Valesco Estimating & Valuations

There is a growing awareness of the need to integrate the estimating and scheduling processes, so that the effect of resource selection and associated production rates on the Works Programme can be evaluated.

For example, an estimator is unlikely to finalise his estimate before assessing time-related constraints which may affect his costs, an obvious example being a penalty for late completion.

Additionally, there is an increasing requirement in works specifications for the activities in the Works Programme to be correlated with individual Bill Items and to be resourced.

Estimating is generally based on a Bill of Quantities. Valesco estimating software enables resources (men, material, plant) to be assigned to Bill Items in order to calculate unit costs. These are then marked up to generate the Selling Rates for these Items which lead to a priced Bill of Quantities.

The model of the project created in this way logically should provide the basis of the Works Programme.

A number of hurdles stand in the way of this taking place.

The number of Items in a typical Bill of Quantities will commonly exceed 5000. A realistic Works Programme will seldom exceed 1000 Activities. It is therefore necessary to combine Bill of Quantities Items into Works Programme Activities but also to break down some Items into more than one Activity.

Valesco therefore exports the entire Bill of Quantities with Resource Assignments and associated data for each Bill Item.

The combination and breakdown of Bill of Quantities Items to create Activities is carried out by the planner in the Scheduling Software, who can, if he is dissatisfied with any given scenario, rearrange and reorder his Works Programme losing only the minimum possible of any work already carried out by him.

With this in mind, Valesco manages its data and carries out certain processes which are not a requirement of the estimating process. Some examples of this and the resultant benefits are shown below.

•Valesco distinguishes between production and non production resources. Production resources are indicated by the unit of cost being a unit of time.

•A production resource (normally labour and plant) has a rate of production associated with it when assigned to a Bill Item. The Bill Item has a quantity. A production rate related to a quantity enables a duration to be calculated in the same time units as that of the production resource.

•Valesco requires the user to state the "No Of" of each resource assigned. These are scanned when exported for scheduling purposes and used to establish each resources availability, which is required for resource levelling in the scheduling software.

•The Bill of Quantities is managed by a tree structure in Valesco. This approximates to the Work Breakdown Structure found in most scheduling software. This is analysed by Valesco allowing an outline level to be exported that enables automatic summarisation of Bill of Quantities Items into planning activities.

•The resource file in Valesco is also hierarchical. Resource Outline Levels are exported to enable this hierarchy to be reproduced in the Scheduling Software.

•Bill Item revenue from Valesco is exported enabling Cash Flow forecasts to be generated from the Scheduling Software.

Two methods of exporting such data are provided in Valesco. To activate either method go to "Project\Export\CS Project…" or alternatively, click on the CSP icon:

The dialogue box shown below will appear.

To export a CS Project Exchange file, click on the radio button labelled "Export as CS Project Exchange file" then specify a file path in the normal way by entering it as text or using the Browse button. The file path of the .CSX file will be retained and used as a default. Unless changed it will overwrite any existing version after a warning is issued.

You can choose to export the entire document or only Bill Items that have been selected. (See Bulk Changes Chapter for details of the Selection procedure). The export of Selected items may be appropriate if you wish to update part of a Programme of Works only.

Next select the quantity on which you wish the exported data to be based (BoQ, Expected, Best, Worst etc)

After checking that your output specification is correct, press the "OK" button and your data will be exported ready for loading by CS Project Professional.

If you wish to export data to other Scheduling Software which cannot read a CS Project Exchange file, then click on the radio button labelled "Export as .CSV text files". You will need to specify file paths for the Project Details, Activities, Resources and Assignments. This is done in exactly the same way as detailed above for the export of a CS Project Exchange file. Similarly the file paths will be retained by Valesco as defaults, although they can be changed at any time.

The options to export All or Selected Items and to select a quantity for calculations is also as for the export of a CS Project Exchange file.

Additional Project Details may be exported from Valesco Project Constants (See Components Chapter for details of Project Constants)

Additional Activity data may be exported from Valesco User Defined Variables (See Components Chapter for details) or from Valesco User and Works Order Fields (See Works Orders Chapter for details of Works Order and User Fields).

In either case, if the Valesco Variable is given a name which corresponds to a non calculated CS Project Text, Date or Numeric field and the name is prefixed by "CSP " the values will also be exported.

For example, using "CSP Calendar" as the name of a Valesco Works Order or User Date Field and populating its drop down box with a list of names will result in the selected text being exported in a way recognisable by the scheduling software as a Working Calendar name.

Similarly, if a Text Field name is set to "CSP Constraint" and the drop down box populated with the names of the available CSP Constraints (Finish After, Finish By, Finish By (Soft), Finish On, Start After, Start By, Start By (Soft), Start on, Work Between), then the Constraint selected will be exported.

A Constraint requires a Target Date (or 2 dates if the Constraint is "Work Between") and so associated with a Constraint should be 2 Target Dates. These should be 2 Date Fields named "CSP Target Start" and "CSP Target Finish".

This will result in the export of the entered dates associated with the appropriate Constraint in the exported file.