Wire by the foot

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Fred B

Fred B

Senior Member
Location
Upstate, NY
Occupation
Electrician
How do you all calculate the length to charge for wire by the foot? You have a meter to pull it through as you unspool? Use an simple ohm reading and calculate? Or read before /after on the spool of wire maybe with a greenlee cable length meter like this? Or just guesstimate?
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I have QuickBooks, so I have on a daily basis entered all my material & labor descriptions with prices. And yearly or monthly as needed, update them all with one click at a percentage point. I guess you could call it a "Pricing Book".
 
mtnelect said:
I have QuickBooks, so I have on a daily basis entered all my material & labor descriptions with prices. And yearly or monthly as needed, update them all with one click at a percentage point. I guess you could call it a "Pricing Book".
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Please tell me how to use the wire length needed feature in Quickbooks. I have an underground project (raceways and pull wire) tomorrow. I would like to ask Quickbooks how much wire will be needed.
 
curt swartz said:
Please tell me how to use the wire length needed feature in Quickbooks. I have an underground project (raceways and pull wire) tomorrow. I would like to ask Quickbooks how much wire will be needed.
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This is not a feature of QuickBooks itself ... This is something you create overtime; it becomes a historical document. Under "Products & Services" you are entering one item at a time. In essence you are creating your own "Price Book". So, when I am creating an Invoice, I refer to my "Product & Servies" listings and select what I need to complete the Invoice or Estimate.
 
mtnelect said:
This is not a feature of QuickBooks itself ... This is something you create overtime; it becomes a historical document. Under "Products & Services" you are entering one item at a time. In essence you are creating your own "Price Book". So, when I am creating an Invoice, I refer to my "Product & Servies" listings and select what I need to complete the Invoice or Estimate.
Click to expand...
The question was, how do you determine how much wire you used on a project? I'm guessing the OP was talking about not having exactly measured it. Unless your "price book" had the exact job and/or same amount of wire, the book is useless for this question.
 
Little Bill said:
The question was, how do you determine how much wire you used on a project? I'm guessing the OP was talking about not having exactly measured it. Unless your "price book" had the exact job and/or same amount of wire, the book is useless for this question.
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Sorry, I misunderstood the question.
 
Little Bill said:
The question was, how do you determine how much wire you used on a project? I'm guessing the OP was talking about not having exactly measured it. Unless your "price book" had the exact job and/or same amount of wire, the book is useless for this question.
Click to expand...
Right, the $/ft not issue, just how to get the footage used at a job is. Currently use guesstimate, but on a given job maybe over or under. Would like a more accurate means (but cost effective) so as to not short change myself or be over charging the customer. Historically it seems I've been shorting myself overall, but with markup kind of break even on my cost of a roll, but would like to keep more of the markup that I built to help cover smalls that customers complain if I list separately as "nickle and diming".
 
Not a good example of how to:

We charged by the SEWAG/ft. Most of our jobs were smaller and rarely any of any size, bid. Larger were billed per delivered qty, say 5000 feet. Significant returns were weighed & credited back.

eta: We had a TDR but I don't think it was any more accurate than the SEWAG/ft, plus it took more time.
 
I usually try to remember to measure, at least as good as I can. If I forget that, I go to the "guesstimate". I try to mark wire up enough to cover any mis-measurements. If I've used most of a roll, I just charge them out a full roll with a lesser mark-up.
 
Anybody ever use one of those meters like the greenlee I pictured in the first post?
Been buying NM by the 1000ft role as I get a better deal but if I'm not able to charge for every foot installed not getting full benefit of the bulk pricing.
 
My SH has one that they will check partial spools for me/customers. It has been within a few inches of actual wire the few times I've had them check for me.
 
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