List Assemblies

A list assembly is a cost item that is made up of other cost items. List assemblies enable you to group cost items together to build a single cost item that has many different factors. For example, you can create a list assembly to define a crew of laborers that work together to form concrete slabs.

When you build a list assembly, you select the cost items that you want to make members of the assembly from the catalog that is currently selected in the Catalog tab or you can add new cost items directly to the list assembly.

Once you add cost items as members of the list assembly, you can assign a quantity to the cost items within the assembly. This enables you to build assemblies with ratios of cost items. For example, you could build a list assembly for a crew that contains four laborers. Instead of adding four different cost items as members, you could add one laborer, then enter a quantity of 4 for the laborer.

Note: For assembly members, such as crew sub-assemblies or labor items, changes in productivity rates will automatically recalculate quantity of hours (or days) and changes in time will recalculate productivity rates.

When you create a list assembly cost item, the Assembly Members tab is added to the Cost Item window. This is where you enter the members of the list assembly.

Click to expand the assembly. The expanded assembly appears highlighted in yellow and its members are highlighted in light yellow. Click to collapse the assembly. If the quantities of cost items have a red border, the Show assembly member quantity based on assembly quantity of 1 checkbox is selected in the Estimating Preferences screen.

The status displays the current state of the cost item. This feature is especially useful when more than one person is working on an estimate or catalog to communicate the state of the cost item. The status is for display purposes only. You can mark cost items that need to be reviewed by another person or to alert others that the cost item has been changed. Statuses include:

  • Blank

  • Edited

  • Reviewed

  • Alert – Item appears in red

Note: Once you edit a cost item, the status automatically changes to Edited.

The reference of a cost item is a code that uniquely identifies the cost item. Each cost item in a catalog must have a unique reference. Cost items in an estimate, alternate, or change order do not need a unique reference. This means that you cannot leave the Reference blank in a catalog, but blank references are allowed in an estimate, alternate, or change order. The reference of a cost item can contain both numbers and letters.

If you edit or delete a cost item, only the tab where you made the change is affected.

For information on adding cost items to alternates, see Alternates Overview. For information on adding cost items to change orders, see Change Orders.

To open a job in the Manage Estimates screen, click Estimating > Estimating > Manage Estimates in the All Tasks pane. Then select the job you want to open, and click OK.