Show Labor By Zone By Location - D-Tools Forum

fryeguy · 12-28-2007, 02:08 AM

We would like to take the Line Item Detail report and group it by zone by location and show labor by zone by location.

The idea is that when a client asks how much does it cost to add or remove something from the system, if labor gets subtotaled by zone by location, then the subtotal is the number. Otherwise you have to figure out how much labor is associated with the change.

This is very confusing to the client.

We have already gotten the report to show no manufacturer and no model because we provide a client description that fills this need. The client doesn't care about the rest of the details. It also cuts the length of the report down sugnificantly.

Now we would like to show the labor associated with each zone and location. In addition, when we have labor line items like 8 hours of programming, we want to see how much that costs. currently we get the line item with zero dollars and the labor gets rolled up in the summary subreport.

Thanks,
Kevin Frye
SoundVision
kevin@svsf.com
415-456-7000x113

05-30-2008, 04:11 PM

did you ever get a reply

06-04-2008, 05:14 PM

I know this is an old post but I am not sure that I would want to do that on a proposal. You are stating that the client wants to be able to see how much each indidual items costs including labor so that they can see how much it would be to add or remove it from the project.. I don't know about you but that opens up alot of issues, they look at a proposal and see an AMX processor in there with the associated time for installation and programming and they decide "Why does it cost $12,000 with labor for a 18x5 inch box? Can't we just get rid of that item? Do we really need it?" or "Why does it cost $300 in labor for a piece of equipment that costs $12" referring to a telephone punch block..

06-30-2008, 08:25 PM

HI,
I would also like to do this.

I want to see what the install cost of a screen is, and how much the programming costs.

In addition a labor summary showing the different activities per zone or per programming tyope would be great.

regards
Stephen

fryeguy · 08-07-2008, 12:59 AM

I had something in mind more like this guys:

Line Item Proposal

Client Contact Info...

Qty____Description__________________________Price

Distributed Audio System (zone)

Mechanical Room (location)

1 Crestron MC2E Ethernet Control Processor $XXXX

1 Crestron CENTRACK AM/FM/XM Tuner $XXXX

1 Crestron PAD8A Multizone Audio Processor $XXXX

1 Audio Control 16 Channel Amplifier $XXXX
Mechanical Room Equipment Total: $XXXX
Mechanical Room Labor Total: $XXXX
Distributed Audio System Total: $XXXX

FYI, the formatting is a little whacky...

fryeguy · 08-07-2008, 01:02 AM

I did not intend this to mean that I want to show labor associated with every accessory on an item or in a package. I don't mind supressing accessories when they don't add value to a proposal. However, in a proposal that show structured wiring by zone by location I think it is appropriate to see the labor associated with each location rather than lumped at the bottom.

As a philosophy I do my best to be as transparent as possible. I don't want my client to pay for something if they don't understand the cost breakdown. It is a simple fact that sophisticated systems with sophisticated equipment take a great deal of expertise to design, engineer, configure, and program. The client is paying for just that and if they are uncomfortable with those costs because of the way a proposal describes it maybe they shouldn't buy it.
I would want a proposal that is clear and concise not a document that hides costs in accessories and lumps labor in different places. I certainly wouldn't want a report that line items programming labor with $0.00 like some of them do.
I would also expect to work with a contractor who is my partner and advocate and gives me one single source of the truth on my project when I ask. If you have a reputation for being the best and your clients trust you, there is no need for supressing the facts to minimize the customer's inquiries.

08-12-2008, 08:25 PM

Same here. What was the verdict?

RandyB · 08-13-2008, 02:40 AM

Originally Posted by fryeguy

We would like to take the Line Item Detail report and group it by zone by location and show labor by zone by location.

This is certainly doable, though it requires the creation of a custom report.

Take a look at the attached report to see if it does the trick. I had to do some scripting to make the equipment totals show Extended Price (Equipment Price + Equipment Adjustment + Misc Parts). It also includes a custom Proposal Summary that shows Extended Price and does not break out Eq. Adjustment and Misc. Parts as well as labor.

Here are the steps I took to create this:
1) Create a new report based on the Line Item Detail Report
2) Create a report definition by Zone by Location
3) In the report definition, parameters, set "Show Labor Items" to true
4) Add a summary field to the GrpFooter2 section to summarize dtr:TotalLaborPrice. This shows the total labor price for this section
5) Add a summary field to the GrpFooter2 section to show the total Installed Price (dtr:InstallationPrice). This is where it gets tricky since Installation Price includes Eq Adjustment and Misc Parts.
6) Add some invisible summary fields to show the total Base Equipment Price, Equipment Adjustment, and Misc Parts (these are orange)
7) With scripting, make the total extended equipment price in GrpFooter2 equal to the Base Equipment Price + Equipment Adjustment + Misc Parts. This shows up on the report.
8) I also did step 7 in grpItemHeader, so that each item would show the extended price (and the totals would add up).
9) I created a custom subreport, Project Summary (extended), and bound this to the report where the project summary goes. This subreport has the same kind of logic as step 7.

This probably sounds complicated, but hopefully you can follow the logic when you look at the report. This type of operation can help you accomplish a lot with custom reports.

A quick comment - the only reason I needed to do all this scripting and calculations is that we do not have a dtr:ExtendedEquipmentPrice in the XML schema. Had this been there, this would have been a very simple operation. We'll do something to make this much easier in a future release.

For some reason, the .zip file below is being corrupted. Please contact me at beta@d-tools.com and I can email you the report.

Randy

fryeguy · 08-13-2008, 10:29 PM

Thanks Randy! I will take a look at this and see if it does what I want.
I previously came close on this one but had some trouble with the summary section showing the labor again and then it threw off the grand total (I think).

Hopefully D-Tools will offer some additional information about the XML schema and some other good examples of how it works. Maybe you already have and I just don't know about it...

fryeguy · 09-08-2008, 11:30 PM

Randy:

The file is showing up as corrupt.
Can you send again and/or email it to me?

Thanks,
Kevin