Question:

Every time that I create a new product, whatever the number that I place in the "labor/unit" section of the vendor quotes is what get's transferred to the hourly labor rate within the item in the estimate. Not the number placed in the actual "labor rate" portion below the minimum labor charge. I guess the way that I would expect it to work is that if I place $100 in the labor/unit section of a vendor quote and place $25 in the "labor rate", when I select that product from within the item that it will understand there are 4 hours of labor per unit at $25 totaling the $100.

Does that make sense?

Answer:

Here's what's going on...

The Enter Estimate form allows you to enter labor costs in terms of "hours per unit", or "dollars per unit". For example, for the installation of a window, you could enter the labor cost as 1 hour per unit at $30/hour. If the item count was 4, this would result in 4 hours at $30 for $120. Or you could enter the labor cost as $30 per unit. Again, with an item count of 4, that would result in 4 units at $30 for $120.

The program toggles back and forth between "hours per unit" and "dollars per unit" when you click the button to the right of the prompt for "Hours Per Unit:"/"Dollars Per Unit:". When you toggle that button, it's label shifts back and forth between "$/u" and "hr/u", and the prompt for the field to the left shifts back and forth between "Hours Per Unit:" and "Dollars Per Unit:"

In the mean time, the labor/unit cost in the product price information is stored in terms of "dollars per unit". So when that gets pulled into the item cost for an item in an estimate, the program sets the labor cost entry mode to "Dollars Per Unit:". That's what you're seeing. You can easily get it to convert to "Hours Per Unit" by clicking the "hr/u" button.