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04-04-2006, 01:40 AM

I thought about both approaches and decided to take the middle road.

Originally I did not use d-tools wires, I just made up a product called "jump run" which had the cost and labor of running 15 ft of wire etc... and attaching it as an accessory to a product like a speaker. Very quick to use when you do not have floor plans but it is a pain for change orders because of the subtraction and addition of accessory items in a change order report and it does not accurately transfer wire information to qb or relieve it from inventory.

The d-tools way does not work well for me because it does not take into consideration the labor component for running a wire vs running a bundle of wire in the same pull. And it asks a bunch of questions..length start end etc. I use d-tols text for the proposal only so all the start end questions are a time waster for me.

Obviously the wire has to be separated from the amps etc.. to correct the change order issue...no problem

Regarding the wire, my best solution to this would have been to add a product for a foot run of each wire. This would have eliminated the query for wire start and end etc.., but when I tried this in practice d-tools gagged on the number of line item entries(100 feet of wire = 100 lines). This was too much of a pain to do it this way.

What did work, however way this method.

-Create wire packages to math your gear packages ( I use packages for everthing) AV Gear and AV Gear wiring

-Create a labor item as a place holder (does not transfer to qb)

-Populate labor item which accessories. Each accessory item is a 15 foot run of wire which is the smallest run that I use...15 ft = 1X 90 feet is 6 X etc.

-d-tools will not gag on this as the line entries are kept to a number which it will not freak on.

This solves change order issue as wire is completely separate from equipment. It also solves the qb issue as it is sending an accurate wire list to qb, and you do not have to enter all that start finish stuff which is most helpful when you are producing a quote with little info or no floor plans

-the only strange thing about it is selling wire in quantities of 15 feet instead of by the foot.

04-04-2006, 01:40 AM	#5 (permalink)
KeithC Guest Posts: n/a	Predefined wire length vs d-tools way I thought about both approaches and decided to take the middle road. Originally I did not use d-tools wires, I just made up a product called "jump run" which had the cost and labor of running 15 ft of wire etc... and attaching it as an accessory to a product like a speaker. Very quick to use when you do not have floor plans but it is a pain for change orders because of the subtraction and addition of accessory items in a change order report and it does not accurately transfer wire information to qb or relieve it from inventory. The d-tools way does not work well for me because it does not take into consideration the labor component for running a wire vs running a bundle of wire in the same pull. And it asks a bunch of questions..length start end etc. I use d-tols text for the proposal only so all the start end questions are a time waster for me. Obviously the wire has to be separated from the amps etc.. to correct the change order issue...no problem Regarding the wire, my best solution to this would have been to add a product for a foot run of each wire. This would have eliminated the query for wire start and end etc.., but when I tried this in practice d-tools gagged on the number of line item entries(100 feet of wire = 100 lines). This was too much of a pain to do it this way. What did work, however way this method. -Create wire packages to math your gear packages ( I use packages for everthing) AV Gear and AV Gear wiring -Create a labor item as a place holder (does not transfer to qb) -Populate labor item which accessories. Each accessory item is a 15 foot run of wire which is the smallest run that I use...15 ft = 1X 90 feet is 6 X etc. -d-tools will not gag on this as the line entries are kept to a number which it will not freak on. This solves change order issue as wire is completely separate from equipment. It also solves the qb issue as it is sending an accurate wire list to qb, and you do not have to enter all that start finish stuff which is most helpful when you are producing a quote with little info or no floor plans -the only strange thing about it is selling wire in quantities of 15 feet instead of by the foot.