when adjusting scope (removing the highest risk, lowest priority items first).

Setting item risk

Pricing

The second stage of the Deal creation workflow is finalising the scope, schedule and price of each phase.

Scoping

Scope is used to quickly refine the overall price and functionality of the phase:

• View a breakdown of scope by priority, item and stream
• Descope groups of line items by priority, item or stream
• Adjust scope by gradually removing lower priority, lower risk items
• Change the rate card and/or margin for the phase

Adjusting the scope of a phase

Scheduling

The schedule is used to adjust the total estimated duration and headcount for the phase, which in turn impacts the overall resourcing price.

• Adjust the duration
• Round resource allocations to a specific delivery cycle (week, fortnight, month, etc)
• Distribute partial resources to the start, end or middle of the phase, or distributed equally
• Change the rate card and/or margin for the phase

Adjusting the schedule of a phase

Payment milestones

Use payment milestones to describe your expected payment structure based on progress, deliverables, due-dates and pricing

• Choose a preset based on equal progress payments, or create custom milestones
• Schedule due dates based on deal / phase progress, relative days or fixed dates
• Calculate price as a percent of total deal value or as a fixed amount

Like everything in Estii, dynamic milestones automatically adjust to changes to your deal price and duration, and are presented as beautiful waterfall charts within proposals.

Adding payment milestones

Rate cards and margins

Rate card

Each phase has an active rate card that determines the cost and price for roles. New deals default to the default rate card, however it can be changed if multiple rate cards exist in the space.

Margins

Each rate card contains a low, average and high margin range that is used to calculate the price of roles.

Phases default the average margin to calculate role prices, however they can be adjusted to increase or decrease price and profitability within the defined range. When you change rate card, the margin will reset to average.

Deal currency

The deal currency determines how final pricing is displayed/exported to buyers, along with the exchange rate.

Actual estimates and internal pricing use the default Space currency (managed in Settings > Rates and currency)

Presenting

The final stage of the deal creation workflow is presenting approved deals with external users and stakeholders (guests).

Proposals

Estii automatically generates and populates templates based on the contents of your deal — so you never have to update them manually.

You can preview and adjust template settings (and appearance) from the presentation tab on a deal.

Customising your proposal

Themes

You can create and manage multiple themes across your deals — with editable logos, colours, images and fonts to ensure deals are on brand.

Editing a proposal theme

Proposal viewer

The proposal viewer is a standalone version of the deal for external guests (target customers or decision makers) that only contains approved versions of the deal.

Presenting a proposal

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