Job Creation

In InEight Estimate, a job represents the folder containing your estimate (or version of your estimate), including its related bid items, cost breakdown structure, resources, quotes, and change logs. All the jobs in your organization are stored in the Job Register.

To create a new job, you can choose from multiple options available when selecting New in the InEight Estimate Backstage view. The image and table below show the available options.

Option Description
Scratch Creates a new job folder from scratch that is empty, containing no existing data.
Template Creates a job from an existing template from the Template Register. For more information, see Templates.
Existing Job Creates a job from an existing job from the Job Register. For more information, see Copy an Existing Job.
Bid Wizard Uses a wizard tool to create a new job by selecting pay items and/or cost items from an existing source job. For more information, see Bid Wizard.
Archive Creates a new job from an Estimate Job Archive (.est) File. For more information on creating and using job archives, see Archive and restore jobs.
Snapshot Creates a new job from a register containing snapshots for all jobs. You can filter the register of snapshots to find the snapshot you need. For more information, see Snapshots.

Create a Job from Scratch

When you need a clean estimating environment that is not based on any past work, select the create a new job from Scratch option. Creating a job from scratch gives you complete flexibility and ensures no assumptions are carried over from past estimates.

Platform Project association to job

When you create a job, the job must be associated with a project in InEight Platform, which represents the overall construction project being managed by your organization, from planning to execution and turnover.

The association to a project in Platform promotes data consistency, helps ensure that the data is being pulled from a single source of truth, and reduces duplicate entries.

Fields in Setup > Job Properties > Overview that are maintained in Platform and integrate into Estimate are Project ID, Organization, and Notes. The fields on the Estimate Cover Sheet tab include Location, State, City, Country, and Latitude and Longitude, Forecast Start and Finish, and Duration.

When modifications are made to any of the integrated fields in Platform, then saved, the changes automatically show in Estimate. For example, if you need to change the name of the project in Platform to show a different year, this change is reflected in the in the Job Properties > Project Name field form in Estimate.

When you select to create a new job, in the New Job window, select a project in the Core Project field drop-down list to associate to your job in Estimate. Core project refers to a project in Platform.

Organization breakdown structure (OBS)

Associating Platform projects lets you organize estimates directly from Platform’s OBS. Because projects in Platform are organized in an OBS, associating your job (estimate) to a project in Platform allows your estimates to be included in that organizational structure.

The OBS represents the hierarchical structure a company uses to manage its business and can be broken down in multiple ways, such as Southwest or Northwest regions. Within those regions the hierarchy can be further broken down by divisions, such as Electrical, Paving, and Masonry. The organization can continue to be more refined to the level such as states, cities, districts.

After the job you create is associated to a Platform project, in the Job Register, you can view the job in the context of your OBS. In the example below, the job register is filtered to the Tantalum Group > Estimating > Site Work level of the organization. Under project ID number 5013592, you can see two jobs, the original estimate and a second version.

Your location assignment in the OBS determines the access you inherit and the visibility you have to other areas of the OBS.

For more information, see Job Register Overview.

Create a new job from scratch

  1. From the Backstage view, select to create a new job from scratch.

  2. In the New Job dialog box, click in the Core Project field to select a Platform job from the list.

  3. Modify the Code field as needed.

  4. Enter a description of the job in the Description field.

  5. Determine if you want to select the Auto-Update Job in Connected Analytics check box.

  6. Click OK to create the new project.