Material Take-offs

NOTE-- We replaced MacNail with the improved Goldenseal construction software back in 2000. However, we still keep the MacNail manuals online, for die-hard users! Goldenseal provides accounting, construction estimating, and project management, plus simple construction project scheduling. It runs on Macintosh and Windows computers, and includes a networking version. Goldenseal has two Bill of Materials reports, which create material takeoff lists for any type of project.

Creating Construction Material Takeoff Lists

Once you have created a MacNail schedule in the MacNail project management software, you can use it to create material takeoff lists and tool lists, for part or all of the project.

For larger projects, you will probably only order materials for one phase of construction at a time. You can scroll through the schedule, and decide exactly which materials to order, based on the approximate timing. For example, you may want to order one week in advance-- if today is December 1, then make a material takeoff for all items dated before December 8.

To make a Material Takeoff List:

1. Drag the mouse through all the rows in the schedule from which you'd like to make a materials list. The selected cells will be darkened. If you want a list of all items from the entire schedule, you can skip this step.
HINT: To select many rows, click in the first row, then use the scroll controls to scroll down to the bottom of the range. Hold down the Shift key, then click in the bottom row. All cells between the two selected cells will also be selected.
2. Choose *Material Takeoff from the Data menu, and choose the desired cell range (see page 90).
3. A material purchase list is generated automatically. If the schedule is named Smith Schedule, the takeoff list will be named Smith Materials, or Smith Materials 12/1/90 if you're including dates in report file names (see page 96).
4. The selected rows in the Schedule will be converted to italic. This will help you to keep track of which materials have already been ordered via the MacNail construction scheduling software.

NOTE: The *Material Takeoff command uses the Takeoff Master to "look up" materials needed for each construction item (see page 127).