Job Properties

When you create a new project, the Job Properties form automatically displays. This is where you can enter basic information about the project. To open the Job Properties form at any other time, on the InEight Estimate landing page, select the Setup tab and click Job Properties.

Overview Tab

The Job Properties form opens to the Overview tab.

Overview – Overview Tab

Name		Description
1	Job Code and Description	Contain the information you entered on the New Job dialog. The Description can be changed at any time if necessary The Code cannot be changed
2	Status	Indicates where in the process this project is (e.g., Bidding, Awarded, etc.) • When searching for jobs in the Job Folders list, you can filter and sort jobs by their status • These job statuses can be adjusted to fit your company requirements in the Jobs Register, Tools Menu, Job Statuses.
3	Notes	Used to document project specifics. Information in this field is created in InEight Estimate and it is not integrated with other programs
4	Job created by	Indicates the user or entity that initially created the job.
5	Source Job	The name of the original job that the job was copied from.

When you copy a job, the new job shows the name of the person who created the copied job, and the name of the source job the job was copied from.

Security Tab

When you set up the job, you can secure it so only those working on the estimate will have access. You can adjust security at the field level or at the job level.

The following steps walk you through how to set up security. For now, you will leave the Security tab as is without making any specific selections; however, the following steps guide you through making any security changes when needed in the future.

Step by Step — Set Up Job Level Security

Cover Sheet Tab

The Cover Sheet tab is where you can define much of the general information about the project. It includes fields to identify the job’s location, contacts, and bid details.

The following fields are available:

• Job Location

• City, County, Country, Province/State

• Job Type

• Engineer

• Owner

• Architect

• Forecast Start and Forecast Finish

• Bid Date and Bid Time

• Bid Location

• Estimator

• Opening Type and Proposal Type

• Liquidated Damages (if applicable)

  

The fields on this tab can be helpful for historical reference and job classification. It is good practice to complete as many of these fields as possible, so you can reference and find the project later. These fields can be updated as needed at any time.

Cost Basis Tab

The Cost Basis tab has some important settings that will affect how costs are calculated in your estimate. The settings reviewed below are the ones you need to consider.

Name		Description
1	Standard Shift Arrangements	The default standard shift arrangements are set up as 8 hours per shift, 1 shift per day, and 5 days per week; this can be changed if a project requires a different standard shift arrangement.
2	Standard Wage Rate Composite:	Allows you to indicate what percentage of your labor hours will be regular time (Scale 1), overtime (Scale 2) or double time (Scale 3). You can enter these percentages manually, or you can use the Shift Rate Calculator to obtain a more accurate figure.
3	Lock Cost Items to Pay Items:	For this sample job, you will check this box. When Cost Items are locked to Pay Items, your level 1 estimate structure is controlled by your list of pay items.
4	Default Currency:	The default will be set to U.S. Dollar, but this can be changed if needed.
5	Sales Tax Rate:	This field is not required but may be used to automatically apply a sales tax to all your material and rental items. The default is set to zero.

Cost Basis Tab Overview

Shift Rate Calculator

Take a closer look at calculating your shift rates using the Shift Rate Calculator. For this example, you will walk through setting up 2 shifts for your project.

Step by Step — Shift Rate Calculator

Import Filtered Resources

You may have noticed the bottom portion of your Cost Basis tab called the Resource Filter.

The Resource Filter portion of the Cost Basis tab is the most important part of Job Properties. You use it to import your labor, equipment, and materials from the Library. Until you import filtered resources, you have no resources (labor, equipment, materials) in your project.

Updated resource rates can be imported into the Library on a regular basis. It is important to update and have the “Latest & Greatest” rates available to import into your estimates.

You will import the rates you need using a set of four filters called Resource Attributes. Especially for labor rates, filtering by these attributes allows you to pare down the master list to just the resources you need.

Each of the resource filter categories are open for use as determined best by your business. The following are examples of common uses:

Resource Attribute Filters
Name	Description
Resource File Description	This attribute can be used to designate the rate type or the year to which the rates pertain.
Geographic Area	This attribute is used to designate regions, cities, or provinces based on geographical location of a project.
Wage Zone	This attribute is typically used specifically for labor resources. For example, it may designate the trade and union agreements your labor resources belong to.
Organizational Category	This attribute can be used to designate what trade or work type your resources pertain to.

Resource filters become more specific from left to right, so it makes sense to start with Resource File Description and end with Organizational Category. The geographic area, wage zone and organizational category attribute titles can be changed to meet your business needs for filtering resources.

You can sort the filter lists by clicking on the filter category titles.

The following steps walk through using the Resource Filter to import resources.

Step by Step — Import Filtered Resources

 

You must select “Import Filtered Resources” to import your resources. Clicking OK on the Job Properties form will not import your resources.

Fuel Cost Tab

On this tab you can enter the cost for fuel (or other energy sources). These unit cost will be multiplied by the consumption rates entered on each equipment record to define the fuel operating cost of each piece of equipment. The Cost per UM fields default to $0.00.

Step by Step — Enter Fuel Costs

1. In your job, open the Job Properties > Fuel Cost tab.

2. In Cost Per UM column, enter a dollar amount into the following:

   • Diesel

   • Gas & Gasoline

   • Off Road Diesel

     

3. Currency should read U.S. Dollar and UM should read Gallon.

Job Folder Tags Tab

On this tab, you can enter tag fields to label your project, so you can reference it later.

Many of these fields are validated fields, meaning you can choose from options in a drop-down list. The names of these tags and the drop-down values are defined at a master level within the Library Foundation Setup Data. Some job folder tags are setup to be date fields or numerical fields. These tags are used to sort and filter the job register as well as for selecting which past estimates to utilize for benchmarking.

Schedule Tab

The Schedule tab is used to define the scheduling options for the integration between InEight Estimate Primavera or Microsoft Project. The settings you define here determine what information is sent to your scheduling tool, and how it will be structured.

• At the top of the Schedule tab, the Integrated Schedule can be set to Primavera or Microsoft Project or Manual

• You will need to confirm the proper settings are defined on each of the Schedule sub-tabs. These settings are defined in detail in Lesson 12 – Schedule Integration

  

Other Job Properties Tabs

There are several additional tabs on the Job Properties form. The other tabs will not be discussed here because they are either used for project controls, or they will be covered at another time.

Other Job Properties Tabs
Name	Function
Minority Setup	Used to set up minority participation goals (for example, DBE or MBE) and you want to track minority participation goal attainment status during the bid process,
Job Tracking	Used to select the code that will be used when tracking job progress, define the planned production calculation, define the percent complete calculation, define the forecast methods, and define markup rates for calculating earned revenue on Time and Expense pay items.
Pricing	Used to define how you want the Balanced Unit Price for each of the job's pay items to be calculated when using the AutoPrice feature. You can also choose form several options in determining how markup is defined.
Cash Flow	Defines the cash flow rules (payment terms) that are used in the calculation of Job Financing and cost/revenue realization to generate the curves that display on the Cash Flow form.
Equipment Maintenance	Used to define the calculation of maintenance labor man-hours based on equipment utilization, to capture the impact on total man-hours when changes are made that affect the job's total value.
Benchmarking	Used to establish the historical data to be used for benchmarking the current job, and to define the default benchmark graph display and calculations.
Alternates	Used to define Alternate Scenarios, to assess the impact of those scenarios.