Examples

Common estimating scenarios

These examples are illustrative workflows, not customer case studies or guarantees. Adapt them to your business, scope, and review requirements.

A simple one-drawing enquiry

Situation: A customer sends one drawing for six identical brackets.

Suggested workflow:

  1. Create one RFQ and attach the drawing.
  2. Create one asset for the bracket package.
  3. Add one takeoff item with quantity six.
  4. Link the relevant material and labour rates.
  5. Add any one-off finishing or delivery allowance.
  6. Review the total and prepare one quote option.

Why: The scope is simple. Extra project structure would add work without making the estimate clearer.

One RFQ with several work packages

Situation: A tender contains structural steel, stairs, handrails, and cladding.

Suggested workflow:

  1. Keep one RFQ for the customer enquiry.
  2. Group files into assets for each package.
  3. Estimate each asset independently.
  4. Use project structure inside a package only when it needs a deeper breakdown.
  5. Include or exclude assets when preparing quote options.

Why: Assets separate practical estimating packages while preserving one enquiry and one commercial workspace.

A supplier rate needs checking

Situation: Several suppliers can provide the same material.

Suggested workflow:

  1. Link the material to the relevant companies in setup data.
  2. Keep the reusable material record clear about its standard unit and default rate.
  3. Confirm the current supplier quote before relying on the rate.
  4. Update the job-specific estimate when the current price differs.

Why: Company relationships help discovery, but they do not automatically create supplier-specific price agreements.

An email becomes an RFQ

Situation: A connected mailbox receives an enquiry with drawings attached.

Suggested workflow:

  1. Review the email and its RFQ detection status.
  2. Choose Create RFQ.
  3. Review the prepared details and any company or person match.
  4. Confirm all attachments arrived in the intake form.
  5. Correct ambiguous or missing details.
  6. Save the RFQ only when the preview is accurate.

Why: Email preparation reduces retyping while keeping the user in control of the new record.

An addendum arrives after estimating starts

Situation: A customer sends a revised drawing and changes one package.

Suggested workflow:

  1. Add the revised file to the existing RFQ.
  2. Identify the affected asset.
  3. Compare the new evidence with the earlier scope.
  4. Update affected takeoffs, costs, exclusions, and lead time.
  5. Recheck quote totals.
  6. Export the revised quote to record a new commercial snapshot.

Why: The new file belongs with the original enquiry, but only the affected estimate scope should change.

A repeated fabrication job

Situation: The business regularly quotes similar fabricated platforms.

Suggested workflow:

  1. Create a project structure template for the repeatable phases.
  2. Create an estimate template for the familiar estimating structure.
  3. Create cost presets for recurring bundles such as fabrication setup or installation.
  4. Apply the reusable starting points to the new RFQ.
  5. Remove irrelevant items and add current-job scope.

Why: Reuse improves consistency, but current RFQ evidence remains authoritative.

Ask Kwantflow AI to combine records and arithmetic

Situation: You need the cost of 250 kg of a material already stored in the workspace.

Example request:

Find the galvanised steel plate in this workspace and calculate the cost of 250 kg using its recorded rate.

Kwantflow AI can search the workspace record, retrieve its details, use an exact calculation, and explain the result. Check the selected record, unit, rate, and currency before using the answer commercially.

Prepare several records for approval

Situation: You want to add several known materials from a supplier list.

Example request:

Prepare these materials for approval: 10 mm galvanised plate at 4.85 AUD per kg, SL82 reinforcing mesh at 72.50 AUD per sheet, and scaffold installation crew at 1,280 AUD per day.

Review the grouped proposal carefully. Nothing is written until you approve it, and grouped changes are approved or discarded together.

Work across two businesses

Situation: One user estimates for two independent businesses.

Suggested workflow:

  1. Create one workspace for each business.
  2. Configure each workspace’s profile, catalogues, knowledge, and email connections separately.
  3. Check the active workspace before creating or importing records.
  4. Switch workspaces when moving to the other business.

Why: Workspace separation prevents customer, pricing, mailbox, and estimating context from being mixed.