Welcome to the freeware version of the ULTRA ESTIMATOR – RETAIL program.

This simple spreadsheet program was created in Microsoft Excel 2003 in the Windows XP Pro environment. You MUST have a compatible spreadsheet program to use this program. This freeware software application is a simple form used to generate a quick estimate of retail service(s) and/or retail product sales primarily for the PDR (Paintless Dent Repair) industry. It is not intended to be used as an order or receipt generator, but can be modified by an end-user to be such. This software is distributed as freeware without reservation or restriction of any sort and may be freely redistributed, modified, edited or changed in any way. This software is not intended for sale and it should be considered illegal to sell this software (if at least 90% unchanged from original code) for any form of legally recognized monetary currency. Please practice all shareware courtesies when using this or any shareware product. There is no warrantee, either expressed or implied, about the use or the performance of this software. Use this software at your own risk. Your use of this software implies your full acceptance of all responsibility for the use of this software.

It is expected that, to correctly use this program effectively, the user has a basic working knowledge of spreadsheet software. Most of the instructions here are useless without this fundamental knowledge.

A multiplier field is added to allow for adverse conditions to increase estimate based upon sharp dent(s), creased dent(s), bodyline dent(s), hard access dent(s), aluminum panel. This allows for adding an increase to each panel element for each or all of these conditions.

The non-hail dent sizes were changed from 1”,1.5”,2”,2.5”,3” to 1”,2”,3”,4”,5” respectively. None of the pricing matrix was changed. It was felt the new size ratio more accurately represents the repair cost within the matrix, and covers a larger range of dent sizes.

ABOUT THE SHEETS IN THIS PROGRAM:

1. CHANGING THE COMPANY INFORMATION

You will want to change the default (original) company information to your own company information before printing a copy of an estimate. Select the “Company Info” sheet tab and you have access to certain fields to enter your own company information. You will notice that the change is “live”. The fields that are on the “Main” sheet are updated automatically for you as you enter the new data. Once you’ve made all your changes simply switch back to the “Main” sheet to see that the changes are completed correctly. Depending on your display resolution you may need to scroll down to the company information area to see the data. At this point close the program. You should be asked whether you want to save your changes or not. Select the Yes option. Your company information is now permanent (in your copy of this program). Re-open the program to use it with your saved information.

2. THE LISTS SHEET

The “Lists” sheet shows the values stored for all of the pull-down menus located on the “Main” sheet. You should never need to edit this information, but you may want to. Unprotect the sheet, make your changes and re-protect the sheet for safe usage. Make changes at your own discretion!

3. THE REMAINING SHEETS

The remaining sheets contain the matrix from which the estimates are calculated. These pages tie in with the “Lists” sheet entries to extrapolate and calculate the “estimate” values. While these sheets should be protected from editing you can unlock them, put in your own values and then re-protect the sheets.

USING THE PROGRAM:

The “Main” sheet should be protected so that you can only select the fields that you should be working with. While a mouse is not necessary to work with the program it is helpful. Please note: moving the mouse over nearly any field item will display a relevant item note.

Click on each field you want to put information in to (or use your arrow keys on the keyboard to go to the field).

For text fields such as “Last Name” under the area “Customer Information” simply type in the information. The program does NOT do spell checking or capitals corrections for you except for any already active in your spreadsheet program.

For pull-down menus select the appropriate values for your specific estimate. A mouse can easily select the pull-down menu arrow, or the keyboard combination “Alt-Arrow Down” (Microsoft Excel) will pull down the menu. With the mouse select the desired value. With the keyboard use the up and down arrow keys to highlight and the enter key to select the value. A menu may extend past the few items initially displayed so watch for a scroll bar to see more items in the list.

The upper “Customer Information” area is fairly self-explanatory as to content. The areas for entering the damage to be repaired are simple and are as follows:

The “Title Block” for each panel is a fixed field, such as “Right Front Door”, and is not selectable, so clicking on it does nothing.

èThe 2 side-by-side pull-down bars immediately underneath the panel title with the green-shaded background are for hail dents. Holding the mouse over either of these fields will open a note as to the use of the field. The first entry is for the general quantity, the second is for the size. Both of the entries must have a non-zero value to generate a repair price, and both can be changed at any time.

èThe single yellow-shaded pull-down to the right side of the hail-dent fields is the multiplier box. The Multiplier chart is on the worksheet and is used to calculate the multiplier value, if any. Count how many multiplier elements apply to the individual panel and select the value that applies (0, 1 to 5) from the pull-down menu. The estimate for the panel (hail/non-hail) is increased by 25% of the standard price to a maximum of 125% increase. The maximum value of 225% of the standard price is possible (for a “5” selected multiplier value).

* A correction was made to the note attached to this tab – the actual calculation was correct but the note specified 125% and 150% instead of 100% and 125%.

èThe 3 side-by-side pull-down bars below the two “hail estimate” bars are for non-hail dents. Holding the mouse over either of these fields will open a note as to the use of the field. The first bar is for the dent depth (shallow / medium / deep), the second is for the diameter (1” to 5”) and the third is for quantity. All three fields must contain a non-zero value for the dent estimate to be calculated. A panel CAN have both hail AND dent damage. The combined price is calculated and totaled automatically for you. The sub-totaling and totaling of all estimated labor is done automatically for you. If a dent is outside the selectable sizes, such as a 6” dent, there are ways of creating an estimate for it such as selecting the 3” dent and a quantity of 2. This is a rough process, but again, this is an estimate. You should be able to approximate an estimate for nearly any dent that can be repaired by PDR.

The taxable area is for taxable entries to be used in the estimate. Enter the item description (not required for estimating purposes), the quantity (required) and the price-per-item (required). The program will automatically calculate the multiple-item price and sub-total of the taxable section for you.

You must also enter the correct tax rate for your area to have the taxes correctly calculated for you. Example: enter “7.75” (without the quotes) into the “Tax Rate” field for 7.75 percent to be applied to the taxable items. Taxes are applied to the taxable items only, not the labor items. This can be changed for special circumstances where required, either by the end user or by special request of webmaster@UltraDentTools.com, the software writer.

PRINTING AN ESTIMATE

Your estimate should now be ready to print at this time. The preset settings are to print the estimate sheet to a whole page in color. If you only have a black-and-white printer the print-out will be in black-and-white, or perhaps you can override your printer settings in the print setup menu of your computer to print in grayscale or in black-and-white.

SAVING AN ESTIMATE

When you exit/close the program do NOT simply save the changes. If you MUST save the estimate then save the file to another name, such as the customer name, but keep the .xls extension on the filename. (NOTE: Your browser may not be set to display file extensions. If not, it should be added automatically for you.) This will copy the entire estimate program with your entries in-tact. Example: save file as “JOHN_JACOB_SMITH.xls”. Then you will have a permanent estimate record in a computer file. Saving the file is done through the FILE menu. Select the “FILE / Save As” menu option. If you need to create a directory you can do so from this menu, and you can navigate to where you want to save the estimate as well from this menu. Change the file name and save it to your chosen location.

HINT: Copy the original ESTIMATOR program to your SAVE AS location and make the program file READ-ONLY through the attributes setting for the file. Now when you open the program it will be where you want to save your new estimate already! By marking the program as READ-ONLY you MUST rename the file before saving it. You can not now accidentally overwrite the original blank ESTIMATOR program file. It is preserved for repeat use.

CLEARING AN ESTIMATE

To clear the worksheet simply select any used text field and delete the info, then set the pull-down entries to the (top-of-the-list) empty entry, or exit the program without saving and restart the program. As long as you never overwrite your original blank program it will always start up blank and ready to use.

Yes, there is a retail version in the wind that you will need to buy to use, and it will be made to: use insurance information, offer discounts, save records, do a clean reset, and all the other things you’d expect in a program you pay for! The damage-per-panel will be far more complete allowing pinpointing of damage with a printable panel sheet, allowing for attaching of photos, and the final invoice will be much more comprehensive and sensitive to content.

Send any useful comments to webmaster@ultradenttools.com and check back for regular update versions!

Good luck, GOD bless you and your customers, and good estimating!