A Project's Estimate is built as a tree — Phase, then Category, then priced Items — with pricing driven by each item's own markup, not a single number typed once.
Open a Project → Estimates tab. Click New Estimate to start one, or click an existing Estimate's Phases button to open its line-item tree in a large dialog — this tree is where all the real work happens.
Phase is free text you type per estimate (e.g. "Kitchen," "Site Work") — add one via the Add Phase button, just a description and display order. Category is different — a fixed, admin-managed list (your Cost Database's categories), picked from a dropdown when you add one under a Phase, not typed. Item is the actual priced line, added under a Category.
Add Item — pick an existing Cost Item from a dropdown (auto-fills description, unit, and cost) or type everything by hand. Add from Catalog — a checkbox tree of your whole Cost Database; check items, set quantities, click Add Selected Items. Use Assembly — copies every item from a predefined Cost Assembly into the selected Phase/Category in one click.
Every item carries four separate markup percentages — Material, Labor, Sub, Equipment — editable in the item's own edit dialog. New items (typed, from the catalog, or from an Assembly) all start at 25% by default.
An item is either priced with the full Material/Labor/Sub/Equipment breakdown, or with a single Total Only cost + markup — the two modes are mutually exclusive, entering one clears the other.
Two checkboxes on an item: Allowance Item (a placeholder budget line, not yet priced from a real vendor) and Special Order. An Allowance item with no Actual Cost set shows as an "unresolved allowance" — and vendor-tagging is blocked on it until that's resolved.
Back on the Estimates grid, Generate Invoice becomes enabled once the estimate has an Accepted Date — it creates a real Invoice with one line per estimate item, carrying over cost, markup, and tax.
On a Proposal, use its Estimate-linking grid to attach one or more Estimates — the Proposal's total becomes the sum of whatever's linked. Separately, you can select specific estimate items and a vendor to generate a Quote Request (RFQ) directly, independent of the Proposal/Invoice path.
Choose Columns — add fields like Allowance/Special Order flags, unit costs, markups (saved per user). Two checkboxes toggle "Show Ext Cost/Price" and "Show Calculated Price." Update $ refreshes unit costs from the Cost Database without touching any item's markup. From the outer Estimates grid: Print List, Export to Excel, and Print Reports (generates a PDF/Word document like a Preliminary Budgeting Estimate, reviewed before optionally saving to Project Attachments).