EasyEstimates Help Information
Introduction
EasyEstimates is designed to assist creative professionals and small businesses in providing cost estimates to potential clients through your web site. Rather than spend time creating estimates for clients, EasyEstimates allows potential clients to create their own estimates based on criteria you define.
EasyEstimates is easy to customize for the services you offer and to match
the look-and-feel of your Web site. With a pricing plan already defined,
EasyEstimates can reflect your price estimates in a matter of minutes.
EasyEstimates has many options regarding pricing models, discounts, taxes,
sub-totals, totals, text explanations, help information, and even allows
inclusion of custom graphics. EasyEstimates interfaces with PayPal for
purchasing of goods and services.
System Requirements
EasyEstimates is a Web-based product. Your Web site must support php and MySQL. JavaScript is also used within EasyEstimates and browsers must have JavaScript enabled. phpMyAdmin or similar MySQL administrative tool may also be needed for installation.
Installation
Overview
EasyEstimates can support an unlimited number of Activities. An Activity is a group of related cost items, such as a Wedding video with all the options available, a photo montage with the options available, creation of a Web site, etc. From a Web perspective, a separate estimate will be created for each Activity, usually on a separate Web page.
Each Activity consists of separate detail lines and some Activity specific definitions. The detail lines contain your pricing information and explanations about the pricing information.
While the Activity is being defined, you can preview the results at any time.
To speed the creation of an Activity, Activities are created either based on one of the supplied model Activities or a previously defined Activity.
To implement the Activity within a Web site, the minimum requirement is to include the a php web page (based on a sample provided). EasyEstimates is designed to fit within existing Web designs and be customizable to fit most designs and color schemes.
Activity Maintenance
The EasyEstimates administration function starts with a page that is used to create, change, or delete Activities. The default Activity cannot be deleted.
The Activity Update screen allows for changing the name of the activity, change the formatting of the activity by adjusting how much area is reserved for text, what help image to use, what cost format to use, and what dimensions to use for the pop-up Help screen.
Formatting for individual types of detail lines can also be specified for the Activity. Specific font sizes, colors, and background colors can be specified. Standard HTML Style parameters are used for formatting. For example: " color:red;" sets the text color to red, "background: green;" set the background to green, "font-size:20px;" sets the font size, and "font-weight:bold;" sets the font to bold. Do not use quotes in the actual formatting.
Activity Detail Lines Maintenance
This page allows for the addition, changing, and deletion of detail lines. The detail lines appear on this screen just as they will on the EasyEstimate page except additional administrative information and controls are displayed and it may not reflect the final formatting.
For each line the following administrative information is displayed depending on line type:
Line Type Descriptions
Multiple versions of line types are available for formatting purposes. The calculations are performed identically for the each line type. For example, Volume Pricing1 and Volume Pricing2 work perform calculations identically but may be customized with different colors or fonts.
Text and Heading Lines are all identical in how they work. They are all text lines with optional Help information. If help information is defined for the text line, the Help image (usually a question mark symbol) will automatically be displayed and a link created for the Help pop-up window.
Image lines allow for displaying of images. What image is displayed can be controlled by web site visitor selections
Input text lines allow input of input text. Specialized edits exist for emails addresses and other types of text.
Input date lines allow input of dates and times, comparision of dates and assigning costs, such as cost per hour, day, or minute.
Limit selection lines allow for limiting selections to only valid cobinations. For example, if one t-shirt is available in different colors than another t-shirt then the colors available can be set depending on the t-shirt chosen.
EasyEstimates supports a wide variety of pricing/cost models. Below are explanations of these models:
Base Cost: A fixed cost with no input parameter on the Web Estimate page. Typically used to specify a minimum cost for an activity.
Straight Line Cost: The number specified is multiplied by the cost to create a total. Example: 3 DVDs time $20 equals $60.
Divide: The cost is divided by the input quantity.
Volume Pricing: A set of quantity ranges are setup. The price applied is the price that is within the range specified. For example, with ranges setup as:
Start: 1 End: 5 Cost:$10
Start: 6 End: 99 Cost: $5
A quantity of 5 will cost $50, while a quantity of 6 will cost $30.
Graduated Pricing: A set of quantity ranges is setup. The price for each applicable range is applied. For example, with ranges setup as:
Start: 1 End: 5 Cost:$10
Start: 6 End: 99 Cost: $5
A quantity of 5 will cost $50, while a quantity of 6 will cost $55.
Range Lookup: A set of quantity ranges is setup. The price for for that range is applied. For example, with ranges setup as:
Start: 1 End: 5 Cost:$10
Start: 6 End: 99 Cost: $5
A quantity of 5 will cost $10, while a quantity of 6 will cost $5.
Block Pricing: A specific variation of a service is priced separately. Block pricing can be displayed as dropdown selections, multiple selections, radio buttons, and checkboxes. For example:
Silver Service: $1,000
Gold Service: $2,000
Block+Straight Cost: If the quantity falls within the first price range, that total cost is applied. If the quantity falls within the second range then a straight cost formula is used. For example, with ranges setup as:
Start: 1 End: 5 Cost:$10
Start: 6 End: 99 Cost: $5
A quantity of 5 will cost $10, while a quantity of 6 will cost $15.
Dependent Line: For cost lines the value will be zero if the Dependent line is zero.
Sub-totals can be listed for all cost components, all products, all services, or for both products and services. Specifying a dependent line totals all appropriate costs between the dependent line and the sub-total line. Intermediate sub-totals and totals are excluded from the calculation.
Totals always include all services and products. Specifying a dependent line totals all appropriate costs between the dependent line and the total line. Intermediate sub-totals and totals are excluded from the calculation.
Discount amount is an fixed amount discount.
Discount percentage is a percentage discount. For example, 8.25 is used to specify 8.25% discount.
For discounts, if a dependent line is specified then the discount only applies to the dependent line. The dependent line can be an individual cost line or a sub-total. If a discount amount is specified with a reference line, the discount amount will not be larger than the reference line amount. If a dependent line is not specified for a discount then the discount applies to the total products and services. A product indicator for a discount indicates whether the discount should be applied to the product total (which may have tax implications).
Range Select is used to specify the column and row headings for look-up tables based on ranges of values.
Block Select is used to specify the values is a drop-down box related to the row and column headings for look-up tables.
Look-up Table A way to determine the cost based on two factors as defined by numeric ranges or specific values defined in preceeding detail lines.
Tax can be applied to just products or products and services. Taxes are expressed as a percentage with 8.25 being used to specify 8.25% tax. Different tax rates can be provided for people residing in different locations.
EasyEstimates allows for copying of detail lines between Activities and within the current Activity, along with re-ordering of Activities.