How pricing works

This page shows how BidUnity turns catalog prices into the numbers on a proposal: from a part's list price, through your multipliers, to the amount to buy, margin and tax. Use it to check a proposal line by hand.

Pricing at a glanceCopy Anchor Link

1. Unit cost = list price × finish multiplier × product group multiplier
2. Part cost = unit cost × amount to buy
3. Cost basis = the part costs (and labor) added up by expense account
4. Proposed value = cost basis ÷ (1 − gross margin)
5. Proposed value with tax = proposed value + sales tax or use tax

Each step is explained below.

Step 1: List price and multipliersCopy Anchor Link

List price. Each vendor part has a list price for each finish, called its finish prices. This is the vendor's catalog price before any multipliers. If your company has set its own list price for a finish, BidUnity uses yours. See Add parts and finish prices.

Product group multiplier. Your company sets one multiplier for each product group of each vendor, in Settings > Vendors & multipliers. A multiplier of 1 means you pay list price, 0.500 means you pay half of list, and 1.10 means list plus 10%. It applies to every part in the group. See Choose vendors and set multipliers.

Finish multiplier. A specification (the system, finish and options for a group of elevations) can carry a finish multiplier, for example to add cost for a special paint. You set it in Multiply finish price by, under Modify the finish price, when you add or edit the specification. It applies only when the part's finish price is for the specification's finish color. Otherwise it is 1. See Add specifications and elevations.

The order of the multiplications doesn't matter, and BidUnity doesn't round at this step.

Step 2: The amount to buyCopy Anchor Link

BidUnity adds up the sizes of each part across all elevations of a specification. Each size comes from the part's part use. It then works out how much to buy, based on the part's purchase type:

Some parts are set up by BidUnity to be prorated. For these parts, the amount to buy can be a fraction of a package instead of being rounded up to whole packages.

Part cost = unit cost × amount to buy.

Step 3: Which vendor part and finish are usedCopy Anchor Link

The same part can be sold by several of your vendors, each with several finish prices. BidUnity:

1. Looks only at vendor parts from your company's vendors.
2. Skips a vendor part that has no finish prices, or whose product group has no multiplier for your company.
3. Looks for a price in this order: one that matches the specification's finish color and finish type; then one that matches the finish color; then a mill finish or Not Applicable price.
4. Picks the option with the lowest list price for the amount to buy. This comparison uses list prices, before your multipliers.

Step 4: LaborCopy Anchor Link

Labor is priced apart from material.

• Each part on a system component can have labor: minutes Per part, Per linear foot or Per square foot. BidUnity multiplies the minutes by the part's count, total feet or total square feet.
• Your company's starting labor rates are in Settings > Proposal settings, under Default labor rates: Field labor per hour, Shop labor per hour, Field labor per square foot and Shop labor per square foot. They are copied into a proposal when you add a specification with a system type the proposal doesn't have yet.
• Default labor method on the same page chooses how labor is priced for those specifications. With Part labor (the default), labor cost = minutes ÷ 60 × the hourly rate. With Elevation square feet, labor cost = each elevation's square feet × the per-square-foot rate.

See Set proposal defaults.

Step 5: MarginCopy Anchor Link

Costs add up into the proposal's expense accounts and work types. The proposed value applies your gross margin:

Proposed value = cost basis ÷ (1 − gross margin)

This is a margin on the selling price, not a markup on cost. At a 50% margin, $100 of cost becomes a $200 proposed value, and half of that is margin.

The starting margin comes from your margin schedule, in Settings > Margin schedule:

• BidUnity adds up the proposal's total cost basis: every work type plus the proposal's indirect costs. It picks the tier where the Minimum threshold is at or below that total and the Maximum threshold is above it.
• If that tier has a margin for the proposal's project type, BidUnity uses it. Otherwise it uses the tier's Gross margin.
• If no tier matches, BidUnity uses your Default margin. It starts at 50%.
• Every work type gets the same margin from the schedule. The Summary's Margins card shows it as the Schedule margin.

The schedule only fills in work types that don't have a saved margin yet. You can change the margins on the proposal's Summary, in the Margins card, and click Update margins. A margin must be at least your company's Minimum margin and no more than 99.99%. See Set your margin schedule and Review the summary and finalize.

Step 6: Sales and use taxCopy Anchor Link

Each proposal has a Sales tax rate and a Use tax rate. BidUnity sets them from the project's site address. If it can't find rates for the address, both start at 7%. You can change them on the proposal's Summary with Tax rates.

How tax applies depends on an option for each work type, in the Summary's Options. New work types start as Materials and labor installed.

• Materials and labor installed: your company installs the work. Use tax is charged on your cost of the materials and shop labor. All labor is included in the value.
• Material resale: you resell the material. Sales tax is charged on the proposed value of the materials and shop labor. Field labor and the overhead from the pricing reports are left out of the value, but indirect costs assigned to the work type still count.

Material (including doors) and shop labor are taxed. Field labor and overhead are never taxed.

Proposed value with tax = proposed value + tax

Worked examplesCopy Anchor Link

Example A: a box of screws (Per unit, lot quantity). List price $8.00 per box of 100, finish Not Applicable (so no finish multiplier). Your product group multiplier is 0.50. The elevations need 130 screws.

• Amount to buy = 130 ÷ 100, rounded up = 2 boxes
• Unit cost = 8.00 × 1 × 0.50 = $4.00 per box
• Part cost = 4.00 × 2 = $8.00
• At a 50% gross margin: proposed value = 8.00 ÷ (1 − 0.50) = $16.00
• The work type is Materials and labor installed, so use tax at 7% is charged on the cost: 7% × $8.00 = $0.56. This line adds $16.56 to the total. Under Material resale, sales tax would be 7% × $16.00 = $1.12, for $17.12.

Example B: extrusions in Dark Bronze (Stock length). The Dark Bronze list price is $120.00 per 288-inch stick, one stick per package. The specification's finish is Dark Bronze with a finish multiplier of 1.0. Your product group multiplier is 0.62. The elevations need one 200" cut and one 90" cut.

• Fitting: the first stick has 288 − 200 = 88" left, which is too short for the 90" cut, so you need 2 sticks
• Unit cost = 120.00 × 1.0 × 0.62 = $74.40 per stick
• Part cost = 74.40 × 2 = $148.80
• At a 45% gross margin: proposed value = 148.80 ÷ (1 − 0.45) = 148.80 ÷ 0.55 = $270.55

Example C: trim by length with a paint uplift (Total length). The White list price is $0.85 per inch. The specification's finish is White with a finish multiplier of 1.15, so the multiplier applies. Your product group multiplier is 0.55. The elevations need 10 feet (120 inches).

• Unit cost = 0.85 × 1.15 × 0.55 = $0.537625 per inch
• Part cost = 0.537625 × 120 = $64.515, shown as $64.52
• At a 50% gross margin: proposed value = 64.515 ÷ 0.50 = $129.03

BidUnity keeps full precision between steps and rounds only when it shows a number.