Bid Studio is a calculator on each flat glass bid. You enter the openings, material, labor and your payment terms, and it shows a bid total and a billing schedule. It is a preview only. Nothing in it is saved, invoiced or charged.
Where to find it
Go to Flat Glass → Bids and open a bid. The Bid Studio card sits under the bid's totals. It says "Price this bid before adding line items — a calculator, not a save action." Click the Open Bid Studio button (it has a down arrow) to expand it and Collapse to close it. The Flat Glass area only shows if your shop has the flat glass vertical. See The Flat Glass module.
Once it is open, a note reads "Preview only — nothing here is saved. Copy the numbers into a line item below with "Add line item"." The results update a moment after you stop typing.
Step 1: Openings
Each row is one size of pane: Label (optional), Width (in), Height (in) and Qty. Click Add opening for more rows. The trash icon removes a row, except the last one.
Below the rows, each opening shows its billable square feet, and the Billable sqft total at the end. A row is ignored until its width, height and quantity are all filled in with numbers above zero.
Billable area is not the raw size. Each pane is worked out as width × height ÷ 144, rounded up to the next half square foot, and no pane bills below 4 square feet.
Step 2: Material lines
Each row has Label (optional), Sqft, $/sqft and Access surcharge ($). A line is square feet × rate, plus the surcharge. Click Add material line for more.
The openings don't feed this section on their own. Type the billable square feet you want to price into Sqft.
Step 3: Labor + fees
- Crew-days: one installer working one day is one crew-day.
- Day rate ($)
- Mobilization ($)
- Travel ($)
Labor is crew-days × day rate. All four start at 0.
Step 4: Commercial terms
- Deposit %: starts at 0.
- Retainage %: starts at 0.
- Progress milestones: how many progress draws. Starts at 1.
- Net days: starts at 30.
- Deposit invoice date: starts at today.
Read the results
You see Material, Labor, Mobilization, Travel and the Bid total. Below that is a Billing schedule table with the columns #, Kind, Gross, Retainage, Net, Trigger and Due.
- Deposit is your deposit % of the bid total. It has no retainage held back.
- The rest of the bid is split evenly across the progress draws. The retainage % comes out of that remaining part. It is held back a little at a time from each draw, so each draw's Net is its Gross minus Retainage.
- Retainage release is one row for everything held back.
- The rows add up to the bid total, to the cent.
- Due is the Trigger date plus your Net days. In this preview every row's Trigger is the deposit invoice date.
If a number can't be used, an error message appears under that section.
Put it on the bid
The bid's own Total at the top comes from the line items on the bid, not from Bid Studio. When you are happy with a number, add it with Add line item further down the page.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Does Bid Studio save my numbers?
A: No. It is a preview only. To put a price on the bid, copy it into a line item with Add line item.
Q: Why isn't a pane billed at its real size?
A: Each pane's area is rounded up to the next half square foot, and no pane bills for less than 4 square feet.
Q: Does the openings total fill in my material line?
A: No. The two sections are separate. Type the square feet you want to price into the Sqft box of a material line.
Q: Why do all the Trigger dates match?
A: The preview has no job milestone dates, so every row uses the deposit invoice date. Due is that date plus your Net days.