SFM Preferences Window

From Summary, select File > Preferences.
The Preferences window opens for you to select the options and settings desired for Summary reports.

General Options

Run Combined All/Estimate File Pricing on startup: If this option is marked, if the Combined All - Estimate File Pricing summary does not already exist when you first go into Summary, it will automatically been run. If unmarked, the Combined All - Estimate File Pricing summary will not be run until a summary is run.

Run Print Preview on Quote Master: If this option is marked, when Quote Master is run, a print preview of the report will display. If unmarked, the quote is displayed in the Summary screen without previewing first.

Enable Hot Tracking: This option determines whether Hot Tracking is turned on or off. Hot Tracking will underline the Summary item that the mouse cursor is currently over.

show prompts for manual values: This option allows you to show prompts for manual values in summaries.

show prompts for quote values: This option allows you to show prompts for quote values in summaries.
You can setup the color for the manual and/or quote prompts by using the Edit Colors button on the Preferences window. If these prompts are shown, any manual/quote value will display with a different background color to alert you to enter a value for the item.

DISPLAYFull UOM Description: When this option is checked, unit of measures will be fully spelled out instead of abbreviated (e.g. “ea” becomes “each,” “lbs” becomes “pounds,” etc). For this option to take effect, the Summary report must be closed and re-opened.

Printing & Export Options

The two text fields for Print 'Adj Mat Unit' column as and Print 'Adj Lbr Unit' column as allow you to enter different titles for these columns to appear on the Summary report (e.g., you may prefer that your customers see a column titled "Price" rather than "Adj Mat Unit" on the report).

Select Custom Print Header to open the Customize Summary Printing Options dialog where you can select how the fields on your report display.

Level Display Options

Checking one of these boxes allows you to choose what is displayed in the tree view (printed reports) for each level.
The options include: Display Level Type Name, Display Level ID, Display Level Number, and Display Level Name.

VIEW PHASE BREAKOUT BY: Use this drop down to select how you want to view and print the Phase breakout (by material, field labor, shop labor, weight, area/volume, or your user defined phase, etc.)

VIEW SUBTOTAL BREAKOUT BY: Use this drop down to select how you want to view and print the Subtotal breakout (by material, field labor, shop labor, weight, area/volume)

Decimal Places

Use these fields to set the number of decimal places to be shown for both material and labor. You can either manually enter a number or use the up and down buttons to select a number. A representation of the number you choose is shown to the right of the input field.

Variance

Variance compares the current unit value (ignoring adjustments) to a value from Databook, and shows the difference in terms of unit and/or percentage.

You can select which unit from Databook they wish to compare using the

Calculation Method option.

Original: the unit used when the report was run (can be primary or alt/discount, depending on the Summary settings).

Primary: Always compares to the primary unit in Databook.

Alt: Always compares to the alternate / discount unit of Databook.

EPF: Always compares to the saved units in the Estimate Pricing File. If the user has not saved a value into the EPF, it defaults to the saved primary unit.

Note: When an item is added to the Estimate Pricing File, both its primary unit and alternate unit are added to the EPF. These values are used by default when Summaries are run (unless the user saves a manually edited price, which then takes precedence). Therefore, it is possible that, even without saving prices/labor to the EPF, Variance: EPF and Variance: Primary will give different results (e.g., a Price Update was applied after the EPF was created).

Note: If you change Variance preferences while a Summary is open, the Summary will update and display the new results.

- Variance cannot function if the current (or compared) value is SQMF. SQMF means that either there is no value, or there is an unknown value. In either case, there's no real meaningful comparison that can be made.

- Variance does not function for calculated values. Since variance is meant to compare current values against the Databook (or EPF - and calculated units are not saved to the EPF), and calculated values cannot be edited, they are ignored. Also: since calculated values do not display the units straight out of Databook, variance between the displayed unit and the Databook unit are meaningless.

Note: If variance cannot be calculated, a "---" symbol will be displayed instead.

Miscellaneous Options

SUPPLIER CONNECT: Opens the Supplier Connect Options window where you select your preferred service for acquiring pricing information. Select Viewpoint Pricer, EZ-Price, NetPricer, or Supplier Xchange.

Note: EZ-Pricer columns are universal, meaning they can be set once and used for all other Estimates created. However, EZ-Pricer columns will only appear if no Estimate-specific custom columns are setup in Summary.

Edit Colors: Allows you to select the colors of the units in the Summary Items Grid View. The [Set to Default] button will reset the colors to their original system settings. See Colors in SFM for more information.

Check Prompt to Save Changes to the Estimate Pricing File if you want Estimating to prompt you to save the changes made to the Estimate Pricing File.

Check Retain Edited Values after Updates are Appliedto have the edited items remain marked as edited, even after the Summary Report is updated.

Accounting Integration

Create Separate Material and Labor Items: When this preference is set, Accounting Bids will create separate cost codes for Material and Labor. If the option is not set, then Material and Labor items will continue to be combined. This option will only appear if you have an accounting software application selected in the Accounting Integration tab.

Export Codes: Use this option to choose which codes are sent to the accounting software application selected in the Accounting Integration tab. The Select Bid Export Pricing Codes dialog will display. Select the UPC, Vendor and Buyer pricing codes you want exported.

Note: The Summary screen has columns for all 9 of the codes (3 each for UPC Code, Vendor Code and Buyer Code). Verify which codes are being exported by creating the export and examining the files for which codes are included.

When you are finished selecting your preferences, select OK to accept any changes you have made and return to Summary. Select Cancel to return to Summary without saving any changes you have made.

Summary File Maintenance (SFM) Preferences Window