Guides / Rates
Type your rungs by hand
Nine rungs and a tax rate is fifteen minutes. This is the Ballpark estimate card, field by field, and what each figure does to a client's range.
What you need first
- What you charge per linear foot, at each level of each finish you build
- Your lighting rate, and how much of an upper run you usually light
By the end of this guide the estimate engine has everything it needs and the Pricing tab says so. No spreadsheet is involved, and this is the normal route for a shop with a handful of rungs.
Open the Ballpark estimate card
Settings, Pricing, Ballpark estimate, then Edit. The card says what it is for: Converts three measurements into a price range for first-call estimates. Changes only apply to new drafts.
The card calls a rung a tier. Same thing.
Add one row per rung you price
Under Tiers: One rate per linear foot for each build style. A client sees the cheapest and priciest tier of every finish you send them. No averaging or padding.
Four fields. Called is the name, and it is the only one the client ever reads. Finish is the family, and rungs sharing a family go out together as one range. Level is where the rung sits inside its family. Per linear foot is the money.

- 1Called, Finish and Level. Rows sharing a finish are sent together
- 2Per linear foot. The figure a client's range is built from
Add tier adds a row. Remove takes one away. Under the list, Casework prints the range across all your tiers, so a rate typed a digit out is visible straight away.
Set the lighting rate
Lighting is priced per lit foot on upper runs only, and the card works the example for you: at fifty percent, a twenty foot upper run has ten lit feet.
Two fields: dollars per lit foot, and how much of the uppers is lit as a percentage.
Set the full-height multiplier
A floor-to-ceiling unit replaces both an upper and a lower cabinet, so it counts as more than the feet measured. The field takes the multiple.
Save, then set the hourly rates and the tax
Read the status back
Setup status, at the top of the tab, names anything the engine still refuses on. With nothing left it reads Your rates are complete. Estimates and proposals will price without stopping.
What happens next
The rungs price the estimate. The catalogue prices the proposal: The detailed catalogue.
