Adding Estimating Soft Costs

NOTE-- We retired the MacNail estimating program in 2000, and replaced it with Goldenseal construction estimating software. There are still 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 features. In Goldenseal, you'll add soft costs as line items in an Estimate.

New Estimating Soft Costs

Use the Add Category command to add a new 'soft cost' to the Summation portion of an estimator in the MacNail construction estimating software. Soft costs are located below the subtotal line-- they cover items such as overhead, profit and contingencies. Soft costs are not itemized in the Specifications or Clearinghouse-- they only show up in the Summation.

To add a new construction soft cost:

1. Go to the Summation portion of an estimate or estimator, and scroll down to the soft costs.
2. Click on the row where you'd like the soft cost to appear-- the selected row will be moved down, and the new soft cost will appear immediately before it.
3. Choose Add Category from the Format menu.
4. You'll be asked to type in a category code and a name for the new soft cost. Enter this information, then click OK.
5. The MacNail construction management software will create new soft cost category line. If you want it to calculate its own cost for you, you will need to create an Excel formula to do that. See page 70 for more about the use of Excel formulas in Soft Costs.