Website Design Estimation Tool

How Four Kitchens creates realistic estimates for their clients

Randy Oest

`Every agency needs to create estimates and Four Kitchens is no different. When I became Design Manager, one of my goals was to simplify estimation (so I could focus more on design).

What I inherited was an arcane Google Spreadsheet setup. There were too many tabs and cells and too little (i.e. no) documentation. I found myself jotting estimates down in emails rather than wade into that mess.

Hack Day Project—A Better Estimation Tool

At the next Four Kitchens "Hack Day"—where we all spend a day working on pet projects—my inspiration was to fix this problem. I spent part of the morning exploring the options available and I landed on Coda.io.

I've had a soft spot for Coda since I discovered them while they were in beta. We've been using it for a variety of other internal tools, so it made since to use it for my new estimation tool.

Solution

At the end of the Hack Day, I stood up in front of everyone and presented the brand new Design Estimation Tool. I showcased how it was fast, flexible, and finally something we would enjoy using. (You can have fun making estimates!)

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Estimate Builder Add design tasks to the estimate from a database of available tasks⁠

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Estimate Overview Automatically create a high-level work estimate⁠

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Ready to create your own version? Here’s how to do it:

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How to use Setting up the hourly rate, relationship, design tasks, estimate, project management, and meeting cadence for your work⁠

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