v8.6.0 - a data-driven estimating methodology engine you build in the app.

Estimating convention is not universal. The way costs are grouped, what counts as overhead, how machinery sits against installed equipment, the order in which markups apply - all of it varies by country, by sector and by company. 8.6.0 stops hard-coding one chain and lets a project follow a named methodology that you can build, edit and switch, while the existing international method stays available for anyone who wants it.

What is new in version 8.6.0

• A data-driven estimating methodology engine. Instead of one fixed markup chain, a project can follow a named methodology that you build and edit in the app: a typed bill-of-quantities hierarchy, analytical dimensions, named funding sources, and a cascade of markups that build on one another. Every methodology coexists with, and is switchable against, the existing international method.
• Country and industry templates, ready to install. Templates ship ready to use - including a Uzbekistan cascade and a railway breakdown that price construction machinery inside the works base while keeping installed equipment as a separate base - so a local methodology is a starting point, not a blank page.
• A cascade editor that reconciles with the server. The cascade editor shows a live preview and reconciles its arithmetic against the server, so the figures you see while you build the methodology are exactly the figures that are stored.
• Machinery costed separately from equipment. A resource typed as machinery used to be folded into the equipment category, which understated the works base and overstated equipment for methodologies that price the two differently. The breakdown now reports a distinct Machinery category; a methodology that does not separate the two is unaffected.

A methodology you build, not one you are given

The methodology engine treats an estimating method as data you own rather than logic baked into the product. A methodology is a typed bill-of-quantities hierarchy with analytical dimensions and named funding sources, finished by a cascade of markups that build on one another - each step taking the running total from the one before. You build it in the app, edit it as your practice changes, and switch a project between methodologies without leaving the international method behind for projects that prefer it.

Because the cascade editor shows a live preview and reconciles its arithmetic against the server, there is no gap between the figure on screen and the figure that is stored. The numbers you tune are the numbers the estimate uses, which is the whole point of letting you shape the method yourself.

Templates that already know the local convention

Nobody wants to rebuild a national costing convention from scratch, so 8.6.0 ships country and industry templates ready to install. Among them are a Uzbekistan cascade and a railway breakdown that follow a specific convention: construction machinery is priced inside the works base, while installed equipment stays a separate base. That distinction matters, because folding machinery into equipment understates the works and overstates equipment for methodologies built this way.

The breakdown now reports a distinct Machinery category to make that split real, so a resource typed as machinery is costed where the methodology expects it. Methodologies that do not separate the two are unaffected - nothing changes for them.

By the numbers

Install or upgrade

pip install --upgrade openconstructionerp

The desktop installers for Windows, macOS and Linux carry the same one-installer setup, and the Linux build includes the CAD and BIM converters for AutoCAD, Revit and IFC. You can grab the latest installers from openconstructionerp.com/download. If you run an external PostgreSQL through DATABASE_URL, nothing about that connection changes. Questions or trouble upgrading, write to info@datadrivenconstruction.io.