Costs and Production

VIDEO | Cost and Production Details

VIDEO | Cost and Production Plug Costs

For the cost items you’ve created, you can now add their costs and production. All information for a cost item is contained in a Cost Item Record.

Cost Item Record

You can open the Cost Item Record by either double clicking on a cost item row header, or right clicking and selecting Open.

Cost Item Record Overview

Name	Description
1	Cost Item Header Information	Provides general information about the cost item. It displays the cost item’s take-off quantity, Unit of Measure, and Cost. It also indicates what Cost Source is being used. The Cost Segment drop-down is used to differentiate estimated costs in the Direct Costs, Job Overhead or Business overhead categories.
2	Costing Area	Section where costs are defined. There are three ways to enter costs: Detail, Plug, and Quote. The Cost Summary tab summarizes whatever costs are defined. Under the Cost Segment drop down, you can choose
3	Data Blocks	Contains a set of tabs for entering additional information including production, shift arrangements, man-hour factors, notes, and scheduling information.

Name

Description

Cost Item Header Information

Provides general information about the cost item. It displays the cost item’s take-off quantity, Unit of Measure, and Cost. It also indicates what Cost Source is being used.

The Cost Segment drop-down is used to differentiate estimated costs in the Direct Costs, Job Overhead or Business overhead categories.

Costing Area

Section where costs are defined. There are three ways to enter costs: Detail, Plug, and Quote. The Cost Summary tab summarizes whatever costs are defined.

Under the Cost Segment drop down, you can choose

Data Blocks

Contains a set of tabs for entering additional information including production, shift arrangements, man-hour factors, notes, and scheduling information.

Cost Segments

The Direct Costs, Job Overhead, and Business Overhead cost segments helps to classify the scope of work so you can report on direct vs indirect costs, and accurately control how markup is spread throughout your bid. This differentiation is necessary to effectively price work based on the risk profile of each segment of cost.

Cost Sources

You can define costs on a cost item in one of three ways, called Cost Sources:

Tab	Description
Detail	This is the recommended costing method, where labor, equipment, and material resources are defined, along with productivity, to determine costs.
Plug	This method allows you to enter a unit or total cost directly, without needing to enter resources or production. This should rarely be used, but does have a couple of use cases: Place holder value until you get more information (from subcontractors or designers) For preliminary estimates when limited information is available
Quote	The Quote cost source is for contractors, subcontractors or vendor quotes. Creating and managing quotes is covered in Lesson - Quote Management

Tab

Description

Detail

This is the recommended costing method, where labor, equipment, and material resources are defined, along with productivity, to determine costs.

Plug

This method allows you to enter a unit or total cost directly, without needing to enter resources or production. This should rarely be used, but does have a couple of use cases:

Place holder value until you get more information (from subcontractors or designers)
For preliminary estimates when limited information is available

Quote

The Quote cost source is for contractors, subcontractors or vendor quotes.

Creating and managing quotes is covered in Lesson - Quote Management

On each Cost Item Record, InEight Estimate gives you the option to define both Plug and Detail values on each respective tab.

Plug Tab

The Plug tab allows user to input unit or total cost to any of the listed cost categories which can be customized based on company requirements.

Detail Tab

Entering both a detailed and plug cost allows you to define costs at a higher summary level initially (Plug tab), and then define more detail as the estimating process progresses (Detail tab). You can review and compare your plug and detail values by toggling between tabs, but your cost item will only contribute the total cost from one of the tabs based on which cost source is selected.

You control which cost is used by selecting Detail or Plug in the Cost Source field on the Cost Item Record.

The Quote Cost Source can only be selected from the Quote Comparison & Award form. See Lesson 8 – Quote Comparison.

Plug Costs

The following steps walk you through defining a plug cost on a cost item.

Step by Step — Define a plugged cost

From the Estimate tab, select Cost Breakdown Structure (CBS).
Right-click on the row header for a cost item and select Open.
In the Cost Source drop-down field select Plug.
In the left section of the cost item, select the Plug tab.
Click in the Unit cost or Total cost field for a cost category and type in a Numeric Value.
- For this example, on the Mobilization cost item, we’ll add $10,000 in the Total Cost field for both Labor and Owner Equipment.

Detail Costs

The Detail cost method is also defined on the Cost Item Record. On the Detail tab, you can add resources (labor, equipment, and material) and define production.

On the Production tab (right side of screen), define production by entering one of the following:

A duration, or
A unit per duration, or
A duration per unit

When you enter a production value, all the other production fields will auto-fill based on what you entered.

The hours defined on the Production tab drive the labor and equipment resources you employ on the left, multiplying their unit costs by the production hours.

When you employ material resources, their costs are driven by the quantity you enter into the quantity field.

The Total Cost of each resource is added together to give you the Total Cost for the cost item.

Step by Step — Detail costs

On the Detail tab, add resources (labor, equipment, and material).
On the Production tab, define production (duration, unit per duration, or duration per unit).
The hours defined on the Production tab drive the labor and equipment resources on the left, multiplying their unit costs by the production hours.

With material resources, their costs are driven by the quantity entered in the quantity field.

Add Cost Detail

The following steps walk you through adding resources and production on a cost item.

Step by Step — Add cost detail

From the Estimate tab, select Cost Breakdown Structure (CBS).
Right-click on row header for a cost item and select Open.
Select the Detail tab.
A blank row is available to define your costs. With your cursor in the code field, click the Resource Selection icon to open the Resource Selection Register.
Select a resource tab (e.g., Labor).
Select a resource.
Select OK.
Repeat the steps to add additional resources as needed.
Click in each resource’s quantity field to change their quantity as needed.
From the lower-right section of the form, select the Production tab.
Type a numeric value in the Days field, then press Tab.
Click OK to close the record.
- For this example, we’ll add cost detail to the Clearing cost item, adding the following labor and equipment resources and production value:

Add Assembly

Step by Step — Define cost detail by adding an assembly

From the Estimate tab, select Cost Breakdown Structure (CBS).
Right-click on the row header for one of the cost items and select Open.
Select the Detail tab.
With your cursor in the Resource Assembly field, click the Resource Assembly Selection icon to open the Resource Assembly Selection Register.
Select an assembly, then click OK.
Because this crew includes duration-based resources, you need to enter a Production value. Select the Production tab.
Type a numeric value in one of the production fields (e.g., UoM/day), then press Tab.
- For this example, on the Grading cost item, we’ll add a Grading assembly with a production value of 1 Acre/Day.