Daily work
Line items and the calculator
Building a category up from labor, materials, lump sums, fees and contingency.
In short
A line item is quantity times price. The calculator is where you build several at once from labor, materials, lump sums and percentages.
A category can carry a single typed number, and for plenty of work that is enough. When you want to show how you got there, or you want the number to update when a rate changes, build it from line items instead.
The calculator
Every line item is created through the same drawer, opened from the "Add line item" row under a category. There is no separate simple form, because a simple line item is just this with one row filled in.
Each row picks its own type:
- Labor: a person, hours, and their rate.
- Material: quantity, unit and unit price.
- Lump sum: one amount with a note, for a sub's quote you are passing through.
- Fee: a percentage of the rows you choose.
- Contingency: the same maths, a different word for the client.
You can mix them freely inside one category. Demolition can be two laborers, a dumpster and a ten percent contingency, and the category total stays a single number in the estimate.
The laborer roster
Save a person once and they are available on every job, with their rate remembered. Changing a rate later does not rewrite estimates you already built, which is what you want: a signed proposal should not move because you gave someone a raise.
Retiring a laborer keeps their name resolving on old jobs rather than leaving historical breakdowns pointing at nothing.
Fee and contingency rows
A fee row is a percentage of the rows you point it at, either all the non-fee rows beside it or a specific selection. Percentages are stored precisely enough for real contract language, so a rate like 7.5 percent is exactly that rather than a rounded approximation.
Fees can be based on other fees when a contract genuinely stacks them. Circular arrangements are rejected when you save rather than producing a number nobody can explain.
Tip
If a category needs a fee on top of several categories rather than several rows, use a fee category instead. See jobs and estimates.
Editing later
Reopening the drawer on an existing line item shows the inputs you originally typed, not just the total, so you can change the hours and let the number follow.
Editing the quantity or price directly on the table instead is also fine, but it clears the saved breakdown, because the stored working would no longer match the number beside it.
What the client sees
Whether line items appear on a proposal, and whether their quantities and unit prices are itemized or collapsed to a category total, is a display option. Build in as much detail as you need and decide separately how much of it to show. See proposals and signing.