CPQ Features and training on basic features
Minimum hardware and software configuration
CPQ performs well on the latest available version of Excel and good quality and fast processing computers. Limited testing showed that it performs at its best when installed on a pc, Windows 11 environment as per below or equivalent.
· Processor – 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-1235U (12 MB cache, 10 cores, 12 threads, up to 4.40 GHz Turbo)
· Operating System – Windows 11 Home, English
· Video Card – Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics
· Display –16″, FHD+ 1920×1200, 60Hz, Non-Touch, AG, Wide Viewing Angle, 250 nit, ComfortView
· Memory – 16 GB, 2 x 8 GB, DDR4, 3200 MHz
· Hard Drive – 512 GB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD
For reasons unknown to us CPQ is not compatible with Apple computers.
Before you start:
Verify that the parameters applied in all price calculations match or can be modified to fit your business model.
If your version includes the tabs Equip amortization uniforms etc, Consumables Database, EQUIPMENT DATABASE cpq and Additional Costs & Services, (paid versions), it is very important that you consider these tables as templates only. Their values do not reflect market value. Access these tables and make sure you change or update all values to suit your organization buying power and business model.
Similar action must be taken to Front Page tab as described below.
Front page
CPQ Front Page is where you enter:
· statutory on-costs applicable to your business, (holiday pay, allowances, loadings, superannuation, PL, etc
· rates to be applied to sundry expenses such as uniforms, chemicals and other cleaning supplies, equipment depreciation, equipment repairs and others
· contract price drivers, starting date, cleaning area, contract term, fixed price requirements,
· details on how you would like CPQ to breakdown contract price according to client’s price forms. You can design up to 30 different divisions, by service, tasks, area of operation, building or building floor, etc
· rates and loadings for salaried staff, e.g., senior supervisors, management, maintenance staff
· your organisation’s margins for staff management, staff training and profit
At the start of a new proposal check that all parameters are aligned with your organisation business model. If not change them to suit.
General rule in managing the data in the front page is that yellow cells are editable and green cells are locked. Once again, check that all yellow cells are updated to suit your organisation business model and bid’s targets.
Note that on the Free Trial version some yellow cells on Front Page are protected thus you will not be able change some values.
List
List is where you enter your roster and all rates impacting in the wages of your proposed schedule.
Note that the hours worked need to be entered in 24 hour format without the need to type any punctuation, thus for 7:30AM just type 730, for 7:30PM just type 1930. CPQ will recognize these entries and it will display them correctly.
Enter name or operator number, daily hours, type of employment, (full-time, part-time or casual), allowances to be paid, divisions per day and watch CPQ do the rest. It will apply the appropriate pay rate in line with the Australian Modern Award, taking into consideration all penalty rates and breaks and will be ready to automatically generate:
· extensive costing details per employee
· contract price breakdown
· contract price breakdown for all divisions
· executive summary for senior management approval
· labour deployment graphics
To start entering your roster successfully start by
1. entering the ID number always starting with number one to all cells that will be used.
2. Then enter staff name or number. If you accidentally repeated a name, the cell will be highlighted to alert you to this fact.
3. Now move to Classification and Service cells, these are selected by drop-down menu.
4. Select service to match Classification selected from the drop-down menu. Enter Task (e.g., Tea rooms levels1-5).
5. Now select Status also from drop-down menu.
6. Go back and select cell with staff name and click on Schedule Input button. If it is a full-time staff all you need to do is to enter start time for each of the 5 days this employee works and click on the blue Schedule Input button. CPQ will automatically calculate finish and break time. For part-time staff enter both start and end time, leaving breaks blank. If you need to change or re-start this part of the process, we recommend you clear all cells in the Schedule Input window and start again.
7. Now the letter c on displaying on cell on the left of staff ID.
8. Complete other information such as allowances to be paid to this employee, Division cells can be filled now or later once you have defined what they are.
9. Click on the blue Hours Calc button so that CPQ can calculate shifts, finishing time for full-time staff, breaks, hour per day etc and have the roster ready for pricing.
To speed entering your roster you can enter some or all staff details and then press the Hours Calc button. This way CPQ will do all calculation processing in one command instead of several for each employee.
Pricing
Pricing tab calculates all labour costs associated with the roster you just entered in the Input page. Select the blue Update button and follow the prompt to select staff on your roster. Select all an uncheck (blank) and click on blue Execute button. Now watch while CPQ looks at the hourly rates to be applied, deduct breaks, or not, all according to the Australian Modern Award rules for Cleaning and Security services, and it will populate in a few seconds all cells with amount to be paid to each staff.
Labour deployment graphics
To have CPQ to generate Monday to Sunday graphs, select GraphAux tab and
follow the same procedure done in Pricing tab by selecting blue button Update and following the prompts displayed.
These graphs are colour coded according to service type. By default, CPQ will generate labour deployment graphs in the same order you enter your roster, by ID. This can be changed by using filter buttons that will re-arrange the graph by staff start time or grouping them by service.
Contract Price Breakdowns
These tables are generated automatically by CPQ once you have entered your roster and executed hours calc and pricing.
Labour cost detail per employee
This feature comprises of an extensive table of data relating to your roster costs per employee. It displays hourly rate paid per day as well as daily, weekly and annual:
· allowance value
· labour hours
· labour cost
· total cost
It will generate the same level of detailed labour costs per service and per status of employment.
To complete these tables with your roster details, click on [1] Update button and follow the instructions on the po-up window.
Executive Summary
It is generated automatically by CPQ once you have entered your roster and executed hours calc and pricing.
Export functions
There are two buttons that will export all values calculated in the same format for the tables listed below.
Export 1 is designed to either file your work, use the labour cost breakdown to fill your tender or proposal price schedules or have someone else to check work in progress.
Export 2 was designed to give an overall view of the proposed price for senior management approval.
Export function is not active in Free Trial pack.