Electrical Estimating Methods, 4th Edition

CHAPTER 8 The Unit Price, Project Overhead Summary, and Estimate Summary Sheets

This chapter will introduce the reader to the more common sheets in the pricing phase of the estimating process. There are three common sheets that estimators recognize regardless of whether the estimating is done by hand or by software. The first is called the unit price sheet or cost sheet. This is where individual quantities of a task are multiplied by the various unit prices and extended to a subtotal. The next in the trio is the Project Overhead Summary sheet. This sheet tabulates the cost of the direct or project overhead of the General Requirements. The last is called the Estimate Summary sheet and is the recapitulation of the estimate.

Each of these plays a key role in estimating costs and the compilation of those costs in arriving at a final bid number. In the following sections the author will explain each sheet, its use, and its relationship to the others and to the process as a whole.

While computerized estimating software creates a variation of each of the three sheets, and performs the appropriate calculations, it is important for the estimator to understand the process.

UNIT PRICE SHEET

The unit price sheet is the most elemental level of the pricing process. It is set up in a columnar format that will be used as a spreadsheet for calculating the cost of a specific category of tasks. Categories are separated by CSI MasterFormat numbers for ease of identification. It illustrates each ...