Estimate Charges

You can provide customers with cost estimates for work orders before performing the work. You can estimate costs for variable charges like labor, material, and expenses. You can also provide estimates for fixed charges, like cleaning fees.

A cost estimate helps the customer to decide whether they want to proceed with repairing the defective product or asset. When the customer approves the estimated cost of the work order, you can move the estimate status to Approved. The technician begins work and you can no longer add, edit, or delete the estimated cost for that work order. When the work order is completed, the field service technician creates a debrief. The field service administrator then reviews the debrief and posts the charges to generate the customer invoice.

You can estimate charges for service work orders and for third-party work orders.

To estimate charges for service work orders:

1. Open the Manage Work Orders and Charges page. From the list of work orders, select the work order that you want to estimate costs for.

2. Click the Manage Charges and Estimates icon. The Manage Charges and Estimates page opens with the Estimates tab in focus. The work order details are displayed in the header.

3. To add an estimate line, click the Create (+) button. The Add Estimates window opens. All the fields are empty and the following fields are read only: Quantity, UOM, Expense Amount, and Currency.

4. Select a service activity from the Activity list of values.

   Note: Each service activity is associated with one or more billing types (such as labor, material, expense, and fixed charge). Each item is associated with only one billing type. When you select a service activity, only items with a billing type tied to that service activity will be available in the Item list of values.

5. Select an item.

   • If the billing type for the item is Labor or Material, then the Quantity and UOM fields are enabled.

   • If the billing type is Expense, then the Expense and Currency fields are enabled.

   • You can also add fixed charge items to your work order estimate. The item must be assigned with the billing type that's defined for fixed charges.

6. Enter the required details and click Save and Close or, to save your estimate line and create another line without leaving the Add Estimates window, click Save and Add Another.

7. When you're done adding lines, click Save and Close. Each estimate line you added is created and displayed in the Estimates tab of the Manage Estimates page. The item price is derived from Oracle Pricing.

8. Repeat steps 1 through 6 for each estimate line.

9. Click the Amount link to view the pricing details of the estimated amount at each line level. The Amount dialog box displays all the pricing components and adjustments from Pricing, which includes automatic adjustments, such as for subscriptions, and any manual adjustments that you enter. The subscription coverage and subscription number appear, so that you can research any billing discrepancies.

   1. Pricing Components: Describes the breakdown of the price components used to calculate the price on the charge line, including subscriptions and any other adjustments.
   2. Unit Price: Lists the unit price of the charge line.
   3. Amount: Includes the total amount the customer will be billed for the line.
   4. Your Price: Includes the total price the customer will be billed, including any pricing adjustments.
   5. Exclusive Tax: Includes the estimated sales tax.
      Note: Service Logistics supports inclusive and exclusive taxes. Inclusive taxes are included in the list price, while exclusive taxes are a separate price component.
   6. Net Price Plus Tax: Includes the sum total for Your Price and Exclusive Tax amounts.

10. Verify that:

    • Total Material equals the sum of all estimated material charges.

    • Total Labor equals the sum of all estimated labor charges.

    • Total Expenses equals the sum of all estimated expense charges.

    • Total Fixed Charged equals the sum of all estimated fixed charges.

    • Grand Total equals the sum of all the estimated charges.

11. You can edit an estimate line by selecting the row and clicking the Edit (pencil) icon. You can delete a line by selecting the row and clicking the Delete (X) icon.

12. You might need to edit the estimated price for items before sending the work order estimate to the customer. You might do this to include warrant coverage or other terms in the service contract with the customer. Click the pencil icon in the Your Price column for the price that you want to adjust. The Edit Price dialog box opens.

13. In the Edit Price dialog box, the price is adjusted according to the adjustment type you choose and the amount you enter. Use the following information to edit the price.

    1. Select the adjustment type. Here are the adjustments that you can make:

       • Discount Percent

       • Discount Amount

       • Markup Amount

       • Markup Percent

       • Price Override

    2. Enter the adjusted price amount.

    3. Select the basis or the price element. This is the pricing entity used to calculate the price for example the list price or net price.

    4. Select a reason for the adjustment. Predefined values include Price match, Sales negotiation, Error correction, and Other. You can add your own custom adjustment reasons while setting up Service Logistics.

    5. Click Save and Close to save the adjustment line and close the dialog box. You can add multiple adjustment entries for a single line item. When there are multiple line entries, the price is adjusted as per the sequence of the entries.

    6. You can also delete an entry that's not required.

To estimate charges for third-party work orders:

1. On the Manage Work Orders and Charges page, click Create Estimates. The Manage Charges and Estimates page opens.

2. Enter the work order details.

3. Follow the process described before for estimating service work orders, beginning with Step 3.