Add or Delete Additional Costs from an Estimate Worksheet

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To create an estimate that fully captures the entire cost of a project, you’ll likely want to include overhead costs, sales tax, and various other costs that may not be directly tied to one specific takeoff item or measurement.

The Other Costs section of the Estimate allows you to add this information directly to your estimate in STACK. You have the flexibility to enter costs as a lump sum or calculate the costs as a percentage of the Estimate Base Total, Estimate Extended Costs, a Cost Type, or Label that you’ve added to a takeoff. You also have the option to keep the costs as individual line items in the Other Costs section or distribute the costs to their associated line items on the main Estimate worksheet.

You can add as many Other Costs as you need and enter a name for each cost, so they’re displayed in terms that make sense for your business. You can also designate the Type of cost - Direct Costs, Indirect Costs, Contingencies, Overhead, Profit, or Tax - for every cost you add to get a more detailed breakout of your estimate costs on the Estimate Worksheet Dashboard.

What to know:

• By default, the Other Costs section is in a collapsed state (i.e., hidden from view).
  Click the expand icon at the right of the Other Costs tab at the bottom of the Estimate worksheet to expand the section and view/edit information; click and drag the top of the tab to manually adjust the height of the section.
• The Other Costs section is empty until you manually add rows.
• When you add a row, you can enter/edit information in any cell with a white background.
• You can add, edit, or delete information in this section at any time.
• Columns in this section can be filtered, sorted, and resized but they cannot be removed, and you cannot change the column order.
• The Type you select when you add a cost determines where that cost is included and presented on the estimate Dashboard.
• When you add a cost as a Percentage Of the Estimate Base Total, the Basis Amount used is the BASE TOTAL from the green TOTALS bar at the bottom of the Estimate (which is the sum of the Base Total column from the main Estimate worksheet).
• When you add a cost as a Percentage Of the Estimate Extended Costs, the Basis Amount used is the  sum of the Extended Costs column from the Totals section of the main Estimate worksheet.
• You can choose to Distribute costs to line items in the main Estimate worksheet. Costs with a Type of Direct Costs, Indirect Costs, or Contingencies will be distributed to the Distributed Costs column of the main Estimate worksheet. Costs with a Type of Overhead or Profit will be distributed to the Distributed Margin column of the main Estimate worksheet. 
  • Lump Sum costs will be evenly distributed among all line items that have a unit cost.
  • Percentage costs will only be distributed among line items associated with the selections you make in the Percentage Of and Options dropdowns. (Percentage costs are proportionately distributed among the associated line items.)
• You cannot Distribute costs that have been assigned a Type of Tax.
• You cannot Distribute costs that have been added as a Percentage Of the Estimate Base Total or any Options with "Base Total" in the name (i.e., Material Base Total, Labor Base Total, etc.) because it would create a circular reference.
• Distributed Costs are included in the BASE TOTAL on the green TOTALS bar at the bottom of the Estimate.
• Costs that you add but do not Distribute are listed in the Additional Costs column of the Other Costs section. The ADDITIONAL COSTS on the green TOTALS bar at the bottom of the Estimate is the sum of these costs.
• If you export your Estimate to Excel, data from the Other Costs section will be saved as a separate tab of the Excel file.
  
  See below for instructions to:
  Add Other Costs
  Delete Other Costs

Add Other Costs

You can easily add overhead, taxes and other costs directly to your Estimate in STACK as a lump sum or as a percentage of the Estimate Selling Price or a selected Cost Type or Label.

You also have the option to keep those costs as individual line items in the Other Costs section or Distribute the costs to their associated line items on the main Estimate worksheet.

1. Expand/open the Other Costs section of the Estimate.
   (Click the expand icon at the right of the Other Costs tab at the bottom of the Estimate worksheet or click and drag the top of the tab.)
2. Right click in workspace below the Other Costs column headings and select Add Row.
   TIP:  You can select the Type of cost you want to add and Calculation Type from the menu that appears when you right click. Then you can skip steps 3, 6 and 7 below.
3. Click in the Type cell and select the type of cost you are adding - Direct Costs, Indirect Costs, Contingencies, Overhead, Profit, or Tax. The selection you make here determines where the cost will be included on the estimate Dashboard.
   TIP: Think of Direct Costs as costs directly related to line items, including markups on materials, and burden on labor; Indirect Costs as general conditions, permits, fees, etc.; Contingencies as costs to cover unexpected events like weather delays, employee sickness, or material price increases; Overhead as a percentage of your other business costs like marketing, sales, and employees/functions that support all areas of your business; Profit as the markup you apply to the project to make money; and Tax as the costs you have to pay federal, state, and local agencies.
4. (Optional) Enter a code in the Accounting Code field for the cost that you are adding. (This could be an accounting or cost code, part number, or SKU.)
5. Enter a name for the cost you are adding in the Name field.
6. Click in the Calculation Type cell and select Lump Sum or Percentage from the dropdown.
   • Lump Sum will let you enter a total dollar amount of your choice.
   • Percentage will calculate the percentage you specify of the Estimate Base Total, Estimate Extended Costs, or the Cost Type or Label you choose.
7. If you chose Lump Sum:
   • Enter the dollar amount in the Additional Costs cell. (Go to step 8.)
     
     If you chose Percentage:
   • Enter the desired percentage in Percentage Value cell. (You can enter a negative percentage value.)
   • Click in the Percentage Of cell and select Estimate Base Total, Estimate Extended Costs, Cost Type, or Label from the dropdown.
   • If you chose Cost Type or Label, click in the Options cell, and select the specific cost type or label to which you want to add the percentage from the dropdown.
8. (Optional) Check the box in the Distribute column if you want the costs distributed to the associated line items in the main Estimate worksheet.*
   Costs with a Type of Direct Costs, Indirect Costs, or Contingencies will be distributed to the Distributed Costs column. Costs with a Type of Overhead or Profit will be distributed to the Distributed Margin column.
   NOTE: You cannot distribute costs if you selected a Type of Tax in step 3; if you chose Estimate Base Total from the Percentage Of dropdown in step 6; or if you selected any Options with "Base Total" in the name (i.e., Material Base Total, Labor Base Total, etc.) in step 7. 
9. (Optional) Enter any notes in the Notes field.

You can follow the process above to add as many Other Costs as needed or to edit any of the costs you’ve already added.

*If you distribute costs and later decide you do not want them distributed, just uncheck the Distribute box. The costs will no longer be included in the Distributed Costs or Distributed Margin column of the main Estimate worksheet, they will be included in the ADDITIONAL COSTS total on the green bar at the bottom of the Estimate.

Delete Other Costs

If needed, you can quickly delete any Other Costs that you’ve added to an Estimate at any time.

NOTE: You cannot “undo” delete.

1. Expand/open the Other Costs section of the Estimate.
   (Click the expand icon at the right of the Other Costs tab at the bottom of the Estimate worksheet or click and drag the top of the tab.)
2. Right click on the row you want to delete and select Delete Row.

Related Articles

Estimate Worksheet Overview
Estimate Worksheet Dashboard

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