There are 2 types of Estimate Costs in Espro: Hidden and Non-Hidden.

Hidden Costs are applied proportionally over the Estimate based on the Weighting selected:

• Material will be proportionally weighted over sections that have the "Apply Hidden Costs" box selected and include material items
• Labour will be weighted proportionally based on hours
• Subcontractor and Equipment will be weighted over sections that include any Subcontractor and Equipment entries, respectively

Estimate Section

To apply the costs to an estimate section you need to make sure the "Apply Hidden Costs" option is ticked as shown here. Note that this is selected automatically when creating a section.

Costs

Costs can be defined as either a fixed amount or a percentage. If a percentage is chosen, the weighting selected determines which component (Material, Labour, Subcontractor, Equipment) applies. As an example, a 50% "% Wgt Cost" with the Weighting set to Material will create a cost that is equal to 50% of your Estimates total material cost price.

Weighting is also used to determine how mark-up on costs will be distributed proportionally in customer-facing reports. 

Hidden Costs

When a customer-facing report is generated, the mark-ups on costs are distributed proportionally amongst the items in the Estimate.
When a cost is hidden, it will not be displayed on the report and both its cost and any mark-up against this cost will be hidden in the sections that have these items, as specified using the Weighting drop down field.
NOTE: Any estimate costs that have no items with the selected weighting will be set at $0

Submitting Estimates

Once an estimate has been submitted using the NEW Submit Estimate button all distribution of hidden costs to sections will be locked and the amounts frozen to the sections, and will also prevent further changes to affected prices.

The only changes that can be made to a Submitted Estimate is to exclude / Include individual estimate items or sections.

PLEASE NOTE:

• All Section costs and sell prices will remain the same as per submitted reports
• All hidden costs allocated to this section and all Estimate costs mark-ups will be deduced from the total. The overall cost and sell value of the estimate will decrease

When a section has been excluded from a Submitted Estimate, the cost and indirect labour columns in the Summary Totals will be highlighted in cyan to reflect that these values have been reduced from the initial submitted total.

Unsubmitting an Estimate

An Estimate can be unsubmitted by clicking the Unsubmit Estimate button.

NOTE: This will reset the hidden cost calculations back to normal, and cause the price of the estimate to recalculate and all Hidden Estimate costs and mark-ups will be re proportioned against the sections. Because this will potentially change all section values you will be required to confirm this action as shown below.