Adding a new Task - ProEstimate

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Adding a new Task

You can set up tasks for a pay item then enter prices for each task. The Task quantity and unit does not have to match the pay item. The system will automatically total all of the tasks and recalculate the pay item unit price. Pressing the Add Task button on the Main Estimate Screen will display the New Task type selection screen shown in Figure 1, below . You must select either the Grouping Task or the Normal Task option. A Grouping Task is used to group inter-related task Items. For example you might want to establish a grouping task for the Parent task of "Clearing and Grubbing" and then create tasks for Light, Medium and Heavy Clearing under that Parent.

Figure 2

Figure 3

Task

A task is an individual element of work within a pay item. The description identifies this particular work activity. The description can not exceed 100 characters in length. NOTE: You cannot have two tasks within the same pay item with the exact same description.

Quantity/Unit

These fields are the task quantity and unit of measure. Neither the Task Quantity nor the Unit of Measure has to be the same as the pay item. The system will automatically total all task costs and divide by the pay item quantity to calculate the pay item unit price for each cost type.

Copy from Pay Item

Press the “Copy from Pay Item” button to copy the Pay Item Description into the task description.

Takeoff Sheet

This option will display a basic take-off spreadsheet that allows the estimator to enter dimensions and have the system calculate the task quantity based on these values.

Production Type

This option allows you to enter the production rate type to use for the current task. You can select from any of the following available options:

Units/Crew Hour
Crew Hours/Unit
Manhours/Unit
Units/Manhour
Hours
Days

Production Rate/Hours

There are two methods you can use to enter the duration of a task: (1) You can enter the number of hours (or days) directly or (2) you can enter a production rate and the system will calculate the duration by dividing the quantity by the production rate.

Alternate Mark-Up

Alternate Mark-Ups allow you to mark up different pay items (or tasks) with different percentages. You can also use the feature to use different work schedules for different pay items and tasks. This option is discussed in greater detail in Advanced Features - Using Alternate Mark-Ups.

Alternate Sub Mark-Up

In the Project Set Up Wizard you had the option to enter a base subcontractor mark-up as well as three “additional mark-ups.” Using this field, you can select which mark-up option to use. Using the Sub Pricing system, you can also select an alternate sub mark-up for all the pay items within the pricing sheet. See Advanced Features - Using Alternate Sub Mark-Ups for more information on entering and using alternate sub mark-ups.

Load Crew from Library

A powerful feature in ProEstimate Heavy is the ability to build & save crews in a crew database then load those crews into a task from the database. Checking this box will expand the New Task Window to allow you to pick a crew from the crew database.

Copy Crew Desc to Task

Press the “Copy Desc to Task” button to copy the selected crew description into the Task description.

Category

Within the crew database, you can enter a category for each crew. This option allows you to view only those crews within a selected category. This option is useful once you have built a large crew database and makes it easier to locate a specific crew.

Crew

This list box allows you to select a crew from the crew database. If you selected a category, only those crews within that category will be displayed.

Sequence No.

This option is used by the system to sort the tasks. By default the system will sort the tasks alphabetically by task description. On the project settings screen you also have the option to sort by a sort code. This field allows you to enter this sort code.

User Code

This field is the user code which created the task. If you are using the password and security options within the program, you can enter a two-character user code for each user (See Security Database for more information on setting up users). The system can then track who created each task. This may be useful if more than one estimator is working on a single project.

Production History

This option is not currently available.

SAVE

Press the SAVE button to save the new task and open the Task Window. The Task Window is explained in the next section. Pressing the CANCEL button will close the new task window without saving the task and return you to the Main Estimate Screen.