The Framers Forum

Hi all,

I have another question for you all!

I want to make a spreadsheet in excel for pricing and invoicing but just wondered if anyone has done it and wud like to share with me how they did it please? So basically want to know if its easy or not? Or maybe should I just purchase estlite or something like that.

Many Thanks
Adam

I think it depends on a. How proficient you are at excel and b. How you value your time. I spent a long time developing a spreadsheet for pricing when I first started. Gradually the thing got more and more complicated and convoluted that if anything broke it took an age to fix and I took the decision to purchase a pricing program. If you count the hours I spent fiddling with the spreadsheet a program is probably way 'cheaper' plus you get support form the authors and this possibly this forum. Pricing program's also offfer much more than normal mortals can build into a spread sheet and then there are the free upgrades, tools to import moulding listings etc etc

I'd invest in a pricing program if I were you, but try out a few ( there are several available) to see which suits you best.

Thanks GeoSpectrum I haven't really done excel for years and I don't have loads of time so I guess your right I should buy a pricing software.

Thanks again tho

Adam

It is not too difficult to create a pricing structure using Excel.

For linear values just use the "Sum" function which is just addition e.g for mouldings height plus width and then the "product" (multiplication) function to double those values to give the amount of moulding required.

For sheet materials that are sold by area then you only need the product function, height x width to give the amount to charge for.

Any fixed price items can be just put in at a set value and provided the final values end up in the same column you just apply the Sigma function to produce a total.

That is the way I did it before having a pricing programme.

Ok Jonny thanks a lot I will give that a go tonight and see how I get on and I'm told its not that hard but we shall see!

Sent you PM you might find it useful

yes Ricky i saw the pm and it was very useful indeed and thanks again.

I spent ages trying this and it never worked for me!