Quantity Roll-Up

Estimate gives you flexibility to determine quantities in different ways depending on the way you prefer to estimate the work. For projects where the estimate is starting with a schedule of quantities, its common to break down the work into various activities and verify the quantities. In these cases, changing a parent level quantity pushes down the proportional changes to the cost items and resource employments that are subordinate to the modified cost item.

For estimates where very little or no information is provided on the quantities the estimator is bidding on, it is good practice to have these quantities derived from the detailed takeoff quantity calculations and the estimators analysis of the work plan. The Quantity Roll-up feature enables you to do just that.

Quantity Roll-up is a flexible feature letting you roll up quantities in many different ways. The most common use of Quantity roll-up is for you to pick a parent cost item and then choose the subordinate cost items or resource employments that will roll-up or contribute to the parent cost items quantity.

A green upwards-pointing arrow indicates that cost items and resources employments are contributing to the parent cost item. For an item to contribute, it needs to meet the following criteria:

  • The parent cost item has a Quantity Code assigned and its Quantity Driver set to roll-up.
  • The contributing cost items or resource employments have a matching roll-up code.
  • The contributing cost items or resource employments have units of measure with the same measurement type as the roll-up code.

Quantity Roll-up Codes

Roll up codes are maintained in the Quantity Roll-Ups register in the Foundation Set-Up data.

Units of Measure

Each code has an assigned unit of measure and rolls up when the unit of measurement type for the contributing item matches.

For example, a quantity code of 200 - Pipe with a unit of measure of linear feet whose unit of measure type is length can roll up the quantity of a contributing item whose unit of measure is on of the following:

  • linear feet
  • meter
  • mile
  • inches

As long as the unit of measure type matches, the system automatically applies the conversion factor between those different units of measure and display the calculated value of the quantity in the unit of measurement indicated on the parent cost item or WBS element.

Roll-Up Code Hierarchy

Quantity roll-up code assignments do not have to match the hierarchy code as long as they all share the same parent.

For example, resources could be maintained in the library with roll-up code assignments, such as 200.10 – PVC pipe, 200.20 – VCP pipe, etc. Then those resources are rolled up to a parent item with a roll up code assignment of 200. This combines the different types of pipe into a single roll-up value.

This lets you maintain a very detailed roll-up code structure and have quantities roll up either specifically to a single code or generally to the code's parent based on how the estimator wants to structure the estimate and see quantities roll up.

Rolling up Quantities

Cost Item

Changing the parent-level cost item quantity can also trigger the proportional updating of a noncontributing subordinate cost item quantity.

For example, to estimate a detailed list of material quantities, you select items in that list to contribute to the parent cost item quantity. Now, that cost item quantity contributes to its parent, and then pushes down the quantity proportionally to the install quantity.

Step by Step — Rolling up cost items

  1. From the CBS register, select the child cost item you want to roll up subordinate quantities into.

  2. From the ribbon, select the More Actions tab.

  3. Under the Tool section, select Roll Up Quantities. The Roll Up Quantities window appears.

  4. In the Quantity Roll-Up Code drop-down, select a roll-up code. The Quantity Roll-Up Register window appears.

  5. If no codes are shown in the Quantity Roll-Up Register, select the Actions tab in the ribbon.

  6. Under the Edit section, select New. The Quantity Roll-Up Record appears.

  7. Enter the required information: Code and Unit of Measure. The Description and Notes fields are optional.

    If your Unit of Measure is not listed in the drop-down list, select the green + to add your preferred Unit of Measure.

  8. After you are done filling out the required information, click OK. Your rolled up quantity code is shown in the Quantity Roll-Up Register.

  9. Click OK to return to the Roll Up Quantities window. Your previously created rolled up quantity is automatically selected for the Quantity Roll-Up Code.

  10. Select the Roll-Up check boxes next to the CBS Position Codes you want to roll up.

  11. In the Cost Breakdown Structure (CBS) Register, the following columns for your previously selected child cost item are now read-only:

    • Forecast (T/O) Quantity
    • Unit Cost
    • Total Cost (Forecast)

To view only Quantity Roll-Up columns, go to the Saved Views drop-down and select the Quantity Roll-Up View. This saved view displays the following columns:

Work Breakdown Structure

You can estimate using a rip and read methodology. Quantities are automatically derived in the WBS, so you can validate your estimate as you go.

For example, a UniFormat WBS can indicate so many dollars per building square foot or a MasterFormat WBS can indicate a overall cost per container yard (CY) for concrete.

Step by Step — Adding Quantity Roll-Up Codes to WBS items

  1. From the ribbon, select the Estimate tab.

  2. Under the Breakdown Structures section, select Work Breakdown Structures. The Work Breakdown Structure View Register opens.

  3. From the WBS Tree, select the WBS drop-down. Then, select the WBS code you want to open.

  4. Highlight the WBS code you want to add a Quantity Roll-Up Code.

  5. In the Quantity Roll-Up Code column, select the icon to the right of the text box. The Quantity Roll-Up Register appears.

  6. In the Quantity Roll-Up Register, select an existing code to add to the Quantity Roll-Up Code column. Double-click to add it or select OK.

  7. After selecting the Quantity Roll-Up Code to add to your WBS item, the number of quantities in the Quantity column automatically changes to the quantity listed in the roll-up code you selected. The Quantity column for that WBS item then becomes read-only.