How do I relate equipment needed and supplies used to a project or task?

[Ted Byers]

I found the work effort app, but I do not see a way to either estimate the
time and resources required to complete the task.  I did find it odd that
it takes an estimated time to compelte in milliseconds.  I don't know
anyone who can complete anything in less than a few thousand of those (even
for trivially tiny tasks): no-one can move that fast.  For most of the
tasks I can see my target market handling, the appropriate temporal
granularity would range from hours to days (can that temporal granularity
be changed in one of the configuration files, and if so, which one).

Anyway.  I have a problem.  For the guys I plan on targetting, they need to
define a task or project as being specific to a given customer.  They need
to be able to define the parameters that are adequate to describe the
'size' of the job; and from that produce an estimate, based on their own
history=ical productivity data, how many labourers would be needed, for how
long, what equipment they will need, and what materials would be needed to
complete the job (with connections to their inventory, so they will be able
to check their inventory to determine when they need to restock specific
supplies).  For example, roofers and contractors that supply flooring or
floor coverings, they will typically define the size of the job in terms of
the number of square meters they need to cover, while someone in pest
control may be interested either in the floor area or the volume of the
rooms that need treatment, depending on the kind of pest that needs to be
controlled.  One can imagine a wide variety of parameters that may be
needed to represent the size of a job, and that needs to be configurable
for each contracting business.  Some of the guys I have spoken to would
like the ability to not only track the inventory used on a job, but, by
taking inventory of the supplies that remain on a job site at the end of a
working day, track the rate at which supplies are used during the job.
And, of course, this all has to be related back to a specific customer
(i.e. the AR app).

My problem is that I have yet to find documentation that describes how to
handle these requirements.  Are these things I can support by simply
configuring a business in OFBiz properly, or will I need to do some
programming?  If the latter, where would I start?  Or is it a case of the
support for these capabilities being scattered through OFBiz (which would
mean that, once I find them, I will need a way to bring them together on a
single, easy to use, web page; similar to work effort, or perhaps a
modification of work effort?).  OFBiz is an impressive product, with a lot
of code.  If I have to write code to provide support for the requirements
the contractors I have spoken to want, I will need to understand at least
how the modules related to these requirements work.

I am beginning to have my doubts, as the interface seems riddled with
jargon, and many of the terms and fields used are not clear to me, and I am
certain that many of the guys I'd want to target will be baffled by the
interface (it is certain that the guys I'd want to target will be baffled
by most of what they'd see in Webtools or the suite of applications that
are available - I need a MUCH simpler interface for them).  I will have to
worry about simplyfying the interface, though, only after I am certain that
I can support their needs to be able to relate equipment (re-used on a
sequence of jobs until worn out - e.g. power saws and their blades, drills
and their bits, &c.), supplies (consumables: shingles, nails, wire, &c.)
needed for each job, and labour for each job to the job and the customer
that hired the contractor.  I know I can relate the labour to a task, but I
don't see, or haven't yet found, how to relate the materials used on a job,
and equipment that needs to be deployed on a job, to the job, so that each
customer can be billed appropriately.  What I don't see, even in work
effort, is a page that lets one enter the parameters defining the siz of a
job, which lets the user estimate labour and material costs from the size
of the job.

Any guidance you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Ted