Estimate Bottom Line

Once you've entered Dimensions and Specifications for the project, choose Calculate from the Bid menu (or click the Calculator button at upper right) to calculate the price of the project.

Once the BidMagic software has calculated all unit price quantities for a construction estimate, the latest project cost is displayed in the Price Box at top center.

HINT: The change in price since the last time you calculated is also displayed--this is very useful when doing 'what if' calculations).

Seeing a Detailed Cost Breakdown

To see a detailed breakdown of project costs, choose Bottom Line from the Navigate menu.

You'll see the project's costs broken down into cost categories. Costs can be broken down into either 31 categories that match the different Specifications cards, or into 16 cost divisions matching the system used by CSI and AIA. To change from one system to another, use the Preferences card.

BidMagic makes a rough estimate of the project completion date. To calculate it, enter the start date and the average crew size of skilled and unskilled workers that will be in the building at one time.

You'll also see an approximate cost per square foot, calculated from the finished floor area.

The BidMagic estimating software gives you a choice of two different methods of handling soft costs. If you turned off the Show Soft Costs button at lower right, then soft costs will be 'hidden' among the actual hard construction costs. If you turned on the Show Soft Costs button, then they will be individually itemized in the estimate, just below the hard costs.