Best Flexible Tool Ever

We all get used to worksheet tools, they seem to be the best office invention ever. And I mean ever. From individual home use, school, through Professionals to huge corporations they are an essential part of everyday business, data capture, information view, and flow.

When it comes to price calculation of services project it seems no one has invented a more flexible tool yet. I agree.

But, is flexibility what counts?

 

Worksheet Advantages

The number one advantage of a worksheet is:  everybody has one.

Number two is compatibility and tools. Data created or captured in a worksheet is interchangeable with most applications and databases. It provides the capability to view, present, and format data with one click. Also, it is easy to expand, copy, add information. All that it expected worksheets can do, and plus.

If You are the only person working on pricing it is easy to prepare template and reuse it hundreds of times to compute the right cost and price. With almost no effort.

 

Where Worksheet Lacks on Price Calculation

Where the worksheet is starting to lack is when price preparation is a more complex process and it is a matter of two or more people to cooperate. There are file sharing solutions, but they don’t heal all issues.

Here are the top five advantages of using a dedicated application for the price building of the offer.

 

 

 

Number One: CONSISTENCY

Have You ever asked two different people on one team to calculate cost and price, but not providing a method template? I bet You will get two different results and approaches. No, not in principles, but in the details. But the devil is in the details.

Of course, the cost and price will be different.

Using one method from a dedicated platform guarantees consistency of method and calculation of your price. It is always the same, whoever uses it.

 

 

 

Number Two: ACCURACY


What I mean here we all have seen complex calculations done with a worksheet, but with errors like changed formulas or specifically wrong cell range.

The error in calculation can be introduced by your peer or employee, a worksheet is so flexible and easy to play – we know it!

In a dedicated platform app, one method of calculation guarantees accuracy.

Your price will be always right!

 

Number Three: WORKFLOW

If price (and obviously first cost) calculation is to be the output of team joined work, then only dedicated application can provide a systematic workflow of collaboration and approvals.

There is no need to send tens of versions of copies over email to all process participants.

In the past, I could witness project price preparation where the final version was ready after 40 plus versions of pricing flying around. After only a few, there was a necessity to agree on a system to remember which version is which.

Using dedicated applications dramatically improves tracking and common understanding which version is the actual one.

When it comes to approval again using the mail system to confirm price calculation is very inefficient and not easy to track.

 

 

 

"Using a dedicated platform to prepare price is a big advantage when it is a matter of two or more people to cooperate."

 

 

Number Four: AUTOMATION

Automation sounds big, but what I mean here are those little things which make the distributed process of price calculation faster, more efficient.

Like the “on the fly” multicurrency conversion of cost rates. How many times do we use resources with different currency cost rates? We know the pain of maintaining the cost rates.

Another improvement is storing and sharing all available project resources and its cost rates to all team who needs to use them for price preparation. It is in one central site easy to update and maintain.

 

 

 

Number Five: PORTFOLIO ANALYSIS

This advantage is something no one would expect. We all know worksheets are great for fast easy analysis.

But not in this case.

If we keep our calculations in separate files, there is no fast way to see the portfolio of pricing calculations as one thing for any analysis.

In a platform application, it is as easy as one click. If we additionally combine the approval status of calculation, we can really understand much more.

For example, how many offers we worked last month, or what is the typical gross margin for those customers accepted, or what is a volume of lost business we invested presale, and similar.

We can give tens of examples of interesting analysis to any business.

And we really love worksheets to make our analysis, It is easy to export integrated portfolio details from the dedicated app and continue analysis in worksheet!

 

Conclusion

In Today’s business collaboration, efficiency, and transparency of processes are very vital.

Cost and Price calculation deserve the same attention as other business functions and processes.

Accurate and consistent cost and price calculation is an essential component of our future profit.

We also deserve to have good business inside how we perform in price calculations.

This can only be delivered by dedicated applications, like PRICELL, to serve your price calculation.

 

GET YOUR PRICE ALWAYS RIGHT!

 

 

The author of this blog works for pricell.io - a dedicated platform to calculate cost of project and services