Reusing a structure

Building a cost center structure from scratch on every job is the single most avoidable waste of time in SmarteBuild. There are two ways not to.

Templates

Mark a costing as a template (Make this estimate a template, on the costing) and it becomes available in the Copy items from a template dropdown whenever a new costing is created.

A template carries across the cost center structure and the items in it. That is usually what you want — your standard preliminaries, the site costs you allow on every job, the trades you always use — so a new costing starts as a partly-built estimate rather than an empty grid.

Setting one up

1. Create a project to hold your templates. Many builders call it _Templates, so it sorts to the top.
2. Create a costing on it named for what it is: Standard — New Build, Standard — Renovation.
3. Build the cost center structure you want.
4. Add the items you carry on every job of that type. Leave quantities at zero — the rates and descriptions are what you are reusing, not the quantities.
5. Tick Make this estimate a template.

Using one

When you create a costing, pick the template under Copy items from a template. The new costing arrives with the structure and items already in place. Delete what this job does not have and price what it does.

Delete down, do not build up

Starting from a full template and deleting the trades that do not apply is faster and much safer than starting empty and adding. You forget to add things. You rarely forget to delete something that is sitting in front of you with no quantity against it.

Import

Import on the Cost Centers screen brings in a structure directly, without the items. Use it when you want the tree but not the pricing — for instance when a client or head contractor mandates their own cost coding for a job.

Importing from a spreadsheet

Import from Excel…, on the ⋮ menu, takes a cost code list straight off a spreadsheet. The dialog walks you through it:

1. Start from a spreadsheet. Download the blank template — it has the four columns the import expects: Index, Code, Name and Parent Code. Or use Export to Excel on the same menu, which writes exactly those columns, change what you need, and bring it back.
2. Fill it in. One row per cost center, from row 2 down. Leave Parent Code blank for a top-level center; for a child, put its parent’s Code there.
3. Upload it. Excel workbooks only — .xlsx, .xlsm or .xls. If your list is a CSV, open it in Excel and save it as .xlsx first.
4. Say which column is which. If you used the template or an export, the dropdowns fill themselves in; if your own spreadsheet uses different headings, point each one at the right column. Only Name is required: with no Parent Code everything comes in at the top level, and with no Index each branch is numbered 10, 20, 30… in the order the rows are in the file.
5. Check, then import. The check runs by itself as soon as the columns are mapped, so any problem is on screen before the import button is.

Importing replaces the whole structure — every existing cost center in it is deleted first, and you are asked to confirm. SmarteBuild checks the file before deleting anything, and will not start if it finds:

• the same Code on more than one row
• a Parent Code that is not a Code somewhere in the file
• a row that is its own parent, or a loop of rows pointing at each other
• more than three levels of hierarchy
• a code or index longer than 50 characters

You get told which rows are at fault and nothing is touched, so you can fix the spreadsheet and upload it again.

Note

A structure whose cost centers are already in use — by estimate items, orders, invoices, tenders and so on — can’t be replaced this way, because replacing it would cut them loose. Add the new cost centers alongside instead. The import itself happens all at once: if anything goes wrong part way, the structure is left exactly as it was.

Replacing from a template

Replace from a template…, on the same menu, swaps every cost center in the structure for a copy of another one that has been marked as a template — tick Make this structure a template under the pencil beside a structure’s name to offer it here. SmarteBuild’s own templates are labelled.

The same rules as importing apply: it asks you to confirm, it is refused while any cost center here is in use, and it happens all at once.

Updating from the master structure

Where your cost centers were copied from one of SmarteBuild’s master structures, they keep a link back to it — a small link icon beside each one. Update from master structure…, on the ⋮ menu, brings the copy back into line:

• cost centers added to the master since you copied it are added here, under the right parents
• names, codes and sorting indexes are refreshed from the master
• your cost centers are arranged into the master’s hierarchy, rather than left in a flat list

It shows you what it is about to do first — how many will be added, overwritten and moved, and Show the changes lists every one — and you can back out. It only ever touches the structure you have open.

There are three options:

Option	What it does
Sync everything	Adds what the master has that you do not, and updates what you already have.
Update only what’s here	Refreshes the names, codes and sorting indexes of your existing cost centers and imports nothing new. Use it when the master has grown in directions you do not want.
Organise what’s here	Brings in the master’s group headings only — no new cost centers — and files your existing ones underneath them.

When to use “Organise what’s here”

Use it when your cost centers are sitting in one long flat list and you want them grouped, but you do not want the full master list back.

That happens when the structure was imported flat, when you trimmed it down to the cost centers you actually use and deleted the headings along with them, or when SmarteBuild reorganised the master into new stages after you took your copy. In all three cases Update only what’s here leaves everything flat — it has nowhere to put anything, so it does not move a thing.

This option imports only the headings your own cost centers belong under, then moves them in. A master group with nothing of yours beneath it is not brought in, so you do not end up with empty stages, and no new cost center is added.

Finding the ones that are yours

Show only cost centers not linked to master, on the same menu, hides everything that came from the master structure and leaves the ones you added yourself. Those are exactly the cost centers an update will never touch, so it is a quick way to see what is genuinely yours before running one — or to check that something you added has not been quietly duplicated by an import. Anything shown only to hold a child in place is greyed and marked linked to master. Show all, in the bar across the top, switches the tree back.

It overwrites your codes

If you renumbered your cost centers to your own scheme after copying them — which is a perfectly sensible thing to do — this puts the master’s codes back. Read the counts on the confirmation before saying yes, and if the “overwrite” number is large, that is what it is telling you.

Cost centers you added yourself are left alone, and nothing is ever deleted. The option only appears on a structure that was copied from a master one.

Keeping templates current

A template drifts out of date the same way anything else does. Two habits keep it honest:

• When you find yourself adding the same item to jobs by hand three times, add it to the template.
• When a trade you always allowed for stops being relevant, take it out.

Review the templates once a year, or after any change in how you build — a new standard inclusion, a change of subcontractor, a code change that adds a requirement.

What a template does not carry

The same limits as duplicating a costing:

• take-off measurements do not copy
• orders, claims, variations and expenses do not copy

A template is a starting point for an estimate, not a copy of a job. See Costings and templates.

Structures across projects

Setting Default WBS for new Costings on the project means every costing on that job starts on the right structure. Doing the same on the project you copy new projects from means every job starts right too.

Between the project default and a costing template, a new job should take you seconds to set up, not an afternoon.