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How To Use Estimate Metrics And The Scratchpad Inside Your Estimate

 

Estimate Metrics show you the numbers that tell you whether a job is worth doing — profit per square, price per square, labor as a percentage of cost, or any calculation you define. The Scratchpad lets you adjust measurements on the fly and watch those numbers move before you commit.

The point: know your margin and profitability metrics before the estimate leaves your hands.

 

When would I use estimate metrics?

  • Checking profit per square before sending a proposal
  • Comparing two versions of a job to see which is worth pricing
  • Testing what happens to margin if the square count comes in different than measured
  • Watching whether labor is running high as a share of total cost

Before you start

Accounts start with no estimate metrics. Every metric is one you build. If you open the metrics dialog and it's empty, that's expected — someone needs to create them first.

Manager, Admin, and Owner roles can create estimate metrics. Anyone can view and use metrics on an estimate, but creating them requires one of those roles.

 

Where do I find estimate metrics?

When editing an estimate, click the calculator icon.

Your estimate metrics open, showing the metrics configured for your account and that work type.

 

Why don't I see any metrics on this estimate?

Two likely reasons:

  • No metrics have been created yet. Accounts start empty — see the section below on creating one.
  • Work type mismatch. Metrics can be segmented by work type. A metric set to roofing appears on roofing estimates and won't appear on a siding estimate. Check the work type on the estimate and the work type assigned to the metric.

What is the Live Scratchpad?

The Scratchpad lets you adjust figures inside the metrics dialog and see how the change moves your profitability — without altering the estimate.

Enter an adjusted value, and your metrics recalculate live.

From there you have two choices:

Action What happens
Reset to measurement Discards your adjustment and returns to the original measurement
Save the estimate Stores the adjusted value to the measurement

 

How do I create a new estimate metric?

Requires Manager, Admin, or Owner access.

Step 1 — Get to the settings

  1. Click Settings in the bottom left of the nav bar.
  2. Scroll to Feature Settings → Estimates.
  3. Click Measurements.
  4. In the measurement and calculation section, find Estimate Metrics.

Step 2 — Set up the metric

  1. Click New Metric.
  2. Name the metric.
  3. Select the work type it applies to — a specific type, or all work types.
  4. Choose the result format: Auto (based on the formula), Number, Currency, or Percentage.
  5. Set how many decimals to display.

Step 3 — Build the formula

  1. Use the formula builder to construct your calculation, then save.

 

What can I use in an estimate metric formula?

The formula builder works like custom calculations in the Calculations tab. You can pull in:

Source What's available
Inputs Any system or custom input from your account
Calculations Any calculation from your Calculations tab
Estimate values Sales price, profit, material costs, material tax, labor costs, labor burden, standalone costs, standalone tax
Numbers Enter a fixed number
Operators Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, parentheses

 

Example: labor cost as a percentage of total cost

To build a metric showing what share of your total cost is labor:

Set the result format to Percentage, apply it to all work types, and save.

Back on an estimate, opening the metrics dialog now shows the new metric alongside your existing ones.

 

Tips and gotchas

  • Multiply by 100 for percentages. The result format controls display, not math. A ratio formula returns 0.31 — you need × 100 in the formula to show 31%. This is the most common reason a percentage metric looks wrong.

  • Understand what the Scratchpad saves. Adjusting a value and saving the estimate writes that value to the measurement. That's useful when you're correcting a bad measurement — and a problem when you were only running a what-if. If you were just testing, use Reset to Measurement before you save.

  • Segment by work type or your dialog gets noisy. A crew running roofing, siding, gutters, and windows doesn't want twelve metrics on every estimate. Apply metrics to the work types where they're meaningful, and use "all work types" only for genuinely universal numbers like overall margin.

  • Build the two or three metrics you'd actually change a price over. The temptation is to build fifteen. Metrics you glance past don't change decisions. Profit per square, and whatever number tells you a job is going sideways for your business — start there.

  • Set your metrics up once, as a company decision. Because accounts start empty and only Managers, Admins, and Owners can create metrics, this is worth doing deliberately at the leadership level. The metrics you build are the numbers your whole sales team will price against.

  • Check metrics before you send, not after you sell. The value of this feature is catching a thin job while you can still adjust the price. Once the customer has signed, the number is just history.

  • Labor percentage is worth watching across jobs, not just on one. A single estimate at 31% means little. Knowing your typical range means an estimate at 45% tells you something's wrong with the scope or the pricing.