Overhead & Profit in Estimates

How do I add my overhead and profit to a project estimate?

Goldenseal estimating software gives you three different ways to add overhead, profit, contingencies and other "soft costs" to an estimate-- as a percentage, as a fixed amount, or as component markup. You can use any method, or any combination of them.

Before you enter overhead and profit, first set up an itemized estimate that includes your "hard costs". To do so, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Estimates from the Income menu.
  2. Click the New button, or click the template button (to the right of the New button) to start with a template.
  3. If the breakdown is None, change it to Category or Items.
  4. Click in the breakdown table, and enter the first item of work in the project.
  5. Press the Return key or Enter key to add a new row.
  6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you have entered all of the "hard costs" in the project.

Using Percentages

After you have entered hard costs, follow these steps to enter an overhead or profit percentage:

  1. Click in the bottom row, and press the Return key or Enter key to add a new row.
  2. Enter Percent of Total or Percent of Hard in the Cost Area column.
  3. Type a brief description into the Cost Item column.
  4. Enter the percentage into the Quantity column.
  5. Goldenseal will automatically calculate the dollar amount.
  6. Repeat steps 1 to 5 to add other "soft cost" line items to the estimate.

When you add hard costs or change any costs, Goldenseal will automatically recalculate the percentage amounts.

HINT-- Click here for a writeup about the choice between a single markup line item, and multiple items.

Using Line Items

If you prefer to use a fixed amount rather than a percentage for "soft costs", enter hard costs and then follow these steps:

  1. Click in the bottom row, and press the Return key or Enter key to add a new row.
  2. Enter Overhead, Profit, Contingency or Soft Cost in the Cost Area column.
  3. Type a brief description into the Cost Item column.
  4. Enter the cost into the Unit Cost column.
  5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 to add other "soft costs" to the estimate.

Using Component Markup

If you use Cost Items and Assemblies in your estimates, you can cover your overhead and profit with markup on each item. That way you can "hide" your overhead and profit from your customers.

To set up a markup, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Income Setup from the Income menu, and choose Markup Systems from the submenu.
  2. Open an existing markup item, or create a new one.
  3. Enter the markup amount you'd like to use. HINT-- For more about markups in the reference manual, click here.
  4. Click OK.

To add a markup to the items that you sell, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Cost Items or Assemblies from the Costs menu.
  2. Enter the desired markup into the Markup field. HINT-- You can use the Replace All command to change the markup for many items at once.
  3. Goldenseal will automatically recalculate the price of this item.

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