Maintaining a Cost Estimate

In this Topic

Associating Item Bid History Profiles
Calculating Bid Based Prices for all Items
Combining Like Cost Estimate Items
Importing a Snapshot
Selecting Cost Estimate Items to Calculate Bid Based Prices

A cost estimate includes all the settings, pricing information, and estimated costs of a planned improvement. Cost estimates enable you to estimate the anticipated costs of an improvement as it progresses through different stages of planning.

From a conceptual estimate when minimal scope exists, to a preliminary estimate when detail items can be determined for the project, and finally to a letting estimate associated with a proposal, you can associate each concept, project, and proposal with multiple cost estimates, enabling you to evaluate different methodologies and pricing scenarios as needed.

The Cost Estimate Summary includes the settings, pricing, and cost information recorded for the selected cost estimate. To access the summary from the dashboard, click the Cost Estimates link in the Estimation component, locate the cost estimate you want to view, and then click the link in the Cost Estimate Name field.

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.

The Cost Estimate Summary contains the following tabs:

General	Access general information for the cost estimate. See On the General tab, below.
Cost Summary	Access totals for the cost estimate. See Viewing Cost Summary Information.
Categories	Access category information for the cost estimate. See Maintaining Categories for a Cost Estimate.
Cost Estimate Items	Access item information for the cost estimate. See Maintaining Items for a Cost Estimate.
Variables	Access variable information for the cost estimate. See Maintaining Variables for a Cost Estimate.
Ad Hoc Pricing	Access ad hoc pricing information for the cost estimate. See Maintaining Ad Hoc Pricing.
Non-Construction Costs	Access non-construction cost information for the cost estimate. See Maintaining Non-Construction Costs for a Cost Estimate.
Markups	Access markup information for the cost estimate. See Maintaining Markups for a Cost Estimate.
Annualization	Access annualization information for the cost estimate. See Maintaining Annualized Costs for a Cost Estimate.

On the General tab:

You can view or change information in these fields:

In the Parent Attributes section, you can view, but not change, information in these fields:

In the Estimate Information section, you can view or change information in these fields:

Note: You can enter a number in the Lanemiles field, or you can click the Formula button (Σ) in the field to calculate the value by using the expression builder. See Using the Expression Builder.

In the Additional Information section, you can view or change information in these fields:

Item Bid History Profile

Note: If a Default Item Bid History Profile or a Default Typical Section Bid History Profile is set, the corresponding field will automatically be populated with the default. For more information, see Working with Bid History Profiles.

Click in a field to add, change, or delete information as needed. Click the Save button when you are finished.

Quick Links

Quick links are displayed in blue text below the Menu Bar and above the webpage title. These links allow you to quickly jump to application pages related to the current page.

Overview - See Managing Cost Estimates.
Contingency Assignment - See Working with Contingency Assignments for a Cost Estimate.
Funding: Assign to Items - See Assigning Funding to Cost Estimate Items.
Fund Package Overview - See Managing Fund Packages in a Cost Estimate.
Life Cycle Costs - See Working with Life Cycle Maintenance Schedules for a Cost Estimate.
Typical Sections - See Working with Typical Sections on a Cost Estimate.
Item Pricing Worksheet - See Managing Cost Estimate Items in a Worksheet.

The component Actions menu has the following functions:

Actions

Choose Select Item Bid History Profile... to associate an item bid history profile, or to update an associated profile with the latest version from the reference profile. See Associating Item Bid History Profiles.

Tasks

Select Build Project Items to create a list of project items based on the items in the cost estimate, if the cost estimate is associated with a project that does not yet include project items. See Building Project Items.

Note: If your agency set the Take Snapshot Before Building Project Items agency option to Yes, the system automatically creates a snapshot for the cost estimate before building project items. See Working with Snapshots.

Select Calculate Bid Based Prices for all Items to calculate average or regression prices for each detail item in the cost estimate that has an active bid based task. See Calculating Bid Based Prices for all Items.

Select Combine Like Cost Estimate Items to replace multiple instances of the same item with a single combined item. See Combining Like Cost Estimate Items.

Select Combine Like Cost Estimate Items and Calculate Bid Based Prices to replace multiple instances of the same item with a single combined item and automatically calculate bid-based prices for the combined items. See Combining Like Cost Estimate Items.

Select Create Profile From Estimate to identify an estimate as suitable for creating other cost estimates. See Creating a Profile from a Cost Estimate.

Select Create Snapshot to capture the current state of the cost estimate and save it as a separate record. See Creating a Snapshot of a Cost Estimate.

Select Export Cost Estimates to export the cost estimate. See Exporting Cost Estimates.

Select Import Snapshot... to import cost estimate information from a snapshot. See Importing a Snapshot.

Select Item Bid History Criteria to access the bid history profile associated with this cost estimate. If there is no value in the Item Bid History Profile field, the system opens the User Bid History Summary with the fields blank. See Maintaining a User Bid History Profile.

Select Select Cost Estimate Items to Calculate Bid Based Prices to access a list of cost estimate items with active bid based pricing tasks, which can then be selected for calculating bid based average or regression prices. See Selecting Cost Estimate Items to Calculate Bid Based Prices.

Select Remove Item Bid History Profile to clear the value in the Item Bid History Profile field.

Select Transition Cost Estimate to Detail Items to transition a cost estimate's parametric items and typical section items to detail items. If the cost estimate includes active typical sections or active parametric items that have a transition profile, the system transitions all the typical section items and parametric items that have not been transitioned previously. See Transitioning Items from Parametric to Detail and Transitioning Typical Section Items to Detail Items.

Select Validate Prequal Worktypes to generate a list of cost estimate items that do not have a Prequalification Work Type defined. The system displays the validation results in a new browser window. See Report Descriptions - Estimation.

Views

Select Attachments to manage attachments in a project. See Working with Attachments.

Select Default Bid History Profiles to view bid history profiles that are saved as reference data. See Working with Bid History Profiles.

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

Select Links to manage links in a project. See Working with Links.

Select Parent [Concept/Project/Proposal] to view the entity associated with this cost estimate. See Maintaining a Concept. The Actions menu lists only the command appropriate for the type of parent entity for the current cost estimate. The system takes you to either the Concept Summary, Project Summary, or Proposal Summary, as appropriate.

Select Pricing Worksheet to view or change item prices for the cost estimate using a grid layout. See Managing Cost Estimate Items in a Worksheet.

Select Snapshots to view a list of snapshots for this cost estimate. See Maintaining Snapshot Information for a Cost Estimate.

If your agency has associated agency views, they will display in this section, alphabetically. Select an agency view to go to the Agency View Summary component. You can modify data in agency views with an Active association, and view data in Inactive agency views where data exists.

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.

Click the Save button when you are finished.

Associating Item Bid History Profiles

To associate an item bid history profile, or to update an associated profile with the latest version from the reference profile:

Choose Select Item Bid History Profile... from the component Actions menu.

The system displays a modal window for selecting an item bid history profile.
Click a profile to select it, and then click Copy Profile to Cost Estimate.

The system closes the modal window, makes a copy of the profile, associates it with the cost estimate, and displays the name of the profile in the Item Bid History Profile field.

Calculating Bid Based Prices for all Items

When you select Calculate Bid Based Prices for all Items, the system submits a background process to calculate the bid-based average or regression price for each detail item in the cost estimate that has an active bid-based task. Depending on the number of items involved, this process may take some time to complete. You can check the completion status of the process on the Process History component.

Combining Like Cost Estimate Items

Like items are active cost estimate items with the same item number, supplemental description, and category, that are not parametric items, and are not part of an alternate set. When you combine like items, the system creates one new active cost estimate item for that item number, supplemental description, and category, with a quantity equal to the sum of the quantities of the like items. If the like items are lump sum items, the system sets the quantity for the combined item to one. The combined item acquires the default price tasks associated with that reference item.

If you select Combine Like Cost Estimate Items, you must then price the combined item based on the active price tasks for that item.

If you select Combine Like Cost Estimate Items and Calculate Bid Based Prices, the system will combine like items first and then submit the Calculate Bid Based Prices process to calculate the price of each combined item that has an active bid-based price task.

Note: You should combine like cost estimate items before building the project items. If you build the project items first, you cannot combine items since you can only adjust cost estimate item pricing when project items exist.

Importing a Snapshot

You can select a snapshot of the current cost estimate and import the saved cost estimate information into the cost estimate. When you import a snapshot, all of the existing information for the cost estimate and its associated child records is overwritten by the imported snapshot. Depending on agency option settings, the system might automatically create a snapshot of the cost estimate before importing a snapshot and overwriting the existing data.

Note: You cannot import a snapshot to a cost estimate profile, a cost estimate associated with a project that has project items, or a cost estimate associated with a proposal that has proposal items.

To import information from a snapshot to a cost estimate:

Select Import Snapshot from the Actions menu on the component header.

The system displays a modal window that lists all of the snapshots for the current cost estimate. The Cost Estimate Name and associated Entity are listed at the top of the modal window. You can find a specific snapshot by typing criteria in the Quick Find search box.
Click the row for the snapshot you want to import.

The system adds a check mark at the beginning of the row to indicate it is selected.
Click the Import to Cost Estimate button.

The system closes the modal window, overwrites the cost estimate and all its associated child records with the snapshot information, and displays a message to confirm that the changes were saved.

Selecting Cost Estimate Items to Calculate Bid Based Prices

To select cost estimate items to calculate bid based average or regression prices:

Select Select Cost Estimate Items to Calculate Bid Based Prices... from the Actions menu on the component header.

The system displays a modal window that lists all of the cost estimate items for the current cost estimate with an active bid based price task. You can find a specific item by typing criteria in the Quick Find search box.
Click the row or select multiple rows for the items you want to select.

The system adds a check mark at the beginning of each row to indicate it is selected. Click All to select all items.
Click the Calculate Prices button.

The system displays a message that prices are being calculated and closes the modal window. The number of items selected will impact the length of the calculation process. You can check the completion status of the process on the Process History component.