Setup

Aspire provides strong capabilities to improve the ongoing efficiency of the estimating process. An advanced setup is required to take advantage of these capabilities.

The following list summarizes the planning and setup recommended before beginning to estimate in Aspire and explains the benefit of each.

• Establish takeoffs and takeoff groups – Takeoffs represent measurable aspects of a property upon which the company bases estimates. Such areas include turf areas, bed areas, sprinkler zones, or tree counts. For the purpose of logical organization, takeoffs can be divided into groups. The general takeoff areas must be established before their values can be assigned to specific properties.
• Establish and manage service catalog – See Services and Service Catalog for a description of services and the service catalog.
• Establish and manage item catalog – See Catalog Items for a description of items and the item catalog.
• Establish and manage pricing parameters – While Aspire gives you full control of pricing for any job, it also provides mechanisms to calculate pricing based on costs, markup, and net profit that you define prior to estimating.

The topics that follow provide additional information on the setup for each of these areas.