The Framers Forum

Johnny9 wrote:So when you set up estlite, do you pick a selection of mouldings you want to use or all mouldings from the main/your supplier?

You choose which mouldings you want to offer and display, but each of us will have his (or her) own ideas on this.

With Estlite, John provides up-to-date pricing tables for many popular suppliers (e.g. Arqadia, Simons), and he also provides pricing updates when they are available from the relevant suppliers.

There's no harm in having as much supplier data on the system as possible, Johnny, even though you might only be using a small part of it on a day-to-day basis. Ultimately the customer will only see samples of the mouldings that you have on show.

I see..... I think it's the setting up that was bothering me really, with it being new to me really, I'll check out the free trial & try it out and let you all know how I got on....

What mark up do you all use? and is the mark up on all (moulding, backing, mount board etc), or just the moulding... This may be another silly question

Thanks again for all your help & guidance again, it really is so helpful to know that their are people out there who have seen it & done it and will offer their help, thanks very much.......

Johnny.

I installed Estlite 2 years ago, before i'd any machinery or a premises. Messed about with the free download while setting up the business. I'm still experimenting with it and think its an integral part of the framing business. I cannot imagine not having instant access to moulding prices, quick quotes for customers, historical data, reports etc. etc.

Make that leap of faith, you won't regret it.
Also I know the pricing issue is discussed at length, I try to take a monthly and yearly view of my business. Yes I know what each frame costs, but all too often there are the jobs that are less attractive than others. I like to look at my fixed costs and my variable costs. My fixed costs I can do little about, except budget for them, but the variable costs I am always looking to reduce- phone, stock, materials, bank charges/ transactions etc. I think here lies the secret to success. Whats the line... turnover is vanity, profit is sanity.

Hoops

johnny - when we started with it, we were already working to a "matrix" system (the larson jhul price method) with abunch of mouldings in price band a, b, c etc.

suggestion- quickstart! To get familiar with the prog, and not get overwhelmed,simply start using it as a POS price program, working out in "price bands". That way everyone can get familiar with it before you start introducing the individual mouldings and printing customer dockets.

its agentle introduction, but still gibves you a good opportunity to test the programme before you register and buy.

The Estlite pricing system is quick, easy to use & made our working lives so much simpler when we ( our teenage son, actually !) installed it for us a few years ago. We selected just the frames that we used & added new ones to the programme as & when we increased or updated our range. Wouldn't be without it now. Just bite the bullet & get it installed. It saves so much time & makes you look a more professional outfit too.

I LOVE MY ESTLITE!!!!
OMG I dunno what I'd do without it. Where I worked before I BEGGED them to have a pricing program installed but they insisted on those damned scraps of paper which NO-ONE upstairs could use right so that when I came to see the job it was almost always underpriced.
Customers never argue with the computer too! Its fab.

Hi johnny

Here is a suggestion for you.

Purchase an accounting software package that can handle Items.

Then ask your moulding suppliers to provide you with theire moulding prices in csv format.

You can use these tables in any good accounting package.

Not only can this handle pricing but your accountant can see what your markups are and offer a suggestion on what you should be charging.

If you then need to modify your pricing you should be able to export the items in your accounting package into either a csv or txt file that Excell can read, there you than amend your pricing over a good brewed coffee and when finished import these back into your accounting package.

Most accounting packages can also keep an Inventory of your items and warn you to replace a particular item based on the usage through your accounting package.

I think most framers would have an accounting package software and do not use the full power of that package.

Makes sense to explore the possibilities.

hope this helps

Ian Goodman wrote:Hi johnny

Here is a suggestion for you.

Purchase an accounting software package that can handle Items.

Then ask your moulding suppliers to provide you with theire moulding prices in csv format.

You can use these tables in any good accounting package.

Not only can this handle pricing but your accountant can see what your markups are and offer a suggestion on what you should be charging.

If you then need to modify your pricing you should be able to export the items in your accounting package into either a csv or txt file that Excell can read, there you than amend your pricing over a good brewed coffee and when finished import these back into your accounting package.

Most accounting packages can also keep an Inventory of your items and warn you to replace a particular item based on the usage through your accounting package.

I think most framers would have an accounting package software and do not use the full power of that package.

Makes sense to explore the possibilities.

hope this helps

Pricing is so much more complicated than adjusting the moulding prices. whilst an accounting package is valuable to all businesses - it hardly replaces a dedicated frame pricing package. Using .csv files produced by a framing package and then analysing them via a accountancy package makes much more sense.