Estimation

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Estimation settings contain the global rules used to calculate and price resources and deals

Overview

Estimation settings control the calculation and presentation of resource allocation. They are managed in Settings > Estimation.

Rules

Currency

Currency is used to price the rate card, and is the default currency used on products and deals. You can also override the display currency on an individual deal (along with the exchange rate)

The default currency for roles and products in the space

Capacity

Capacity is the number of working hours in every work day, work week and work year.

Capacity determines the calculation of day rates, and the capacity of resources inside a deal's timeline/resource plan

Consider the following when calculating your capacity:

Workable hours may be less than available hours (typically 80-90% in order to compensate for non-billable tasks and time like internal activities and communication)
Work weeks should exclude any annual leave, sick leave and public holidays

Resource capacity settings

Contingency

Contingency is a percentage added to raw estimates to cover the cost of ‘known unknown’ risk that would likely result in additional costs

Contingency is defined as a range (low, normal (default), high)

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

Low risk uses the min contingency
Normal risk uses the default contingency (default value)
High risk uses the max contingency
None risk will ignore contingency

Contingency settings

Work units

Work units are the default time period used to cost and price your rate card (either days or hours). It is also used as the default unit for estimates

Work unit setting

Rounding

Rounding controls how rate card prices are rounded in deals. Round up roles to the nearest 10, 25, 50 or 100 units)

Rounding is applied after conversion to deal currency.

Rounding setting

Templates

Phase templates define the default structure applied to new phases in a deal.

Each phase template contains categories and sections that are automatically created when a new phase is added to a deal. Templates are managed in Settings > Estimation > Templates.

Phase templates

Creating templates

Click New template to create an empty template with a single category
Click Sample template to create a pre-built template with standard categories
Click a template to open the editor, where you can add, rename, reorder, and configure categories and sections

Template editor with category tabs and section configuration

Default template

One template can be set as the default. New phases will use the default template's structure. If no default is set, new phases start empty.

Import and export

Templates can be shared between spaces using JSON export and import:

Export downloads all templates as a JSON file
Import uploads a JSON file and shows a preview of changes before applying them

When importing, templates are matched by name. Existing templates with the same name are updated; new templates are added. The default template setting is preserved during import.

Import preview showing template changes

Terminology

Terminology overrides some of the default terms used in deals and proposals

Feature, Overhead, Service, Expense, Stream

Customise terminology