Client Information Card of Estimating Templates

Q. What do you do when the city & state begin with the same letters i.e., Iowa City, Iowa and the state cell automatically finishes with the city name in its place?
A. Type the state abbreviation as usual, then simply press the “DELETE” key to erase the rest of the text, then press the ENTER key. Or you can permanently disable the Auto-Complete function in Excel from the Tool, Options menu choice and uncheck the Enable AutoComplete for cell values checkbox on the Edit tab.

Q. Why do I get the “MMEXEL1” error message when I delete the City, and how can I stop it from happening?
A. This is an error message from the Milemaker program. When you have already input city and states at origin and destination and a mileage value has been calculated by Milemaker, you have to delete the state before changing the city input. Deleting or changing the city with a state value in place creates the MMEXEL1 error. Using this technique will keep the error from happening without requiring you to start over on a new estimate form.

Q. What should I do when the county & acts don’t come up yet the miles are there?
A. 1st make sure the city & state are input correctly and check spelling, 2nd you may have to enter the county manually. The mileage is provided by Milemaker and the rates are provided by SalesTools. SalesTools has 4500 major cities and their associated counties in a database that come up automatically. Other origins and destinations will not pull up an associated county so you will have to type in the county (spelled correctly) in the county field to pull up the correct rates for that county. You can look up the counties in the Milemaker program if you don’t know the county spelling.

Q. Sometimes a dialog box pops up with options of choosing a city and state, yet when I “SELECT” the appropriate one it doesn’t use it?
A. Actually, Milemaker does use the city you select to calculate the correct mileage, however it doesn’t change the displayed name in Excel. You must retype the correct city name if necessary to help SalesTools find the correct county for pricing lookup. See the question above regarding changing city input without creating the “MMEXCEL1” error.

Q. What are all those little red arrows in the corner of some cells?
A. The red arrows indicate useful tool tips to help assist the user with entering the correct information for the current field. If your tool tips don’t display when you point your mouse at the red arrows you can turn on the display of tool tips in excel with the tools options menu choice. Click on Comment indicator only on the View tab.
** It’s a good idea to get familiar with these helpful tips. They will help you use the program more successfully. You can turn off their display if you like when you are familiar with all of them.

Q. How do I get the information attached to those red arrows to appear and/or disappear?
A. To make the information appear, point at the red arrow to make the info disappear point someplace else. If they are always displayed it gets real annoying. Use the technique from the proceeding question to make them appear and disappear.

Q. When I input the weight, why does a discount automatically come up? And can it be changed?
A. The default discount is based on the weight and mileage, and the pricing zones at origin and destination. The discount is pulled from the Bekins Van Lines pricing grid on the pricing worksheet tab. To change the discount just type in the discount you want over the default discount that the program retrieves from the grid.

Q. When I change a discount in the “BL” field, why does it change the “ACC” field?
A. The program defaults to a bottom line discount by setting the accessorial discount to the same discount as the LINEHAUL. If you want a different accessorial discount from the LINEHAUL, just type the discount you want over the default level of discount in the accessorial discount field.

Q. When I type in the 1st P/U date, why does the last P/U date and 1st and last delivery date automatically fill in?
A. The program defaults to the pickup spread and delivery spread that is specified by Bekins Van Lines on the transit guide grid. You can view the grid on the transit guide worksheet tab. Use the 1st Delivery Date hyperlink to quickly view the grid. To change the defaults to the customer’s preferences, merely type the dates you want in place of the default dates.

Q. When inputting extra P/U’s into the extra P/U field why doesn’t it change the mileage?
A. The extra pickup and delivery field are not included in the Mileage lookups for technical reasons (It creates a lot of opportunities for errors). When you have pickups or deliveries that will affect your mileage use Milemaker to determine the correct overall HHG’s route mileage and input the result into the mileage field on your estimate. Make sure you input the cities in the correct order to retrieve a correct mileage.

Q. Do I have to fill in every field?
A. Technically no. However… lets just say that too much customer information is better than not enough. Required input to calculate a ballpark quote is origin city, state and county and the same for destination. You must also input a weight and the discount will be filled in by default. If the counties at origin and destination aren’t returned from the database you must also supply a county at origin or destination to calculate a price.

Cube Sheet

Q. How do I get the cube menu bar to return to the page?
A. Right click on any menu or toolbar and pick cube off the list of available toolbars.

Q. Can I use the cube sheet to calculate crating?
A. Yes. The crating section is just above the totals in the lower right hand corner of the cube sheet, the same place it is located on the physical cube sheet form. Input the dimensions of the outside of the crate in the article column of the form. Or you can put the total cube in the cubic feet column. Don’t forget to put the number of crates in the no. of pieces column.

Pricing Sheet

Q. When I pick an option from the choices of the drop down list i.e., Fuel Surcharge, Bulkies, etc. Why isn’t that choice reflected in the price?
A. You must also point and click on the option you’ve displayed to complete your choice and have the choice register. The article in the list will turn blue when you have properly selected it from the list.

Q. There are only two places for Bulkies, what if I have more?
A. you can add more Bulkies in the “other” field, found further down in the sheet. You must type the description of the Bulky in that field, the number of them in the units’ column and the price in the rate column. If you have more than one bulky of the same type you can change the number of them in the units column to the number you want to charge for.

Valuation

Q. What if the value the shipper wants isn’t an option on the FAIW chart provided?
A. If it isn’t on the chart, it isn’t an option. Use only the values the chart provides if you want your registration to be accepted. To get prices for values above those provided on the table you must call van lines for excess valuation coverage.

Estimate Sheet

Q. When using a hyper-link (destination agent for instance) where does my estimate go? And how do I get back to it?
A. The estimate is still open in the background (behind the document you are currently viewing). When you are done with the document or worksheet you’ve jumped to, click on the blue backwards pointing arrow (far left) on the web toolbar to jump right back into your estimate where you were working on.

Q. What happened to my estimate when I closed the document I had jumped to with a hyper-link?
A. If you are lucky your estimate is still open and you can click on it from the task bar. Or your estimate closed also and you lost your work. You will have to redo your estimate. Closing the document you jumped to destroyed the hyperlink connection. This Internet technology is very useful but this can be very frustrating if it happens during an estimating session. Be wary of the error message that precedes this loss of data and try to remember not to close a hyper-linked document if you need to go back to the source document again.

Packing Sheet

Q. Can I use the packing sheet to calculate crating?
A. No. You must calculate crating from the crate section of the cube sheet.

Q. Can I calculate unpacking on the packing sheet?
A. Yes. To add a complete unpack, just type a “Y” in place of the “N” in the “UNPACK YES/NO?” field. To do a partial unpack move your cursor to the right of the unpack column to the partial unpack units column and override the defaults by typing in the number of units that you want unpacked.

SalesTools Main Menu

Q. Is there a way to go back and forth from the submenus to this menu without having to close the program and restart the menu?
A. Yes. There is a main menu choice on all the submenus at the bottom of the submenu choices.

Q. Why does the color change on the submenus?
A. When you click on a hyperlink it changes color to show that it has been used.