Accurate Fixed wire length on proposals - D-Tools Forum

03-30-2006, 02:42 PM

I am using the text version of d-tools and I also use fixed wire length cable on the proposals. I know this is not the standard way to use d-tools.

I integrated quicklinks recently and now would like all of the cable to transfer over to quickbooks. The only way I can see to do this is to enter cable by the foot. I tried this but 100 feet of wire turned into 100 lines of info in d-tools. When I did a proposal d-tools gagged on the number of lines etc....so this is not the best way to go. Is ther a better way to do this without using the d-tools wire function which I think is too slow for what I do as the engineering etc. is done outside of d-tools.

Anyone come across this, and what did you do to workaround/correct?

JordanC · 03-31-2006, 09:16 PM

Yah, Use the wire & cable feature the way it is meant to be used. Enter your wire models by ft., then use your approx length for the qty. Enables; accurate wire purchasing for prewire, easier integration through quicklinks, inventory count, more precise proposals for the client and company. Use the floorplans to get approximated cable run lengths.

04-03-2006, 04:13 PM

Jordan,

I know that you have done it boths ways--doesnt it take much more time to do it the d-tools way?

JordanC · 04-03-2006, 10:11 PM

Originally Posted by KeithC

I know that you have done it boths ways--doesnt it take much more time to do it the d-tools way?

It depends where your worried about spending your time. For me, I see saving time in worrying about having enough of the correct wire at a job, or ordering more, than to worry about a couple of minutes extra it would take to make the proposal, that more accurate. Not to mention the ease of integration with QB. Inventory control can easily be maintained using footage counts per wire. Needing to save the few seconds per Product prewire, just doesnt overcome the possitive results I have seen going by proper make, model and lengths. (IN MY OPINION).

What do you think outweighs the other?

04-04-2006, 02:40 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.

JordanC · 04-04-2006, 07:05 PM

Obviously you have much more experience than I do. You are master, I am student. Looks like you have tried every way possible to go about this. I am going to attach a simple example of how I am now taking care of this issue, which so far, seems to be working for eveybody here.

LMK What you think.

04-05-2006, 03:30 AM

Your proposal is fine. My only comment is that I would not show all the wire information on the proposal as it could confuse clients and lengthen proposals.

If the wire was attached to the prewire item and then was set to print only when you want it to, then you would have a descriptive prewire item (maybe a little more descriptive to compensate for the wire that is not shown) that could have wire detail not shown on proposal but shown on a copy that goes to prewire installers etc.

You want to be sure that the prewire item that you attach wire to is a labor item otherwise it will show up as a product when you transfer to qb. A labor item will not...it just adds to labor (if the item had time associated with it).

If the d-tools method works for you then go for it, I do most of my engineering outside of d-tools so my short-cut method works for me.

JordanC · 04-05-2006, 05:06 PM

Well, I guess if I wanted to show my report how you describe would be to add a description in my package header and then "hide the accessory in client report". When I print the report, under detail, I "Hide show based on equipment setting" option. So that way I can choose what items I want to show accessories and what I do not. I mainly use this for just the prewire. . . .

04-06-2006, 01:38 AM

We do basically what Jordan does, of course we hide speaker brackets under the speakers. One difference: We package "Room Speaker and Control Wiring" place all the runs for music in the package for one room and it gets summed under a single line item in the proposal. Also, My D-tools doesn't prompt me for a location with each wire? Only the first one... So if I have 10 Rooms of music I just do headends on the first one, and 2-9 already have the same answers as I put in 1. We used to "Make up" a lot of stuff in d-tools to avoid doing it in the prescribed manor. We found it's much better to go with the flow instead of fighting it.

04-06-2006, 02:53 AM

I assumed that it asked a bunch of questions about runs for each wire run. If it does not (behaves the way you say) then it doesn't seem like much of a pain to do the d-tools way. Thanks, I will run a few quotes this way and see if I can get with the program....

Thanks again