Update 2/21: I have made a minor change, as requested, to the program. You can now 'tab over' and the input boxes will auto-select for you. No big update, but it does help out alot if you use the program quite a bit.
---end of update.
Hey all,
Just wanted to make this little application that I wrote available to anyone that might find it useful. I wrote it to help me with pricing/quotations.
It's pretty simple, what it does is takes your materials, labor, and misc. items and helps you quote for your signage. You can save your quotations and open/edit them later.
The other neat thing (i think) is that you can print out custom quotations with a mock-up of the design along with your company info/logo.
I hope that you find it as useful as I do, and if any of you can make use of it, great! I'd also appreciate it if you could let me know any bugs you find. Because I'm sure there will be some. Just e-mail me if you find any.
Downloading the update only? Just download from this link and copy the .exe to your c:\program files\shanessignpricegen folder. It will copy over the old .exe
-shane
[ February 22, 2002, 01:32 PM: Message edited by: Shane French ]
Posted by Joe Rees (Member # 211) on :
Holy mackeral Shane, what a cool thing! I downloaded and installed, did a test quote, works great. With a few added features you could be on to a useful, even marketable utility. Whatever inspired you to create this thing, THANKS. I have ideas for enhacements if you're up to developing it further.
Posted by Shane French (Member # 2098) on :
Joe,
Thanks for the kind words, glad you enjoy it. As for the ideas for improvements/additions: shoot!
As far as it being marketable, I don't know about that, with great software out there like:
I'm not sure that anybody would be interested in paying actual money for a proggy like Shane's Signage Price Generator. But a note telling me how you like it would sure boost my ego!
Anyway, very glad that you like it. -shane
Posted by cheryl nordby (Member # 1100) on :
Wow Shane......thanks!
Posted by Amy Brown (Member # 1963) on :
Shane,
That's pretty cool! I've actually been shopping around for a program that I could use to print out quotes for my customers that would show different line items and let me adjust the tax rates as there are several different rates surrounding us. Ever thought about making all of the stuff print out so it can be handed to customers? Obviously it wouldn't show profits and things of that nature.
Did you use Visual Basic?
Very cool! Thanks for sharing.
Posted by Rob Larkham (Member # 2105) on :
Thanks Shane...maybe I can make a buck now. Very cool!
Posted by Jason Davie (Member # 2172) on :
Thanks Shane !! Great Program.. @ Posted by Shane French (Member # 2098) on :
Thanks all,
Amy, I'm not sure I understand exactly what you mean. The price prints out on the quotation, do you mean have the tax print out as well? That isn't a big deal at all actually. Let me know.
Yeah I used VB.
-shane
Posted by Karen Stein (Member # 241) on :
Hey Shane, good job! I like it!! (Price figuring is the only part of the job I REALLY hate...well, maybe cold calls come first)This helps make it a fairly painless process.
Karen
Posted by Joe Rees (Member # 211) on :
I could see myself using this utility a lot if it were a little more user friendly. As is, I felt like I could write things out in pencil quicker. Some suggestions;
I found myself right away wishing there were programable fields for commonly used materials and labor items which could be assigned prices. Instead of typing out "18# HDU" and entering a sq/footage amount, and a price per unit amount, I would have liked a scroll down list, and when I entered a unit amount it already knew the price per unit. (I like the global markup %). A particular advantage of having a scroll down list, especially in the labor fields, is the visual reminder of all the common steps in a fabrication that can easily be overlooked - the design and selling time, color matching, tracking down uncommon hardware or materials (purchasing), cleaning up after a project, etc.
I found the '0's in the amount fields a little troublesome too. Instead of just tabbing over to that field and entering an amount, you have to delete the zero. I kept accidently leaving zeros in, instead of 1 unit, it comes up 10.
The presentation printout function was pretty cool - More editable fields there to really customize font styles and sizes would be even better. One thing I would really like to see added is the ability to print out the estimate calculation sheet too, for shop use, showing the breakdown of all the materials and labor units as a checklist and reference during and after the project. That could be filed with the job info for future reference, a big plus for me.
I don't know if those are terribly hard things to add or not. The fact that you even did this much is amazing to me. If those new features were part of the program, I'd have to use it heavily every day and speak your name in hallowed reverence. Shane, Shane, Shane,
Posted by Shane French (Member # 2098) on :
Ha!
Thanks Joe for the suggestions. I'd really like to implement some of those, and probably will sometime (Shane's Signage Price Generator 2.0?). All good ideas.
The 'zero's' problem, yeah I know what you mean. Because of the way that I wrote the subroutine that handles input in the quantity and price fields, it kind of has to be that way. As long as you can get used to this though, I don't think it's a real big deal. All you have to do is double click inside that box and it will hilight the entire thing.
Anyway, keep the suggestions coming. All of these are doable, i'll probably try to accomplish some, if not all of this the next time I decide to sit down and update this thing.
-shane
Posted by Shane French (Member # 2098) on :
lunch time bumpage.
Posted by Joe Rees (Member # 211) on :
Ah, I didn't think to double click. It still means I have to take my hands off the keyboard, for me, I think it'll be easier to get in the habit of hitting the delete key after entering my price, to wipe out that zero. I just tinkered a bit more and realized the fields are locked to the current quantity too, if you have more than 4 labor items, you can't list them. Another tweak for future versions.
I thought of a workaround for printing out the breakdown list - use a screen grabber. That'll hold me over till v2.
Posted by Rob Larkham (Member # 2105) on :
Joe- don't go to crazy with the upgrades, I like the price of this version. LOL
Posted by Shane French (Member # 2098) on :
Joe,
Upon second consideration, I don't see why (even with my meager programming skills) it should be difficult to make the box automatically highlight when you tab over to it so that you can just type in your numbers. I'll work on this as soon as I get a chance. Thanks for your input.
-shane
Posted by david drane (Member # 507) on :
Hey Shane Thank You very much for sharing your expertise with us all. The only thing I would like to be able to do is put our Aus. 10% GST (Goods & Services Tax) on the entire job. At the moment 10% is easy to calculate in your head but I don't trust governments and one day it will probably go to 12.5% and so on. Is there any way I can put this equation in myself under "Miscellaneous". Apart from that little whine I think it's too cool I love it!! Posted by Shane French (Member # 2098) on :
Sales tax and the rest are in the works for the next version. So far over 100 people have downloaded this, i'm in shock.
-shane
Posted by Ian Wilson (Member # 177) on :
Thanks shane we have been looking for something like this for a long time I will give you more info when I have had a chance to play
Posted by Amy Brown (Member # 1963) on :
Hi Shane. What I was trying to say is when it prints out, it doesn't print out the items listed. Is it supposed? All I see is a place to add an image.
Does that make sense? I'm so confused!!
Posted by Stephen Deveau (Member # 1305) on :
Shane
Interesting program. Thanks.
I can see it working in most areas.
Posted by Shane French (Member # 2098) on :
Okay, I think I get it.
Well, I didn't design it that way, but I can add an option to let those things print if selected in the next release.
I just wouldn't ever print that out, because when I sell an item, I don't really care to tell the client, "I used 3 yards of A8 vinyl, 3 yards of app tape, 1 piece of acrylic, and it took me three hours of labor, and 1 hour of driving." Typically, I like to just present the package to the client as a whole, but I can see where you might want to do that in some cases.
Thanks for the suggestion, Shane
Posted by Amy Brown (Member # 1963) on :
Shane,
I think I was asking you to write a whole new program that fit my needs! Ha! I wouldn't want to hand the customer my material costs either.
Just ignore me! It's been a long day!
Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
Thanks for sharing, Shane!
Posted by Shane French (Member # 2098) on :
just a bump for the update. Nearly 200 people have downloaded the app now.
later, -shane
Posted by FranCisco Vargas (Member # 145) on :
201 now, it's coming thru the line...Thanks I'll give it a whirl.
Posted by Karen Stein (Member # 241) on :
Hey Shane
Thanks for such a nifty program. I just upgraded I do have a question tho...I have saved several quotes to another folder, and when I go back a couple of days later to review them, they are all scrambled up and I have to redo the whole thing. Am I doing something wrong, or have I encountered a glitch of some sort. I have tried saving, then reopening to make sure all is there and it is...wait awhile & reopen and it's all messed up again Any suggestions? They save as an .spf format which only opens with the estimator.
Karen (who loves what it does if I could just figure out how to save it Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :
Shane, did you do the "Welcome to Clearlake Oaks" sign? Did you use this price estimator?
Posted by Shane French (Member # 2098) on :
Karen,
I have no idea what could be causing the problem. Perhaps you could e-mail me a few of your .spf files and I could check them out and see what the deal is.
More than likely, I just wrote some buggy code though ;)
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
Any suggestions? 