Hi, how can we help?
  1. LMN
  2. LMN User Guides
  3. Estimating

Estimate Settings

In this article:

Estimate Settings

      Set Default Budget

      Setup Default Estimate or Project Names

      Automated Contract Renewal Reminders

      Setup Default Estimate Status Mapping

      Estimate Settings Video

Terms & Conditions

Statuses

Divisions

Cost Codes

 

Estimate Settings

Set your default Estimates Settings: navigate to Settings > Estimates > Estimate Settings

💡 The Estimate Settings screen is important for 2 different reasons:

  1. You choose the default budget (and overhead recovery factors) to use when estimating work.
  2. You choose the default values for your estimate names.

 

Set Default Budget

  1. To set your Default Budget, navigate to Settings > Estimates > Estimate Settings. Setup your default budget(s) to use for estimating at the top of screen
  2. Simply choose one of your active budgets from the dropdowns. 

For each new estimate you create, LMN will get the overhead recovery markups, and the default profit margin, from the budget you select here.

⚠️ Important Tips

  • Each user can setup their own default budgets.
  • When you create a new budget each year, it's very important to ensure your estimators know they need to switch their defaults.
  • Once an estimate has been created, you do have the ability to override the default budget with the budget of your choosing.

 

Setup Default Estimate or Project Names

💡You'll want to setup the default naming convention for your estimators. Here, on this screen, you can tell LMN how you want you default estimate names to look. 

⚠️ Note: You can always change an estimate name after, but it's easier when your defaults name your estimates correctly!
  1. To set up your Estimate or Project Names, navigate to   Settings > Estimates > Estimate Settings
  2. On the Estimate Settings page, under the Default Estimate Name section, you will find the estimate name dropdowns, these are the fields you can choose from when constructing your estimate name.
    1. Custom Text 1 and Custom Text 2 can be used for fields that are not available in the "Name Component" dropdowns, such as the estimator's initials (KL) or the year (2025)
    2. The Separator field is the character that will 'split' the pieces of information ( :  _  - / | or ; )
    3. For Name Component 1, 2, and 3 choose between: Jobsite Name, Job Address, Customer Name, Division Name, Estimate ID
  3. Your default estimate name can be made of up of any of 3 distinct parts above. Choose the three parts using the dropdowns in any order you'd like. Example: KL|123 Main St|2025
  4. To see a preview of what your estimate default names will look like, refer to the green highlighted Sample generator

 

Automated Contract Renewal Reminders

💡 Manually tracking contract expiration dates can lead to missed renewals, service lapses, and lost revenue. Contractors need a reliable way to stay ahead of these deadlines to retain customers and maintain cash flow. LMN’s automated contract renewal notifications streamline this process, helping you act promptly and reduce administrative workload.
  1. To set up these Contract Renewal Reminder notifications, navigate to   Settings > Estimates > Estimate Settings.
  2. Under Contract Renewal Reminders, click the + Add button.
  3. Setup the count of days to have the reminder issued.
  4. Any Classification: Choose from the dropdown menu the classification types of contacts you have that you wish these notifications to be created for:
  5. Create To-Do, Send Email Notification: Dropdown and select if you wish to have a To-Do created, an email notification generated, or both:
  6. Salesperson: Then finally, choose from the last list of options if you wish these notifications be issued to the assigned salesperson, the assigned estimator, or both:
  7. When finished, click Save Changes at the top of the page.

 

Setup Default Estimate Status Mapping

💡 Estimate Status Mapping will set your estimates to a Status of your choice (In Progress, Lost, Sold) when your customer either approves or rejects your proposal from the LMN Customer Portal.
  1. To setup default Estimate Status Mapping, navigate to Settings > Estimates > Estimate Settings.
  2. Using the dropdown on the right, select the status of the estimate you want when the customer replies to your proposal in the Customer Portal: mceclip52.png

🎥 Video: Estimate Settings 

 

Estimate: Terms & Conditions

📖  Terms & Conditions Information

Terms and conditions allow you to specify default and optional terms, warranties, etc. for your estimates and contracts. They're easy to set up and they can automatically be added to every new estimate.

Default Terms and Conditions is text that will be automatically inserted at the beginning (header) or end (footer) of your Service/Standard estimates.  

You can customize Terms & Conditions on any specific estimate, but by setting Defaults, the text will be automatically inserted every time you create a new estimate.

Setup Default Contract Specs for your Estimates

  1. Set your default Estimates Settings: navigate to Settings > Estimates > Terms & Conditions
  2. Click the Setup Defaults button 

  3. Use the tabs across the top of the screen to navigate between the different areas for Defaults

    Standard Estimate Header Shows before any pricing information on Standard Services (design/build) Recommended for something like: "Thank you for allowing our team at XYZ Landscape Inc. the opportunity to quote on your project."
    Standard Estimate Footer Shows after any pricing information on Standard Services (design/build) Recommended for standard contract terms and conditions like exclusions, payment terms, warranty info, etc.
    Service Estimate Header Shows before any pricing information on Service Estimates (maintenance/snow estimates) Recommended for standard contract terms and conditions like exclusions, payment terms, warranty info, etc.
    Service Estimate Footer Shows after any pricing information on Service Estimates (maintenance/snow estimates) Recommended for standard contract terms and conditions like exclusions, payment terms, warranty info, etc.
  4. Edit the text you want to appear in your estimates. *Note: this is just the default text. You will be able to customize this text on any specific estimate!
  5. To enter default terms and conditions, you can either
    • Type your text from scratch
    • Copy/paste text from another source
    • Click the + button beside any of your existing terms and conditions to add them as a default term and condition
  6. Click the Save Changes button in the upper right to save your changes.

🎥 Video: Terms & Conditions

 

Estimate: Statuses

💡 Estimate Statuses allow you to create your own 'sales pipeline' in LMN. They allow you to see how much potential, actual or lost revenue you have at each stage of your sales pipeline.  LMN comes shipped with some sample statuses for you, but you're free to customize this list to create your own meaningful reports.

Set your Estimate Statuses: navigate to Settings > Estimates > Statuses

 

Estimate Statuses Information

  • Estimate Statuses are a critical part of Estimating and CRM reporting. You will apply a status to each estimate, and as it goes through your sales pipeline, you will adjust accordingly.
  • LMN comes with a default status list, however estimate statuses should be customized to reflect your company's sales pipeline.
  • Statuses can vary depending on whether you are applying them to Standard or Service Estimates.
    To switch between status lists, use the drop-down menu at the top of the screen as shown below:

 

Add, Delete & Adjust Estimate Statuses

Add a New Estimate Status

  1. Navigate to Settings > Estimates > Statuses
  2. Click the + Add New button

  3. Enter your Status Name and Sales Pipeline Status. 
    The Sales Pipeline Status will give you 3 options:

    Status Definition
    Pending Not yet won or lost
    Lost The customer did not proceed with this estimate.
    Sold

    The customer agreed to proceed with this estimate.

    💡 Locking Feature if "Sold": If you assign your new Estimate Status to Sold in your Sales Pipeline, you also have the option to automate the locking feature for the estimate. Once the customer has agreed to your Estimate Proposal via the Customer Portal, the estimate will automatically by updated to the "Sold" status and will be locked for any future, or accidental, editing. 

    Bulk Locking Feature: You can also assign this feature to any of the other statuses you have in your account in bulk by selecting the "Apply to other existing "Sold" sales pipeline statuses" option.

Edit/Delete Estimate Status

Under Actions, edit existing Statuses by clicking the Edit Pen button. 
To delete a Status, click the Trashcan.

Adjust Status Order

Your list of estimate statuses should start with the first step of estimating (e.g. Estimate In Progress) and then proceed to the final step (e.g. Billing Complete) in the order the estimates are most likely to progress.

To change the order of your statuses, change the number value to the left of the status, as shown below. The order will automatically save on each change.

🎥 Video: Statuses

 

Estimate: Divisions

💡 You'll want to take advantage of the Divisions feature to help you organize and track your estimates. 

Set your Estimates Divisions: navigate to Settings > Estimates > Divisions

 

Setup Divisions for Estimate Assignment

💡 Divisions are a way of organizing/tracking your estimates by department (or, division). You can create as many divisions as you need, but we recommend you keep it simple. When you create estimates, you'll assign each estimate a division so you report on sales by divisions using the CRM.
  1. Navigate to Settings > Estimates > Divisions
  2. Click the + Add new button
  3. Enter the name for your Division (department)
  4. You can also set a Sales Goal, Labor Hours Goal, and Expected Closing Rate %, which is where your Estimate Dashboard will pull its Sales goals from. Once you enter that information, the Revenue/Hr goal and Estimate goal will auto populate.mceclip54.png
  5. The Estimate $ Required will look at your Sales goal, and based on your expected closing rate, let you know how many dollars you should aim to estimate in jobs in order to hit your sales goal.
  6. When finished, click Save.

🎥 Video: Divisions

 

Estimate: Cost Codes

This section will give you a quick overview of the setup for your Cost Codes. For a complete tutorial, we recommend you visit our Academy Online to watch our Cost Codes video, please click HERE.

  • Cost codes will be set up in LMN to link revenue to your Service Items in QuickBooks.
💡 Please note: Most contractors have a lot of service items, or they use them incorrectly. We strongly recommend you check out our Help Desk for videos that guide you through setting up QuickBooks.
  • Once your estimates are pushed to QuickBooks, Service Items will help to show you how much revenue you earned in different areas of your business vs. how much you spent on COGS (Labor, Equipment, Materials, Subs) to earn that revenue.

Add Cost Codes to LMN

  1. Navigate to Settings > Estimates > Cost Codes
  2. Click the + Add New button
  3. Add Cost Code Name and External ID

💡External ID can be used as a field to add your QuickBooks Account ID (if applicable)

mceclip64.png

🎥 Video: Cost Codes

 

Need more help?  Contact our Support Team by email at lmn-support@granum.com, through Live Chat, or by phone at (888) 347-9864

Signup for our Live Webinars or learn more about attending our in-person Bootcamps HERE

 

Comments

0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.