How to Request/Add a Vendor Estimate

Do you need to request/record a vendor estimate for a work order? This article will walk you through recording an estimate and assigning the vendor from an estimate.

• If you go into an individual work order within the system, you will see the "Estimate" tab to record and manage estimates for a work order. In here, you can click on the actions button and you have the option to record an estimate  or request estimates. 

• If you select "New Estimate" this will be a way to record an estimate that you received from a vendor. You will have the option to choose the vendor this estimate is from, the amount, the date received, any comments, the estimated completion date, and any pertinent files you would like to upload. 

• Once this is created you will have the option to send this to the owner for a approval or you can approve it directly. Once approved, the total estimate amount will be established as the work order estimate cost, and the vendor will be assigned to the work order.

• The other option you have from the work order estimates tab is to request estimates. If you select this option, you will be able to choose multiple vendors that you would like to send an estimate request. You will also be able to select a submission deadline, any extra details, and select if you would like to notify the vendor that a request was sent to them. Once you click request in the bottom right, it will show the requests submitted. You'll be able to view the status of the estimate.

• Hopping over to the vendor portal, you can see what the vendor sees during this process. The vendors also have a new tab in their portal dedicated to just estimates. In here, the vendor will be able to see any current requests,  all submitted requests, and any declined requests.  When the vendor clicks on the current request they can either submit the estimate or decline it. If they want to submit an estimate, they can enter in the amount, any comments, the estimated completion date, and any files they want to include. Once they click submit it will send it back to the manager.

• Back on the manager side of things, you will now see the submitted estimate. This will have all of the information the vendor submitted. You have the option to send this for owner approval. If you choose this option you will have a field to enter in an adjustment. If you enter an amount here it will add to the total work order estimate that the owner sees. They will not see this adjustment amount, only the full amount of the estimate. This is useful if you are budgeting for any markups that might be added to the work order bill later. You also are able to view the total estimate from this page. There is another flag that lets you know if this estimate exceeds the maintenance limit that is set on the property. The last thing you can do is add any additional comments for the owner to see. When you are ready, click the green send for approval button and it will notify the owner asking for their approval.

• Viewing the owners side of things from their portal, you will see that they now also have an estimates tab just like the vendor. It will be very similar with the pending approval tab, approved tab, and the rejected tab. If you click on the pending approval you will see the owner has the option to either approve the estimate or reject the estimate. Once this is either approved or denied it will update on the manager side. I will approve this one and then head back over to the management side.

• Once that is done, you will see that the status has updated and automatically approves the estimate for you. You will notice that the vendor that submitted the estimate is automatically set as the assigned vendor on the work order. The estimate amount is also automatically set as the estimated cost on the work order upon owner approval.
  
  
  The last option you have in here ia if you approve the estimate without owner approval. There is an option to notify the vendor that their estimate has been approved. If this is toggled on, the vendor will receive an email notification that this was approved and will also appear in their approved tab on their portal. Once you click approve, you can go back to the main details page of the work order and you will notice that the vendor that you approved the estimate for will automatically be the assigned vendor for this work order. This will also automatically set the work order estimate cost.