In this article we'll be reviewing how selecting the floors and different truck distances will affect your estimates.
If you're interested in how the inventory affects the moving time and crew size, you can use the article linked below:
The article above references moves that are ground floor to ground floor, and within 50ft (15m). Here we'll explore how using higher floors and longer parking distances will factor into the system's calculations.
Floors
To access the settings that affect the calculations for different floors you will need to start by going to Manage -> Estimate Settings -> Floors. Once there, you'll see a page similar to the one shown below (with the Floors tab outlined in red).
Below, we'll go over each column and how it affects your estimates' calculations.
Floor (Grey-Blue): The list of available floors for you to select.
Extra Time / Room (Minutes) (Dark Red): This is for when you're using Percentage-Based Inventory. Based on the floor that you assign to a room, it'll add the listed extra time to that room's move time.
Stairs; O/S Items (Purple): Also for when you're making a Percentage-Based Inventory. When adding Oversized Items to the inventory on Step 2, it'll add the listed amount of time to each listed Oversized Item. This is assuming that you marked the address as having stairs only.
Stairs; Inventory (Bright Red): When doing Itemized Inventory this'll add the extra time to each item that's listed on that floor. This is assuming that you marked the address as having stairs only.
Stairs; Boxes (Blue): For both Percentage and Itemized inventories, this is the extra time per box that'll be added to the estimate (listed in Estimated Boxes/Totes). This is assuming that you marked the address as having stairs only.
Elevator; Inventory (Green): When doing Itemized Inventory this'll add the extra time to each item that's listed on that floor. This is assuming that you marked that an elevator is available at the address.
Elevator; Boxes (Gold): For both Percentage & Itemized inventories, this'll add the listed extra to each box being moved (listed in Estimated Boxes/Totes). This is assuming that you marked that an elevator is available at the address(es).
Actions (Black): Here, if you've made any changes to a particular row on this page, you can use the Update button to save those changes. Using the Delete button will remove that row entirely. (Note: That as with all of our delete buttons, this is classified as a "destructive delete" meaning that you will need to re-enter the information by hand if you want it back in the system later.)
New Floor (Pink): This is where you can add a new row for a specific floor. When you create a new floor, you would enter the desired information for each column.
Truck Distance
To access this setting, you would do similar to the steps listed above: Manage -> Estimate Settings -> Distance From Truck. If you're already looking at the Floors tab, you can easily swap to the tab for truck distance by clicking it on the left. Below is an example with the tab highlighted in red.
Each of the columns are detailed below:
Distance From Truck (Green): The distance range that you'd like the following settings to cover. By default, you'll see a setup of ranges similar to what's in the above example screenshot.
Room (Gold): When using Percentage-Based Inventory, this'll add the listed time, per room, to the total move time for the job.
O/S Items (Blue): Also for when you're using Percentage-Based Inventory. For each Oversized Item that you add to the inventory, it'll add the extra move time to the job.
Inventory (Purple): With Itemized Inventory, this'll add the listed time per item on the whole list, not just the itemized listed in a specific room, or floor.
Boxes (Red): For both Percentage and Itemized, this column affects the box number recorded under Estimated Boxes/Totes.
Actions (Pink): As with the actions listed under the Floors section, you can use the Update button to save any changes to the listed rows and the Delete button to remove that row. (Note: You'll have to put the information back in manually, if you delete it, same as with the Floors.)
New Truck Distance (Dark Grey): This will give you the ability to add in new distances -- if you'd like to have smaller ranges to choose from, for instance.
Now you know how both settings affect your estimates, and where you can edit them. This'll help give you and your company more control over how your estimates come out; if you're interested in being as accurate as possible, or even allow you set broader ranges if you want your estimates to be more likely over-estimates for the job.
Note, though, that these are meant to be augments to your chosen method of providing an estimates -- either Percentage or Itemized -- and so they cannot be used to reliably generate estimates by themselves. As they need an inventory to get the most out of them.