“Why is an unbalanced schedule of values allowed?”

Great Question! 

We now allow for an unbalanced schedule of values during the estimating phase to allow for the conversations that happen during the estimating process to not impede the process. Before the updates made to the schedule of values, the user would have to balance the Schedule of Values at every step creating possible confusion. With the unbalanced schedule of values, you can walk away to have the conversation about it or have the ability to adjust it as needed during the estimating process. You will have to have a balanced SOV as the estimate is moved through the process of winning the estimate, but fear not the system will check for this imbalance and direct you to the SOV during the winning of the estimate.  

Another great Question! 

It truly depends on how you present the information to your clients, with estimate header grouping it allows for a greater detailed picture of the specific areas of the project you may be doing. Such as Front Yard vs Back Yard or another example would be a housing development where you have a contract to complete the new landscaping at each house, you could use estimate headers to break out each house on the estimate. 

On the flip side is service grouping, this would be closer to your commercial work where the project is looked at as a whole rather than smaller parts within a larger project. Creating and SOV for this type of project would look to invoice as the services are complete.