Cabinet Planner Manual 6

Calculating faceframe material:
Click the 'CALC' tool bar button and then click the button next to "Face frame material and master list" . The program will cycle through each saved cabinet and add up the total length of each width of faceframe material for the entire job and give you the total board feet and the list of parts.

Calculating cabinet box material:
Click the 'CALC' button and click the button next to "Box material and master list". The program will add up the total of each Box material type in the job and give the master list of parts. This is the total that will be used for the job and does not compensate for waste or odd sized parts. Even if it says you will use 4 sheets, you may actually need 5 or 6 sheets if the job has over sized cabinets. This figure is the total square inches divided by 4608 to convert it to 4 x 8 sheets.

Calculating door material:
Once you have cabinets with doors, individual doors or raised panels saved you can then figure the total amount of material needed for them. You will be given the total length for each width of stiles and rails as well as the total board feet for the panels.

Calculating a door size list:
Click the 'CALC' button and click the button next to "Master door size list". This will give you a list of all doors in the job, sorted by type.

Calculating drawer fronts:
Click the 'CALC' button and click the button next to "Drawer front material and master list". This will give you the total length for each width of drawer fronts, the total board feet needed for them and the master list of drawer fronts.

Calculating drawer box material:
Click the 'CALC' button and click the button next to "Drawer box material and master list". This will give you the total material needed and the master list of drawer box parts.

Calculating back material:
Click the 'CALC' button and click the button next to "Back material and master list". This will give you the total material needed and the master list of back sizes sorted by material name.

Location assist:
Checking this box will fill in the location box with the location + the width of the last saved cabinet in a job. This only works when planning a job from left to right and when the Click & Drag feature is not enabled.

Pricing:
Before you can price a job, you need to enter your base price figures in the Set Prices window which can be found under the Set Standards menu. For each cabinet type, enter a price per lineal foot. The price you enter for the individual doors, raised panels and valance are per square foot. There are also price boxes for hinges, drawer guides, handles, crown and tax.

The box labeled Markup percentage can be used to increase all cabinet prices by the amount entered. This way you can enter your standard prices and if say a Cherry job comes along you can easily raise the price by 40%. The hinges, drawer guides, lazy susans, hardware and tax are not changed.

If you would like to add any other items to your price, check the box labeled "Add misc. Items when calculating prices". A window will open each time you price a job with two text boxes, one for the item name or description and the other for the price of it. If you need to enter more than one item click the 'add another' button.

Once you have established your base prices, press the button with "$$" on it and the program will compute a price for each cabinet according to the height, width and depth. These prices are based on your standard setting for each cabinet type. For instance, your standard upper cabinet height is 30, your standard depth is 12 and your base price is $40 per foot. If you plan a 12w x 30h x 12d upper, the price will be $40. If you increase any of the sizes by 23% the price will also increase by 23%. With a little experimenting you will have your job pricing done with the click of one button.

Creating a Proposal:

Once you have established your pricing above, you can now print out a proposal. Under the file menu you will find two selections; Edit Proposal Text and Print Proposal.

Select Edit Proposal Text and a window will open with two text boxes and two check boxes. The text in these boxes can be changed to any thing you want. The 'characters left' boxes are only there for a general guideline. The text can be a little larger, but if it is too big it will interfere with the signature line on larger jobs. Also, it is set up for normal text, if you use all uppercase letters the text will not print correctly.

If you check the box next to 'Make checks payable to your company', the program will automatically add "Please make checks payable to ;" followed by your company name.

If you check the box next to 'Open proposal editor before printing' the program will open this editor each time you print a proposal so you may make any changes that apply to the job.

Once you have the text set the way you want, click the file menu and select Print Proposal. If you have selected the 'Add misc. items when calculating prices" in the pricing window, the add items window will open before the proposal is printed.

I will be adding a Contract printout in the very near future. It will have the same basic format as the proposal, but with separate text files saved for it.

Creating a Contract:

Contracts are created in the exact same manner as proposals but have separate text files saved for them.

Metric sizes:
To have the program work with metric sizes all you need to do is reset all the standards to your metric preferences and place an X in the Round up box in the General Standards window. Then just enter all
your sizes in millimeters.

Miscellaneous