Thread: Creating estimates or bids for furniture projects

Everyone has their own way of generating estimates or quotations for clients. I've seen or heard many methods discussed over the years, well, decades really, from wild guesstimating, to back of a fag packet calculations, to simple material costs times a multiplier, eg material costs X 5; all the way to computerised estimating programmes. There certainly isn't a method that suits everybody, but the information in the link at the end of this message may be of use if you are struggling to devise a reliable estimating method of your own.

This method works extremely well for me to estimate, primarily, one-off custom furniture, although I can adjust the system for other jobs, eg, pricing up architectural doors, windows, built-in furniture items such as kitchen cabinetry, and so on. I'm not going to make any claims about its application for anyone else in their niche of the woodworking spectrum. However, if you struggle to estimate your jobs, you may be able to use trhe system as it is, or make adjustments to suit your needs, either by modifying the suggested times for tasks, etc described in the Estimating for Furniture Makers document, or by tweaking the associated spreadsheet. The spreadsheet and the document from which it is derived, the Estimating for Furniture Makers PDF is available near the top of the page from the link below. It's necessary, I believe, to understand the Estimating for Furniture Makers document to see where and how everything ties into the spreadsheet.

Anyway, if you find it useful, assuming you are either trying to, or are making a living as a professional woodworker in some form, then good, but I fully understand that its usefulness may be limited for other woodworkers. Slainte.

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