Purpose
🧠 Did you know you can copy estimates? Copying estimates allows you to create a brand new opportunity on a property with information that already exists in Aspire!
Why you might want to use it:
Let's say you lost a proposal because the timing wasn't right for your customer. A year later, they are interested in working together on the job originally estimated. You could copy the old opportunity that has the status of Lost, update the pricing on the new opportunity, and send the updated proposal for your customer to accept!
Additionally, some use the Copy option if an opportunity needs correction without having to create a change order, especially after work has started. This process would also use the swap work ticket costs feature in Aspire. To learn about swapping work ticket costs, read here. After copying your opportunity that was corrected and the ticket costs were swapped, you could delete the old opportunity.
Copying a Opportunity
📌 Note: Copying an opportunity is available on an opportunity as an option, as long as there are not revisions or edits in progress to the estimate.
To copy an opportunity, locate the opportunity from the Opportunities module and select it.
Then, select the three dot menu and choose Copy.
When creating a new estimate by copying an existing estimate, Aspire displays a screen with the following options:
When these options are not checked, Aspire creates the services and items for the estimate based on the opportunity that is being copied.
Update Checkbox Options
🧠 For copied opportunities, select the property from the Copy To Property drop down to make sure the opportunity is assigned to the right property in Aspire.
The checkboxes that you can click on what you want updated onto your new opportunity are described below.
Update Takeoffs
When this option is checked:
Aspire will search the property for takeoffs and will apply these takeoff values to the items or kits defined in the opportunity estimate.
❗ Important: If an item or kit does not have a takeoff item assigned in the item catalog, Aspire will place a zero in the quantity field.
It is important to remember the above when creating a new T&M estimate from a template, copying an estimate, or doing a renewal. The system will return zero for those fields that may have been previously filled in with values like number of hours or quantity of materials.
⚠️ Do not select this option unless you want the system to find the takeoff values of the property for the first time for the proposal.
Update Costs
When this option is checked:
Aspire will update costs for items and items in kits based on values in the item catalog rather than values in the template or opportunity that is being copied. This will recalculate prices for the estimate.
It is recommended that this option is selected if you want to estimate based on current item prices.
⚠️ Do not select this option if you want the pricing to stay the same as before.
Update Prices
When this option is checked:
Aspire will set the markups for all the services on the copied opportunity based on the markups defined on the Pricing Mark-Ups screen in Estimating. This will recalculate prices for estimates that have been created using the copy function or when creating renewals.
In situations where the system markups have changed since the time the original opportunity was created, this might be important to consider.
It is recommended that you check this option whenever creating a new estimate so that you are using the most current system markups for your estimate.
⚠️ Do not select this option if you want the pricing to stay the same as before.
For Overrides
If you have set overrides on a service in an opportunity from which a new opportunity is being created, this option will have no effect on the markups. The override will be used for the newly created opportunity.
Update Kits
When this option is checked:
Aspire will update items and production rates for all services of the newly created opportunity based on kits defined in the item catalog. This will recalculate prices for estimates that have been created using the copy function or when creating renewals.
It is recommended that you check this option when creating a new estimate so that you are using the most current system kits for your estimate.
⚠️ Do not select this option if you want the pricing to stay the same as before. Your company may use template specific production factors and updating kits reverts back to the catalog factors.
Copy Default Routes
This checkbox is only available when copying an opportunity.
When this option is checked:
Aspire will copy all default routing and sequence numbers to the new opportunity created.
We only recommend this when renewing a contract or copying the opportunity onto the same property.
Copying an Opportunity vs. Using an Opportunity Template
There are two features that relate to moving existing opportunity information to another opportunity. Copying an opportunity and using an opportunity template are similar in nature; here are some examples of when you might want to use one over the other.
In this article, we discussed copying opportunities, which is good for job bids you lost previously, and are resuming work for and need to rebid the estimate based on your new years' pricing. This process would create a new opportunity with your desired property details in addition to the new estimate.
The creation of opportunity templates allows you to use existing opportunity information in Aspire it for future estimates on jobs and save time when bidding. Using templates is especially helpful if you have jobs that are similar when it comes to labor, material, and travel time hours across your divisions.
Knowledge Base reference on Opportunity Templates is found here.