I would like the option to turn off the calculation of the total unit cost for each assembly in the Takeoff Detail Grid.

Rationale

Electrical Contractor (could be any trade subcontractor), working with production home builders, creates a large assembly for wiring and trim of each basic plan that the home builder builds, and then modifies the base plan with assemblies for each option that the home builder (and the ultimate home purchaser) selects. While most options involve additional parts and labor, some options involve deductions of parts and labor.

The system calculates each assembly’s costs and quantities and places the total cost of the assembly in the assembly heading line, presumably at the request of an estimator that wanted to know what the value per unit of an assembly is. However, the system never actually uses that value. When an assembly has enough net deductions that the total value of the assembly is negative, it places that negative value in the Cost column for the Assembly heading line. This violates the stated rule that no negative values can exist in the Cost column. Again, this total assembly value is information that isn’t used in the take off – it’s superfluous. The Electrical Contractor would much rather not have that assembly value in the Takeoff Details grid and thus be able to use the nearly 14,000 assemblies that they already have in place. We ask for an optional “switch” which would turn off the calculating process and placement of the assembly value in the Cost Column.

Comments

  • Delivered in version# 23.2.