Smart Contractor

Product Entry Form

To open the Product entry form, click on Setup in the shortcut menu, then click on Lists, then click on Products.

The Product form allows you to enter information about products used in jobs, including:

Smart Contractor does not come with any products pre-defined. You must either enter these as they are needed in a job, or import them. Once you have imported or entered product records, they are available for use in all jobs.

For imformation about importing product data, please see

The Product form allows you to update the costs of products used in jobs. Each product can have any number of different prices - one for each vendor.

Because there can be so many different products used in construction projects, Smart Contractor allows you to group products by Product Group. To do this, the Product form first prompts for the Product Group. Once you select the Product Group, the program lists only the Products that belong to that Product Group in the prompt for "...Product to Add or Edit:". Or, if you select "(All Product Groups)" in the prompt for Product Group, the program lists all products, alphabetically.

Aside from the standard prompts available on all forms, the Product entry form has the following prompts:

Product Group:

Select or enter the product's Product Group.

Note: The product list can be divided into groups by Product Group. If you select a Product Group, only the products for the Product Group selected will appear in the list of Products below. If you select "(All Product Groups)", the program lists all products, alphabetically.

Enter Product To Add or Edit:

Select or enter the product to add or edit.

Note: The product list can be divided by Job Phase. If you select a Product Group, only the products for the Product Group selected will appear in the list of Products below. If you select "(All Product Groups)", the program lists all products, alphabetically.

Product Name:

Enter the name of the Product. This should uniquely describe the product, including the manufacturer, so that if you need to enter the same product from another manufacturer, the name will be different. Also, the name should be descriptive enough to be used to order or purchase the item from a vendor. When you generate purchase orders, this is the name of the product that will appear on the purchase order. (The product description, entered below, will also appear on purchase orders.)

Search Repository:

Click Search Repository to search for a product in the Product Repository. The Product Repository is a database within Smart Contractor that contains lists of products (and prices) that you import into Smart Contractor. You can import product/price data into Smart Contractor using the Import Data form. See How Do I... Import Data? for more information.

If you select a product in the Product Repository, the program will pull data from it into the Enter Product form.

If the product that you selected in the Product Repository has price data, this will be copied to an entry in the "Vendor Quotes" grid, under the vendor called "MSRP". The vendor is called "MSRP" because, since the Product Repository does not contain vendor information, the product price in the Product Repository is assumed to be the product's MSRP.

Once the product and price have been copied into the form, you can change the vendor in the "Vendor" column of the "Vendor Quotes" grid.

The Search Repository button is only enabled when you add a new product record.

Add Attachment:

Click Add Attachment to add an attachment to an external document associated with this product. If you do, this attachment will appear in the "Attachments" tab of the Edit Job form.

Product Group:

Select or enter the product's Product Group.

Manufacturer:

Select or enter the product's Manufacturer.
Code:

Enter the product's Code.

Product Notes:

Enter any notes regarding the Product. This can be used to additionally describe the product. When you generate purchase orders, these notes will appear in the purchase order as the Product Notes.

Minumum Order Qty:

Enter the minumum quantity in which this product can be purchased.

Purchase Unit:

Enter the count unit in which the item will be estimated and purchased. This will be used as the default estimated cost unit when you select this product for a estimate item in the Edit Estimate form.

Minumum Labor:

Enter the minumum labor cost associated with installing this product.

The minumum labor cost can be entered in either hours or dollars. To enter minimum hour labor cost in hours, click the button to the right of the prompt until it says "hrs". To enter minimum hour labor cost in dollars, click the button to the right of the prompt until it says "$".

Min Labor Rate:

Enter the hourly labor rate (in dollars) associated with installing this product.

Note: The labor rate is used as the default labor rate (to calculate labor hours) when a vendor's labor cost per unit is pulled into a job estimate item.

Purchase Wholesale:

Check if this item is normally purchased wholesale. This will be used as the default setting of the Purchase Wholesale check box when you select this product for an estimate item in the Edit Estimate form.

Percent Waste:

Enter the percent waste (in Purchase Units) associated with installing this product.

Materials that have waste associated with their installation include things like floor covering, ceramic tiles, etc. If you enter a waste percent, the program will estimate the correct amount of materials needed based on the dimensions of the area to be covered.

To make the program automatically calculate and add the waste amount, you must check the Prompt For % Waste: box in the Job Options form.

Vendor Quotes:

Enter the vendor's quoted prices and lead times. You can enter a separate price and lead time for each vendor. When you select this product in an estimate, the program will insert the price for the vendor selected in the estimate item.

Inventory:

Enter the count of any inventory of this product that you have stored in any warehouses. Warehouses are defined in the Edit Vendor/Sub form by setting the Vendor Type to "Warehouse".

Preferred Vendor:

Select or enter the preferred vendor for this product. This vendor will be used used as the default vendor for items that use this product (in the Edit Estimate form).

Update Job:

The Update Job prompt allows you to update estimated cost and lead time for job items with the current product and preferred vendor.

Select a job, and a preferred vendor. Then click OK.

The following information will be updated for all job items that use the current product:

  • The item vendor (if one has not been assigned in the Edit Job Estimate form).
  • The estimated item material cost.
  • The item count unit.
  • The order lead time.