Break it all out
Break it all out
I'm trying to do a proposal for a customer that I do a lot of T&M work for. I don't want to piss him off with a crazy number, but I want to profit also.
I came up with 8900.00. Please feel free to give me your opinion.
If it is an existing long-standing client, and anyone that pays for a lot of T&M work, as you stated you do with them, I give great breakouts to. I like to give them the details as each line item looks small, including mngmt/oh. Plus to arrive at solid numbers, you may already have a spreadsheet you use that performs this very function based on a percentage of man-hours in the field or whatever you use.
I too show disposal as a separate item, as disposal of fluorescent tubes around here can be costly. Some charge per lamp PLUS employee time taking down, boxing, delivering, etc. Then you can let a client decide if they want to do the disposal themselves.
How did you arrive at your numbers? Some of the questions I would have, already iterated by some are:
1) Height of attachment point
2) Is there a deadline?
3) What are work days/hours? (sometimes they may be odd if it is an in-use space for a business)
4) Is it unobstructed space?
5) Who will move stuff around (if it needs it)?
6) Is it an older building where things like asbestos may be present?
7) Is it a level surface you are working off of in all areas?
8) Have you looked at LED or induction fluorescent?
9) How far do you park form the work area?
10) How much is travel time?
11)Where is staging performed relative to work area?
12) Have you accounted for ordering, receiving, inspection of all fixtures
13) 11 needs to include all the cardboard afterward and an allowance for damaged lights.
14) Use lots of allowances, do not use "not-to-exceed"
15) Clean up at the end of each work day
16) Where normal refuse goes
17) Does the client require floor protection through traffic areas?
18) Are all hangar points available? (no ducting, sprinklers, conduit, etc)
The above is not exhaustive and may not even apply in all cases, plus, you may have them all in place to prepare initial bids already. But, since you asked, we get to reply as we deem appropriate. Each task is a set amount of time that may be a standard for many jobs so they only need to be put together once as a list and values inserted in the future.
Boiler-plate verbiage is good too, like "estimate based on unobstructed access to all work areas" and "no other trades in area during change-out" so when you arrive and someone has set 8 pallets of stuff in the way or an HVAC person is setting duct where your points of attachment were going, you can point out what the contract states. Of course, you would need the corresponding verbiage of what the remedial action is when any given "assumed" is not met. IE, "If area is not unobstructed on arrival, work immediately goes to T&M at X per hour per person".
As you compile a boiler-plate of items for contracts, make sure you delete what is unrelated to the job. I remember one architect's binder of specifications for a large project having numerous references to "comply with military standard xxxxx" it was a residence and the client was probably charged a fortune for what appeared to be a ton of work specific to their home. I wonder if he/she was embarrassed when one of my RFI's was "Please confirm necessity to comply with military standards per..."
I have no problem printing my entire spreadsheet out and giving it to long-standing clients because I am next-to-never competing with someone. If I get the inkling I am, that is a different story. Yes, they may abuse it.
