Builders will often tell a prospect that they are only prepared to do a job as Cost Plus. Cost Plus has a number of different names;  Cost Plus, Do & Charge, Time & Material, You might know other terms.

They all refer to the builder charging for their labour, and charging a set margin on materials and sub-contractors used. Cost Plus is appropriate if the customer has no plans, or there is no scope of works (or both), or the job is difficult to arrive at a costing that you the builder is comfortable you are going to make a profit. You do not want to be working for free! What ever the reason, the prospect, Architect or Building Designer will often as you for an Estimate of costs or an approximation.

BM is set up for the builder or estimator to provide a proposal that ensures it states clearly and repetitively that the proposal is an ESTIMATE only. It is NOT A QUOTATION.

Doing an ESTIMATE

Starting in the LEAD you will hit the . CREATE QUOTE button. This will take you to the ESTIMATE form. 

You are now ready to create an ESTIMATE. The form will say QUOTE as this is a term BM has used for creating a costing proposal to a prospect.

Under QUOTE DETAILS at the top of the QUOTE form are two tick boxes. One box says FIXED PRICE the other says COST PLUS. Tick the COST PLUS box.