Edit Estimate Scope and Margins
Start with the modules your team has reviewed. In Estimation Details, you decide which fit this project, their quantities, and how to price the work.
Before Editing
Section titled “Before Editing”Open the project, go to Estimations, and open the correct revision’s details. Check its code, currency, state, and price basis. The project’s current Price List can differ from the one already used to calculate it.
Active and superseded approved revisions have read-only line and margin editors. A finished project makes every revision read-only there. Use a new revision to change approved work. A preliminary baseline allows estimating to continue while the project is open; editing quantities does not itself refresh that baseline.
Add and Organize Work
Section titled “Add and Organize Work”- Create sections by trade, phase, or area. Rename them, assign an owner, and choose Draft, In progress, or Ready.
- Search the catalog for modules, materials, labor, or expenses and add the lines you need. The current toolbar has no add-composite picker, although it displays composites already present in the estimate.
- Enter quantities in the item’s unit. Inspect manual, QTO, or IFC quantity sources and their contributions before changing them. A standalone Lump Sum expense has quantity one with quantity editing disabled.
- Itemize indirect work in its own area. A standalone line can be direct or indirect; a module can also be indirect. Dragging a line between these areas changes its classification as well as its placement.
- Inspect module and composite composition. Their components already contribute to the parent total. Do not add them again or try to move them independently to another section.
The default section cannot be deleted. Deleting another section in this editor moves its work to the default. Indirect work can remain outside sections.
Material, labor, and expense drawers edit the shared catalog. Opening one from an estimate, even a read-only estimate, does not make the change a project-only rate. Use project Price Review for project prices, then recalculate an editable revision.
Check What Gets Saved
Section titled “Check What Gets Saved”| Change | When it is saved |
|---|---|
| Add, select, or remove lines; edit quantities | When you use Save |
| Move an existing line or edit its margins | Immediately; fields commonly commit when you leave them |
| Change a section’s name, owner, or status | Immediately |
| Margins on a new line | With the line on Save |
While details are unsaved, the bottom bar and breakdowns show last saved totals. A new line can show — until calculated. Heed the navigation warning when leaving pending edits.
Save retains existing lines’ prices and recipes; new lines use the estimate’s pinned price basis. Recalculate refreshes prices and recipes, saves pending details in the same operation, and reports changes. Inspect the result before attributing the whole difference to market prices.
Set Margins
Section titled “Set Margins”Open Margins in the Details header. The drawer saves controls as you confirm them; it does not wait for its own Save button.
Basis and editing mode
Section titled “Basis and editing mode”- Markup on cost: cost 100 at 20% produces sell price 120.
- Margin on price: cost 100 at 20% produces sell price 125. Values at or above 100% are invalid.
- Changing basis asks for confirmation: keeping the same percentage can change sell price.
- Differentiated shows separate material, labor, and expense inputs. Blended shows a shared input. Switching mode preserves values; editing the shared input writes that percentage to all three cost types at that level. Inspect mixed values before doing so.
Defaults and overrides
Section titled “Defaults and overrides”Margins resolve per cost type: line → section → cost-type default → older estimates’ general profit margin. An empty field inherits; 0% applies zero. Changing a default does not clear section or line overrides. Negative margins receive a warning.
Target and suggestion
Section titled “Target and suggestion”Record the target bottom-line percentage and compare the calculated result with Matched / Off-target. Back-solve proposes that target for all three defaults; inspect the suggestion and Apply or Cancel. Requesting it already saves the target, but does not apply the suggested defaults.
Section and line overrides remain. Applying the suggestion therefore does not guarantee an exact target match. Check the effective percentage in Summary.
Prepare for Review
Section titled “Prepare for Review”Mark all ready records section preparation, including who marked it and when. It does not approve the estimate. The Details review-request action creates an approval request; it does not complete project price review either.
Use More actions to open Summary or Price Review and raise clarification, change, price-refresh, or alternate requests. Keep the reason for the change with the request.
Check the Result
Section titled “Check the Result”Confirm that no detail edits remain pending, the price basis is the intended one, and saved totals reflect your quantities and margins. Continue with Read an Estimate Summary.