Product library

Owned by Timothy Hitchcock
Last updated: Oct 29, 2024 by Chris Phillips
6 min read

Creating/Editing the Product Library

A ‘Product’ can consist of a single part, or it can be the sum of many parts that come together in an assembly to produce the ‘Product’.

An example of a single-part product might be a bespoke fireplace mantle made from a single piece of Oregon Black Walnut lumber selected to the desired width, length, and thickness for the project.

Conversely, a Two-drawer, Two-Door Base Cabinet is a ‘product’ that is the sum of its parts. It’s made up of many parts that may include panels, toe kick, edge banding, shop supplies, and hardware: drawer glides, hinges, and pulls.

it is common, that as you are building your product library, you will also be building your database of parts along the way.

Use of the Estimates module can be mutually exclusive of other modules within Crows Nest. For example, an organization can use the Project module and do all of their estimating outside of Crows Nest, if they choose to do so. Conversely, an organization could use Crows Nest exclusively as an estimating tool.

Maximum efficiencies are gained when organizations use both in harmony with one another. When you’ve won the bid, the estimate you’ve created in Crows Nest can be processed into Phases (Work Orders), complete with labor & material budgets, SOV, drawing records, and much more!

Step-by-Step:

We’ll begin by selecting any existing Estimate, on any existing Project. If you don’t have any Projects in Crows Nest yet, click here to go to Projects first.

  1. Navigate to the Product Library Tab by going to: Estimates-> Takeoff->Product Library.

     

  2. Select the Estimate that you want to begin building products in.

     

  3. Navigate to the ‘Takeoff->Product Library’ tabs.

  4. Click the pencil icon to Edit Library.

     

  5. Right-mouse-click in the gray area of the product pane and select ‘Add’ from the pop-up context menu to add a new Product to the library.

     

  6. Select a Product Line. (Note: In this example there is just ‘Standard’ and ‘Custom’, but the list should be tailored to fit the various product lines that your organization produces and/or markets.) Click here to learn more about how to add, rename, or delete product lines see: Setting Up Product Lines

     

  7. Select the Product Type from the ‘Select Product Type’ pop-up menu. As with Product Lines, Product Types will be uniquely tailored to your organization. For this example, we’ve selected ‘Toe Kick’. Right-mouse-click anywhere in the list to add, rename, or delete Product Types. Click here to learn more about how to add, rename, or delete Product Types: Setting Up Product Types

     

  8. Name your new product and click ‘OK’, to save.

     

  9. Fill-in the appropriate specifications for your new product. In this example, the height of the Toe Kick is set to 4” tall, and the width is set to 12”, as this product will be estimated in lineal feet.

     

  10. Once you’ve created a new product, click on the ‘Labor’ tab.

  11. Next, right-mouse click in the gray ‘Labor’ records panel and select ‘Add Department’ from the pop-up context menu.

     

  12. Select an applicable labor department that performs work on this product and click ‘OK’.

     

  13. Click the ‘None' link in the ‘Operation’ field to open the ‘Select an Operation’ pop-up. Select an appropriate operation. Note: this step is optional. Often when creating estimates, organizations will choose to only do a work breakdown to the department level, not the operational level within that department. Over a period of time, empirical data from actual labor records can provide for more accurate estimating and products can be refined to be more accurate.

     

  14. Enter a value in the ‘Hours’ field that represents one minute of labor. One hour (1), divided by sixty (60) minutes = .0166666. However, it isn’t necessary to enter to that level of decimal precision.

    Note: The ‘Amount’ field will be automatically calculated as the SUM of ‘Hours’, multiplied by the ‘Rate’ = ‘Amount’. Labor rates are setup in Settings->Options->Labor.

     

  15. Repeat steps 11-14 adding all of the labor necessary to produce this product.

     

  16. Switch from the ‘Labor’ tab to the ‘Material’ tab. Right-mouse-click and select ‘Add Category’ from the pop-up context menu.

  17. Select the first category of material that will be used to produce this product, and click ‘OK’.

     

  18. Click on the ‘None’ link in the ‘Part’ column to open a pop-up allowing you to search for and select parts that make up this product being created.

     

  19. Optionally, you can Click on the ‘None’ link in the ‘Color 1’ column to open a pop-up allowing you to search for and select a ‘Color’ that will apply to the part on this product being created. Click ‘OK’.
    You can repeat this process with ‘Color2’ and the other available attribute fields, if applicable.

     

  20. Repeat steps 16-19 until you’ve entered all the related parts that go into the product being created. Review all of your materials and enter appropriate quantities and dollar amounts. The ‘Extended’ is a calculated field and will display the sum of the quantity multiplied by the amount. Note: the ‘Modifier’ field in this example is used to add a token amount of ‘Glue’ in the category ‘Shop Supplies’ without having to create a unique part for the glue.

In addition to the Labor and Materials tabs discussed above, a Sub-Products tab has been added with the October 2024 software release. This tab allows you to combine multiple sub-products into a final product (e.g., a cabinet carcass can be combined with a door assembly to create a 1-Door cabinet. Or, a cabinet carcass can be combined with a drawer assembly (qty = 3) to create a three-drawer base cabinet.)

 

  1. Return to the ‘Takeoff’ tab in Estimates and select the ‘Product Libary’ tab.

     

  2. Double-clicking the Product that you just created adds it to the ‘Current Group’. Repeat this entire process to build an estimate for the selected project.