Cost Estimate Workflow

Modified on Thu, 4 Jul at 2:31 PM

In this article we will cover a standard workflow to following for creating, approving Cost Estimates and through to getting them Billed. This is a thorough workflow and depending on your internal processes you may skip some of these steps.

Step	Title	Actor	Comment
1	Create CE	Account Executive	Can be left in DRAFT and edited multiple times until ready to be approved.
2	Create task to have CE approved	Account Executive	Assign task to your GM or person responsible for signing off a CE, put a due date of 2 days or whatever your company SLA is for having CE's approved.
3	Approve CE	GM / Manager	Review CE, if changes are needed make a comment on the task and assigned back to the AE (Account Executive).
4	Update CE	Account Executive	Make CE changes and reassign approval task back to GM and update due date.
5	GM Approves CE	GM / Manager	Save CE as INTERNALLY APPROVED and close CE approval task which will generate notification to AE.
6	Send CE to Client	Account Executive	Send CE to client using send account functionality in Magnetic and choose option to set CE as ISSUED.
7	Client Requests Changes	Client	Email received by CE Owner and Job Watchers requesting changes and job comment made.
8	Changes reviewed and CE updated	Account Executive	After updating CE either resend to Client or create task for GM to approve again.
9	Client Approves CE	Client	Email received by CE Owner and Job Watchers giving approval. Job comment made with approvers email address. CE Status set to CLIENT APPROVED. Client receives email upon approving CE, requesting a PO is sent to the CE Owner.
11	Schedule Project Kick off	Account Executive	Schedule kick off meeting with stakeholders and Traffic to schedule work. Policy may dictate waiting for PO before starting though. If client doesnt requires a signed PO then proceed to Step 13.
12	PO sent to AE	Client	Client send PO to AE via email
13	AE actions billing	Account Executive	Attach PO to Job. Set CE Status to WAITING TO BILL. Kick-off project work if not started already. Create billing instruction task for FM/Bookkeeper to bill X% depending on CE terms.
14	Accountant bills client	FM/Accountant	Create TI. Close billing instructions task. CE status will be updated to PART BILLED or BILLED depending on % billed. If policy dictates that Accountant sends to client then do so and set TI as ISSUED else AE will action.
15	AE send to client	Account Executive	Send TI to Client if not done by Accountant and choose option to set as ISSUED.

Explanation of Cost Estimate Statuses

Draft	CE is still being internally created and confirmed.
Internally Approved	CE is approved internally and ready to be sent to the client.
Internally cancelled	CE has been canceled before being sent out.
Issued	Sent to client and waiting for approval.
Client Approved	Client has approved CE.
Client Cancelled	Client has canceled CE.
Awaiting Signature	CE Approved but waiting for PO or signed CE.
Waiting to bill	CE is waiting to be invoiced to the client.
Part Billed	Part of CE has been invoiced.
Billed	Full amount of CE has been invoiced.

How to monitor that the workflow is working

1. View the list of outstanding CE's that are in DRAFT or INTERNALLY APPROVED status and older than an x date that you can input. These should either be issued to the client and then approved/declined or moved to INTERNALLY CANCELLED.

2. View the list of CE's in CLIENT APPROVED, either a PO is still needed and the Account Executive must chase for one or one has been received and the CE hasn't been moved forward to billing and kickoff.

3. View the list of CE's that are in WAITING TO BILL, the accountant has not billed this CE yet and no Tax Invoice has been issued to the client.

4. View the list of CE's that are in PART BILLED, some jobs may have progress and the remainder needs to be billed.