Estimating Category Systems

NOTE-- We retired the MacNail estimating program in 2000, and replaced it with Goldenseal construction estimating software. There are still a significant number of die-hard MacNail users, so we keep the manuals online for them! Goldenseal is an integrated program that also includes accounting, scheduling and contract writing. It also uses category systems that are similar to the ones in MacNail estimating.

Working with Category Systems

Each MacNail Estimator, Estimate, Price Master and Category Sheet has a category name, stored as a defined name on the worksheet. Cost Control worksheets created with MacNail Accounting 3.4 or greater also have a category name.

The category name on each worksheet tells MacNail which cost category system to use when moving unit prices between files, feeding back job costs, or converting from one category system to another.

You'll use the Code Systems command to see a file's category name, to create new category systems, or to convert a file to an entirely different category system.

Category Names in Estimating Worksheets

The 'stock' estimators in the MacNail construction management software have either MacNail or CSI as a category name. Any estimates that you make from the estimators will have the same category name as the estimator they were made from.

If you make a new estimator from a Category Sheet, it will have the same category name as the 'parent' Category Sheet. If the Category Sheet's category name is undefined, then the estimator will use the source's file name to create a new category name.

EXAMPLE: If you create a new estimator from the Townhouse Category Sheet and that file has never been assigned a category name, then the estimator will be given 'townhouse' as a category name.

If you make a new estimator from another estimator in the MacNail construction estimating software, the new file will start out with the same category system name as that in the 'parent' file.