September 2007

Change an Entire Division's Cost(s) Percentages

Did you know you can change an entire Division’s cost(s) by a percentage to account for any “judgment” factors?

You can change an entire Division’s costs by a percentage to account for any “judgment” factors. (See both BBI May 2007 and June 2007 for more on “judgment” factors.) You have the ability to change costs by percentage individually for each of the 4 possible line item costs (“Labor”, “Material”, “SubC”, and “Other”). This can be very useful when Divisions in your estimate have judgment factors that need to be accounted for.

Example:
When estimating an addition for a client, you may identify that Floor Framing requires extra costs beyond what is included in the “default” line item costs (maybe the floor is fairly cut-up with a lot of angles, has a lot of cantilevered sections, or has additional blocking requirements, etc.). You can account for these difficulty factors in your estimate. One way to easily do this is to use the CHANGE COST BY % feature.

The CHANGE COST BY % feature allows you to select an estimate Division, and change all line item costs within that Division by a percentage. Line item costs can be increased or decreased by a percentage individually for “Labor”, “Material”, “SubC”, and “Other”.

CHANGE A DIVISION’S COSTS BY PERCENTAGE

Step 1

Click image to see larger version.

• Choose the ESTIMATE button from the Vertical Slider menu (if not already chosen).

• Choose CHANGE COST BY % from the Horizontal Slider menu. Alternately, you can choose the EDIT pull-down menu and then choose CHANGE COST BY %. This will display the “Estimate Percentage Increase/Decrease” window.

NOTE: You do not have to select a Division/Line Items prior to selecting CHANGE COST BY %.

Step 2

Click image to see larger version.

• Select/Highlight the Phase you want to modify.

• Select/Highlight the Division you want to change costs by a percentage.

• Enter percent changes for “Labor”, “Material”, “SubC”, and “Other” as necessary. In this example, we want to increase Material and Labor costs by 20%. Entered percentages can be different for “Labor”, “Material”, “SubC”, and “Other”.
  

NOTE: To decrease costs for an estimate Division, enter a minus sign (-) before the percentage.

• Choose APPLY to have any percent changes apply to your select estimate Division. Choose CANCEL to exit the “Estimate Percentage Increase/Decrease” window and return to the Estimate Grid without having the changes take affect.
  
  

Step 3

• Choose YES in the “Confirmation” window to have the entered percentages applied to your selected estimate Division. Choose NO to return to the Estimate Grid without having the changes take affect.

Step 4

Click image to see larger version.

• Review your estimate changes for accuracy. Make sure the changes are appropriate for the project you are estimating.

UNDO A DIVISION’S COST CHANGES

If you changed a Division’s cost by percentage, and then realized the changes were not accurate/appropriate, you have the ability to “Undo” your changes. Using the UNDO COST CHANGE feature will restore the selected estimate Division line item costs back to database defaults (how those line item costs currently appear in the CostBooks). Any changes made to estimate line item specifications will not be affected by using the UNDO COST CHANGE feature.

Step 1

Click image to see larger version.

• Choose the ESTIMATE button from the Vertical Slider menu (if not already chosen).

• Choose UNDO COST CHANGE from the Horizontal Slider menu. Alternately, you can choose the EDIT pull-down menu and then choose UNDO COST CHANGE. This will display the “Estimate Percentage Increase/Decrease” window.

NOTE: You do not have to select a Division/Line Items prior to selecting UNDO COST CHANGE.

Step 2

Click image to see larger version.

• Select/Highlight the Phase you want to modify/undo.

• Select/Highlight the Division you want to undo cost changes

• Choose UNDO to undo the cost changes to your selected estimate Division. Choose CANCEL to exit the “Estimate Percentage Increase/ Decrease” window and return to the Estimate Grid without having the undo take affect.

Step 3

Click image to see larger version.

• Choose YES to undo your cost changes, and have the selected Division line item costs return to database defaults. Choose NO to return to the Estimate Grid without undoing the cost changes.

Step 4

Click image to see larger version.

• Review your estimate changes for accuracy. Make sure the changes are appropriate for the project you are estimating. Notice that the selected Division’s line item costs have been restored to the database defaults.