Estimating & costing
Check an estimate before you send it
Put a priced bill through the validation rules, clear every warning and error, then export…
3 steps8 minOpen
Cases / Estimating & costing
Estimating & costing
Build an all-in labour rate with the Canadian burden
Take the hourly rate you have used for years apart into the base wage and the named contributions sitting on top of it, keep one template per province because the burden is provincial, and record where every rate came from and the date it took effect.
How it works, step by step
5 steps across the platform - what you do at each one, and why it matters.
1
Start from the base wage, one province at a time
Labor RatesCreate a rate template for the trade, enter the base hourly wage, and name the template for the province it belongs to, because the same trade carries a different burden in every province it works in.
Why: One template covering two provinces has to average something, and an averaged burden is precisely the thing you cannot explain when a bid gets queried. A template per province costs a few minutes to set up and is the only version that survives being asked where the number came from.
InTrade and provinceBase hourly wageOutOne rate template per provinceBase wage on record
2
Add each contribution as its own named line
Labor RatesBuild the stack on the wage as separate lines: pension contribution, employment insurance at the employer multiple, vacation pay, statutory holiday pay, workers compensation at the classification unit rate for this trade, and the benefit contributions that apply. Keep percentages as percentages and fixed amounts as amounts rather than blending them into one uplift.
Why: A single burden percentage hides the fact that its parts move independently and on different dates. Workers compensation in particular is rated by classification unit, so it changes when the work the crew does changes, not when the calendar turns, and that is the movement a blended uplift will never show you.
InContribution rates for the provinceClassification unit for the tradeOutNamed burden stackAll-in rate derived from its parts
3
Write down where each rate came from and when it applied
Basis of EstimateRecord in the basis of estimate the source of every contribution in the stack, the body that administers it, and the date that rate took effect, so the whole stack can be re-checked against its authorities in an afternoon.
Why: When the rate moves you will be asked which line moved, and the answer has to be a citation rather than a memory. It is also what turns a rate into something a colleague can maintain after you, which is the whole difference between a company rate and a personal one.
InThe burden stack as builtSource and effective date per lineOutSourced and dated rate basisA rate somebody else can maintain
4
Point the assemblies at the rate, not at a typed number
AssembliesBuild the crew compositions and assemblies against the rate template rather than against a figure typed into each one, so that a change to any contribution reprices everything that depends on it.
Why: A rate typed into forty assemblies is forty rates, and they will not all be updated on the day a premium changes. Pointing at the template is what makes the next update a single edit instead of a search that finds most of them.
InThe rate templateCrew compositions and assembliesOutAssemblies priced off one rateUpdates that propagate
5
Test the built rate against what the job actually cost
ReportsReport the built rate against recorded hours and paid cost on a job that has finished, component by component, and correct the line that is wrong rather than adjusting the total until it matches.
Why: A stack is only worth building if it gets corrected, and correcting a total teaches nobody anything. Fifteen years of experience tells you what the number should be; the stack tells you which part of it drifted, and only one of those two can be handed to the next estimator.
InThe built all-in rateRecorded hours and paid costOutVariance by componentA corrected line, not a corrected total
