Estimate Workspace

The estimate workspace is where you price a project. Each line is a catalog item, an assembly or a manual line, with its quantity. The site calculates the material, the labor hours and the labor cost of each line as soon as you enter it, with the prices and labor units of the catalog and the labor rate and factors of the estimate.

Menu	Estimator > Projects, open a project, then click an estimate in the Estimates card
Permission	View all projects and bids to see the lines. Manage own projects and bids, or Manage all projects and bids, to change them
Feature	Estimator Estimates

Can't find it?

What you see depends on your role. If the menu, a button or a setting on this page is missing, ask your administrator to give you the permission listed above or to turn on the feature. Only administrators can turn features on and change site settings.

The page has three parts: the breakdown on the left, the lines in the middle and the line panel on the right. The bar at the top shows the totals of the estimate: the number of lines, the material, the hours, the labor, the quotes and subcontracts, the cost and the selling price, and the labor rate.

Add lines

The last row of the grid is always a new line.

1. Click the Code cell of the new line, and type the code or a part of the description of an item or an assembly. A list of matches from the catalog opens.
2. Press the arrow keys to pick a match, and press Tab. The line takes the kind, the description and the unit of the match.
3. Press Tab to go to the Quantity, type the quantity and press Enter.

The line is saved and calculated, and the cursor goes to the next new line. A line whose code is not in the catalog is saved with a warning mark, and costs nothing until you fix the code.

For a cost that is not in the catalog, such as a permit or a lift rental, set the Kind of the line to Manual. Enter its Description, Unit, Unit cost and Unit hours. A manual line costs the quantity times the unit cost, and takes the quantity times the unit hours of labor.

Add lines from the takeoff

A line can take its quantity from a takeoff item: over every sheet, or on the sheets of one location.

1. Click Add from takeoff. The page shows each takeoff item of the project in a card, with its quantity over every sheet and on the sheets of each location.
2. Select the rows to add. For each one, pick Item or Assembly, and enter the code. The Breakdown starts on the node with the same name as the location, when there is one.
3. Click Add the lines.

The quantity of such a line is underlined with dots; point to it to see the takeoff item it comes from. When the takeoff changes, click Update from takeoff: each of these lines takes the current quantity of its takeoff item, and is calculated again. A line whose takeoff item was deleted keeps its quantity, and the page tells you how many there are.

Move and edit with the keyboard

To	Press
Move between cells	The arrow keys, Tab and Shift+Tab, Home and End, Page Up and Page Down
Edit a cell	Type, or press Enter or F2. Typing replaces the value
Save the cell	Enter (goes down) or Tab (goes right). Clicking another cell also saves it
Cancel the edit	Esc
Select lines	Space selects or clears a line. Shift+Up and Shift+Down select more. Ctrl+A selects every line shown. Click with Ctrl or Shift to select with the mouse
Copy a cell down	Select lines, go to the cell to copy and press Ctrl+D. The selected lines take its value
Delete lines	Delete deletes the selected lines, or the line of the cursor

Cells in grey do not apply to the kind of the line, such as the unit cost of an item. Cells in grey text come from the catalog, such as the description of an item.

The bar at the top tells you when the changes are saved. A line that could not be saved has a red mark; point to the mark to see why.

Change many lines at once

Select the lines. A bar opens above the grid:

Action	What it does
Move to	Moves the lines to a breakdown node
Cost code, Set	Gives the lines a cost code
Labor category, Set	Gives the lines a labor category
Multiply	Multiplies the quantities, such as by 2 for a second floor that is the same as the first
Duplicate	Adds a copy of each line
Delete	Deletes the lines
Quote	Puts the material of the lines in a material quote package; they keep their labor
Alternate	Puts the lines in an alternate, or back in the base bid

The breakdown

The breakdown splits the estimate by building, level, area, system or phase. Each node shows the total of its lines and of the lines of the nodes under it. Click a node to see only its lines; click All lines to see every line. Lines without a node are under No breakdown.

Button	What it does
Plus	Adds a top-level node, such as Building A
Arrow down and right	Adds a node under the selected node, such as Level 2
Pencil	Changes the name, the kind and the labor factors of the selected node
Arrows up and down	Moves the node before or after the node next to it
Trash	Removes the node and the nodes under it. Their lines move up to the parent node

A new line goes to the node you are looking at. To move a line, change its Breakdown cell, or select lines and use Move to.

Labor factors of a node

A node can have labor factors, such as Ceiling over 12 ft × 1.15. They apply to the lines of the node and to the lines of every node under it. Select the node, click the pencil, pick a factor of the labor factor library that applies to a breakdown and click Add. To enter a factor of your own, pick Your own factor, click Add, and enter its name and value. Click Save: the lines of the node are calculated again.

Factors of one line

A line can have its own labor factor, such as 1.25 for work above an open ceiling. Enter it in the Factor cell, or in the line panel. A factor other than 1 needs a reason: the workspace asks for it.

How a line is calculated

Select a line. The Line panel shows:

• For an assembly, its Variant and its Parameters, such as the cable length per device. Change them and click Apply.
• The line factor, its reason and notes.
• The components of the line: each item with its cost. Click an item to see every step of its calculation: the installed quantity, the waste, the rounding up to whole packages, the material, the base labor hours, each labor factor with what it applies to, the adjusted hours and the labor.

The labor hours of an item take, in order: the factors of the whole estimate, the factors of the breakdown nodes above the line, the factors of the labor category of the item, and the factor of the line.

Large estimates

The workspace keeps every line in the browser and draws only the rows on the screen, so an estimate with 100,000 lines scrolls, filters and saves as fast as a small one. Type in Search code or description to show only the lines that match.