Audience – Builders, subcontractors
Read time - 6 mins
Follow the steps below to learn how to copy categories and items from your estimates to a new or existing estimate template.
To copy one or more categories from an existing estimate to a new template, go to the Estimate section in the left-hand navigation menu.
Select your estimate and click on Estimate Costings.
Select the category/ies by clicking on the box to the left of the category name.
Once selected, click on the button with the two square boxes, next to the delete button. A small drop-down menu will appear, and you can select to either Copy or Copy category to template. Copy will copy the category within the current template and Copy category to template will take you to a Save to Template screen and give you the option to copy to a new template.
On the Save to Template screen you have the option to either select an existing Buildxact template from those listed or to create a new template.
To copy to an existing template
Click the template you want to use under Save to which template? Click Next.
You will now be able to set the order you would like the categories to appear in your template. Click Save & View or Save & Close.
To create a new template
Click on Create New Template on the Save to Template screen. Fill in a title/description for your new template in the Description box, and to choose a Building Type.
Once you’ve done this, your template will appear in the list under Save to which template? Select your template and click Next. Your copied category will now appear in the template you selected.
To copy items from within a category to an existing template or to a new template
From the Estimates/Estimate Costings screen, select the categories that contain items you’d like to copy. In the following example, we’ve selected Ground floor framing and Windows.
Click anywhere on the row for Ground floor framing or Windows (we’ve chosen to show Ground floor framing), and the items associated with this category appear as displayed below. Select or deselect the items you wish to copy and click Copy items to template.
Please note that when you copy a category, you're also copying the links to the take-offs. To measure items separately, you need to remove the links to the takeoff measurements using the calculator. To do this, open the calculator on the item, clear the measurement, and then click on '='.
You can then choose to save to an existing template by selecting one of the templates listed under Save to which template? or create a new template by clicking Create New Template.
