Maintaining Cost Estimates for a Project

The Cost Estimates tab contains a list of all the cost estimates associated with the concept. You can view or change the following information:

Note: When a cost estimate is associated with a:
- Proposal or project, the cost estimate follows the workflow for that proposal or project. You can view, add, or edit cost estimates associated with a proposal or project if your system administrator has provided workflow phase rights to your user role.
- Proposal, any cost estimates for projects associated with the proposal are automatically set to inactive.

Note: The system recognizes only one cost estimate as the Price Control for the items on the associated project. If you select multiple cost estimates, the system saves the most recently selected cost estimate as the price control.

To create a new cost estimate associated with this project, click the Add button. See Adding a Cost Estimate.

Note: If you add a new cost estimate to a project that already has project items, you can edit the cost estimate item unit prices and price tasks. The system automatically updates the project items with information from the cost estimate marked as the price control. For other item information, edit the project items and the system automatically updates the cost estimate items with those changes.

For projects with project items, the system copies the:
- Project items and categories to the cost estimate as active records.
- Reference price tasks, bid price tasks, and task groups from the corresponding reference items to the cost estimate items.
- Item categories, alternate sets, and alternate members to the cost estimate as read-only values.

Next to the Add button is a list Actions menu, which has the following functions:

Click Copy Cost Estimates to copy an existing cost estimate to this project. See Copying a Cost Estimate.

To view or change information in a cost estimate, click the Cost Estimate Name link. See Maintaining a Cost Estimate.

The row Actions menu has the following functions:

Actions

Select Open to view or change cost estimate information. See Maintaining a Cost Estimate.

Select Merge Cost Estimate... to combine multiple cost estimates into a new cost estimate. See Merging Multiple Cost Estimates into a New Cost Estimate.

Select Delete to delete a record. Select the Undo button to reverse the delete action. Click the Save button.

Note: Unless the cost estimate has been saved as a profile, deleting it from the project removes the cost estimate from the system. You cannot delete the cost estimate that was used to build project items for the project.
Note: If your agency has the Take Snapshot Before Cost Estimate Delete agency option set to Yes, the system automatically creates a snapshot for the cost estimate before it is deleted (see Working with Snapshots).

Tasks

Select Build Project Items to create project items based on the associated cost estimate items. See Building Project Items

Views

Select Item Pricing Worksheet to price items for a cost estimate. See Managing Cost Estimate Items in a Worksheet.

Note: The Item Pricing Worksheet is available on this menu only when the project exists without any items. To view and change cost estimate item prices for this project, open the cost estimate record, and then click the Cost Estimate Items tab. See Maintaining Items for a Cost Estimate.

Select Attachments to manage attachments. The Attachments link includes the number of files attached to this record. See Working with Attachments.

Select Links to manage links. See Working with Links.

Select Tracked Issues to manage tracked issues. See Maintaining Tracked Issue Information.

Reports

If the system includes reports for this component, they will display in this section, alphabetically. Select the report you want to run. See Working with Reports.

Copying a Cost Estimate to a Project

You can copy an existing cost estimate to a project only if the project does not yet include items. When you copy a cost estimate to a project, all of the child records attached to the original cost estimate are copied to a new cost estimate associated with the project. These child records include general data for the original cost estimate, as well as:

Alternate members
Alternate sets
Bid price tasks
Contingency assignment profiles
Cost-based tasks
Items

Item categories
Life cycle maintenance schedule profiles
Reference price tasks
Task groups
Typical section profiles

To make a copy of an existing cost estimate and associate it with this project:

On the Cost Estimates tab on the Project Cost Estimate Summary, select Copy Cost Estimate from the list Actions menu.

The system displays a modal window that lists cost estimates with the same spec book and unit system as the project.
Click the row for the cost estimate you want to copy.

The system adds a check mark at the beginning of the row to indicate the estimate is selected. You can click a different row to change your selection.
Enter a value in the New Cost Estimate Name field.
Click the Add to Project button.

The system adds the estimate to the list on the Cost Estimates tab. All child records attached to the original cost estimate are copied to a new cost estimate associated with the concept.

Merging Multiple Cost Estimates into a New Cost Estimate

You can merge multiple cost estimates into a new cost estimate even if the cost estimate is associated with a concept or project, as long as no project items have been built from the concept or project. To combine multiple cost estimates into a new cost estimate:

Select Merge Cost Estimate... from the cost estimate row Actions menu.
In the Merge Cost Estimate window, the name of the cost estimate you are merging from will be listed in the Primary Cost Estimate Name field. Enter a value in the New Cost Estimate Name field.
Locate the records you want to merge by typing criteria in the Quick Find search box or by clicking Show first 10.
Click the cost estimate row to select it.

The system adds a check mark beside your selection and shades the row. To cancel a selection, click the row again.
Click the Merge Cost Estimate button.

Building Project Items

Building project items creates the list of project items based on the items in an associated cost estimate. When you build project items, the system copies all of the active items, item categories, alternate sets, alternate members, reference price tasks, bid price tasks, and task groups from the selected cost estimate to the project.

You can use a cost estimate to build project items only on a project that does not yet include items. In addition, all typical sections and parametric items in the cost estimate must be transitioned to detail items or made inactive before the cost estimate can be used to build project items.

The cost estimate used to build project items becomes the price control for the project. Any additional cost estimates associated with the project are marked as inactive and cannot be made active again. If new cost estimates are later added to the project after project items are built, the project items are used to populate the list of items on the new cost estimate.

After you build project items, you can add and delete items and change item quantities only on the project. Any changes to project items and categories are automatically applied to the active cost estimates associated with the project. Conversely, unit prices for the project items become read-only, and pricing information is controlled by changes made on the cost estimate that is marked as the price control.

Select Build Project Items to create project items based on the associated cost estimate items.

Note: If your agency has the Take Snapshot Before Building Project Items agency option set to Yes, the system automatically creates a snapshot of the cost estimate before the project items are created (see Working with Snapshots).