Video - InEight Estimate - Cost and Production - Plug Costs

TRANSCRIPT

One of the methods for adding cost to your cost items is to plug costs. This method allows you to enter a unit or total cost directly without needing to enter resources or production. While this is not the recommended method to use for a detailed estimate, it does have a couple of use cases. For example, you can plug costs as a placeholder value until you receive more information, or to enter a rough estimate to decide if you should bid the work at all.

To define plug costs on a cost item, right-click on the Mobilization cost item, and select Open. On the mobilization cost item record, select the plug tab. Again, the plug cost source allows you to enter a unit or total cost directly without needing to enter resources or production. Click in the Labor field under unit cost and type 10,000.

Click on the Owned Equipment field and type 10,000 as well. The total cost on the plugged tab now is $20,000, but notice the total cost of the cost item is still set to $0. You must change the cost source for the cost item to Plug for your plug cost to contribute to the cost item. This allows you to calculate plug costs and detailed costs, and then use the cost source drop-down toggle between the two, and select which cost you want to go with.

With cost defined for mobilization, click OK to close the record.