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Estimates

Build a priced, versioned estimate with a full rate build-up, then push it straight through to the project budget and cost assignments.

Who it is for. The estimator who lives in Excel today and has no way to get an estimate into P6 without retyping it. Also enterprise PMOs, because estimates carry an AACE class and a revision chain suitable for stage-gate review.

What it is for

Capital-project estimates are almost always built in spreadsheets, then re-keyed into the cost system as a budget — and the two drift apart the moment either changes. This keeps the build-up and the resulting budget in one place, and pushes line items into cost assignments idempotently, so the estimate is the budget rather than a document that preceded it.

Against the incumbents

P6 has no estimating module and neither does MS Project — estimating is normally a separate purchase, or Excel. Doing the rate build-up, the AACE class, the markup ladder, the cash-flow phasing and the one-click push into the schedule’s cost assignments inside one application is not something the incumbents offer without a second product.

Estimates
AACE Class 3 estimate with markup build-up and a composed unit rate.

What it does

Every line below is in the product today.

  • The full markup ladder

    Direct cost through escalation, contingency, overhead and profit, with overhead and profit distributed pro-rata back onto each line so burdened line totals sum to the estimate total.

  • AACE 18R-97 estimate classes

    Class 5 through Class 1, each carrying its published accuracy range and applying it to the total.

  • Unit rates you can defend

    Each line opens a build-up sheet — labour, equipment, material, subcontract, other — whose sum becomes the unit rate. A rate is a composition, not a number someone typed.

  • A real formula engine in the sheet

    Excel-style formulas with a formula bar, cell and column references, and a drag fill handle that shifts relative row references the way a spreadsheet does.

  • Custom columns that feed the estimate

    Define your own columns with formulas, number or currency formats and footer aggregates, then bind one to feed quantity or rate.

  • Revisions, and an approval that supersedes

    New Revision clones the header and every line, build-ups and phasing included, linked back to its source. Approving one automatically supersedes other approved estimates on the project.

  • Push to budget, twice, safely

    Line items become planned cost assignments in burdened or direct-only mode. Re-running the push does not duplicate them.

  • Cash flow from the estimate itself

    Per-line distribution curves — linear, S-curve, front or back loaded, or custom weights — drive a weekly, monthly or quarterly cash-flow view with a cumulative row.

See it on your own schedule.

Send an XER before the call and we will import it and show you Estimates running against your data.