Summary
The Price Catalogue section of Databuild holds pricing details for all items that you can select for estimating and ordering.
Details
The Catalogue window consists of a left hand panel holding items in your catalogue. use the filter row or search function to zero in an items you want to view. Multiple line descriptions can be entered by pressing the drop-down in the description column
To the right, an index tabholds 5 tabs:
Displays Units, Cost Centres, and a Prices grid (if any exist), a check box to indicate if the current item is to be included in the graphical take-off system and ,if selected in Display menu, weight per unit and Hours per Unit.
Databuild has an Historical Pricing system where date based prices continue to be held for each price level. While this means a little more maintenance, the benefits are well worth it. You can price jobs at any point in time, including the future, and can pick pricing trends.
To restrict displayed prices, you can set Show Dates from & until dates or use the Prices grid Filter bar. The filters for Price and Date columns differ from most filters in that the filter text holds the minimum value.
A cost centre is assigned to each item. When quantities are being taken off, items assigned to this cost centre are prompted in the drop-downs and item search routine (although any item can be added to any cost centre). All discrete Cost centres are displayed in the drop down
Note |
The cost centre assigned is independent of cost centre bank. If the cost centre code matches, it will be prompted regardless of cost centre bank of the parent Job.
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The Graphical Take-Off system prompts a limited sub-set of items (usually recipes). This nominates which items you want to include.
As well, you can nominate line color and line width associated with each item. To assign to multiple items, select items, then drag & drop onto the check box or line width
The lower part of the Details & Prices tab holds suppliers' prices.
Each item in the price list can have any number of prices from any suppliers attached to it. The prices are historical, so that you can have multiple prices from the same supplier for each item. The Suppliers Prices grid has these editable columns
Supplier Code
Price
Reference Optional. This is the supplier's own reference. It can be printed on purchase orders
Date
Area You can have different prices from the same supplier for different areas
5 Command button control Suppliers Prices
Adds a new price
Delete (see below)
Copies selected price(s)
Pastes copied price(s)
Selects or Deselects ALL rows
The Supplier's prices Delete button has several functions dependant on your grid selections:
| • | If you have selected some items and you have not selected any supplier prices: Delete ALL supplier prices on ALL selected items |
| • | If you have selected some items and you have selected ONE supplier price row: Delete ALL supplier prices on ALL selected items for the currently highlighted supplier. |
| • | If you have NOT selected any items and you have selected some supplier prices: Delete selected supplier prices on the current item |
Setting up and maintaining large amounts of data can be tedious. Fortunately there are a number of shortcuts:
Drag & Dropping a supplier from Suppliers will add a price for the current item
Selecting multiple items, then adding a supplier's price will add it to all selected items
Use Update Prices to create suppliers prices from Item prices
Best of all, update electronically using SPLAT
As shown above, pictures can be assigned to each item. These pictures can be displayed during estimating, and can be printed on Bills and Orders
A recipe is a sub-assembly of items linked to an item in the Item List. During estimating these recipe items can be exploded into their component items. You can even have recipes within recipes giving a cascading effect.
The Recipe grid holds the following editable columns:
Item Code of the recipe ingredient
Quantity of each ingredient per unit of main item
Default Cost Centre that the ingredient is to be sent when the recipe is exploded. This field can be left blank and automatically filled when you Update Recipe Prices and select the Native Cost Centres option
Formulae you enter will be processed then added to the workup field of the ingredient items after recipe explosion. They are similar to mathematical equations, but may also include additional text such as name, colour, and brand of an item.
The system loads local recipe variables from the main item workup text, then processes each line of the formula:
Any local variables are replaced by their values
If [no workup] appears the system suppresses the workup of the ingredient, even if that item has a template.
If [main workup] appears the system forces the workup of the main item into the workup of the ingredient.
If [QG] appears the system splits the line into Quantity Generator text and workup text
Any text in square brackets [ ] is evaluated as a standard formula.
If the line starts with Load n and n is numeric and within acceptable range, the system forces the ingredient to load n
ex load 3# the recipe ingredient is forced into load 3
If the line starts with LocalVariable AAAA = XXXX the system adds local variable AAAA and sets its value to XXXX. The variable can then be used for following formula lines in the current or following ingredients
ex localvariable wallheight = 2400
If the line starts with Quantity = XXXX the system forces the quantity to XXXX
ex Quantity = 99.9
If the line starts with OnlyIf [XXXX] the system evaluates XXXX and if it is zero (false), the ingredient is not included.
ex onlyif [wallheight>2300 and wallheight<2500]
The processed line is then added to the workup text. Anything before # is ignored, and may be used for comments
If the calculation routine of the units of the ingredient is lineal, area, volumes, hours or weight, the quantities are recalculated and over-rides the default Quantity*Main Item Quantity .
Local Variables act within Formulae exactly as Job variables, but they are limited in scope to the current main item.
They come from 2 sources:
1. From the main item's workup text
On a line by line basis, the system scans the workup text on the main item (the one being exploded)
if it finds a name (no spaces), then an equals sign ("="), then a number, it creates a local variable using that name and number
e.g width = 1800
2. From lines in recipe formulae.
if a line in the recipe formula starts with "local variable", followed by a name, an equals sign ("="), , then a number, it creates a local variable using that name and number
e.g. LocalVariable Area = 2.4
Example 1
If the main item had a quantity of 3 and its workup text contains
Enter height and Width
Height = 1200
Width = 1800
and the formula was
LocalVariable Area = [Height * Width/1000000]#
onlyIf [Area>=1 & Area<3]#
Please supply
Some Comments#[Height-50] X [Width-75] [qty] OFF
then the ingredient workup text becomes. Had Height x Width been outside limits( 1 to 3 m2) then ingredient would have been ignored
Please supply
1150 X 1725 3 OFF
Example 2
You have a catalogue item reserved for overall job Data, this item has a template which contains
[QG]
0 >> GroundFloorArea
0 >> GarageFloorArea
This item is loaded into an empty job (or is part of a standard bill copied in), usually as the first item in the first cost centre.
This populates the Quantity Generator field with
0 >> GroundFloorArea
0 >> GarageFloorArea
which you then alter to the relevant values:
100 >> GroundFloorArea
20 >> GarageFloorArea
Running Generate Quantities creates the job variables and sets their values. Alternatively, the system will stop and request values whenever it comes across new variables for any job
These variables can then be used in any recipe formula
e.g.
Recipe
R999 Ground Floor Particleboard, F17 Bearers, F17 Floor Joist, Concrete Stumps
contains
0100 Particleboard Flooring formula: Quantity = [GroundFloorArea / 2.88]
0789 F17 Bearers Formula: Quantity= [GroundFloorArea / .909]
3456 F17 Floor Joists Formula Quantity= [GroundFloorArea / .543]
Recipe
R998 Roof Framing Timber trusses, plaster ceiling, insulated
contains
9087 Timber truss Rate per Sqm Formula: Quantity = [GroundFloorArea *80]
5678 Plaster Ceiling 10mm Formula: Quantity = [Ground Floor Area]
3421 R2.5 Ceiling Batts Formula: Quantity = [Ground Floor Area]
4545 Labour for Truss roofing Formula: Quantity = [Ground Floor Area *44]
Refer: Recipes for Windows
Prevent Recipes from generating Multiple Templates
7 Command button control Recipe actions
Loads New Recipe Item module
Deletes the current or Selected Ingredients
Copies selected ingredients
Pastes copied ingredients. If you have copied bill items or cost centres without copying ingredients, then these bill items will be converted into recipe ingredients.
Selects or Deselects ALL Recipes
Scans selected main items and also selects any items that are recipe ingredients of those items. Use this if you are about to export items and want to ensure that ingredient items are also exported
Loads the Update Recipe module
Enter Free form text in the template box. Text is automatically loaded into workup area of an item in the Bill of Quantities when that item is first selected, or when Load Current Template is run in Estimating.
Text following [QG] is diverted to the Quantity Generator.
Bear in mind that in the Workup Text,
Text following "Start Specification" is included in the Specification Report
Text following "[Hide]" is suppressed from final reports. Use this to hold notes for estimators etc
You can create specifications by building up blocks of text that are attached to any item in the Bill of Quantities. These blocks are edited here. All specification entries on a particular job can be gathered into a single document.
Toolbar Buttons
File Menu
Export to XML file
Refresh
Edit Menu
Select All
Add New Item
Add Recipe Ingredient
Find Cost Centre
Next Cost Centre
Previous Cost Centre
Maintain Prices
Show Whole list
Usage Reports usage of current item throughout the system
Go to Next Item
Display Menu
Search
Pictures
Recipes
Templates
Specification
Suppliers
Recipe Items Only
Price Levels
Weight per Unit
Hours per Unit
Vertical Alignment Toggles between a vertical and horizontal alignment
Add a NEW Item
Select or DeSelect ALL items
Delete an item or selected items
Loads Adjust Prices
Load Search module
Copy the current item
Load Price Report Module
Edit Price Level Names
Add a new price with the default Price Level and Date
Select or deselect ALL prices for the current item
Delete current or selected price(s). If you have selected some items and are displaying prices in a date range:Delete ALL prices for the selected items with the current price level
Price Level Dropdown
Date for new items and datestamp for edited prices
Closes the module