Estimator

Labor rates and overhead burden are pulled directly from SAP based on the individuals and Organizational Information provided; therefore, they should be the most current rates available.

The Stacked area graph shows the Fiscal Years (FYs) included on the Estimate along the X-Axis and the total estimated Cost on the Y-Axis with areas shaded to indicate the various elements of cost.

• The Project Type, Overhead Key and Program Office will default to the values shown below; however, this information should be updated to reflect the settings appropriate for your project. These settings determine overhead and other rates used for calculations in your estimate. If you have any questions about this information, please contact your organization’s Finance Officer.
• The ORNL Performing Division will default to the creator’s organization. Again, this can be updated as necessary to reflect the organization performing the project/task being estimated.
• Finally, Users can update the Default Labor Unit for the Estimate to either Hours or FTE (Full-Time Equivalents) based on their preference.

• Only Administrators can edit access privileges under the "Sharing" tab. Note that one Admin must always be identified on an Estimate. Administrators can add other Users to the Estimate as Administrators (Read, Write, Lock/Unlock, & Delete privileges), Collaborators (Read & Write privileges), and Viewers (Read privileges).
• To add, simply navigate to the "Sharing" tab and select the tab role you would like to add (Administrator, Collaborator, or Viewer). On the respective tab, select the "Add Administrator", "Add Collaborator", or "Add Viewer" button accordingly; this will bring us a search panel on the right-hand side. You may search for a user by Name, Badge Number, User Id, or by using the organizational drop-downs provided to narrow your search down to a specific group. Once you have identified the individual you would like to add, click on their name or press "Select" to add them. Once you are done sharing, be sure to save your changes.
• Note that individuals can only maintain one role on the project; therefore, if you want to change a user’s privileges (for example moving them from a viewer to a collaborator), you will first need to remove them their current role before adding them to them to the new role and saving.

• Any user with access to an Estimate, can copy the Estimate - making the User the Administrator of the new/copied Estimate.

• There are two methods to copy an estimate.

  1. A quick method is to copy an Estimate using the drop-down on the Estimate Card and select "Copy to new estimate." A notification will be provided that "Estimate has been copied" and a card for the new Estimate will be added to your Estimate list with the Title "Copy of [Previous Title]." User’s can also "Save copy" of an Estimate from within the Estimate.

  

  2. Users can also save a copy from within an Estimate. When in an Estimate, select the "options" drop-down in the top right-hand part of the screen and select "Save copy." Users will be given the option to update the Title from the default "Copy of [Previous Title]." In addition, the user can decide if they want to copy the permissions from the sharing tab (to include members present from the original estimate as preferred).

  

• Only Administrators have the ability to Lock or Unlock an Estimate. Locking an Estimate prevents any further changes from being made. Note that is an Estimate is locked, it also cannot be deleted. To lock or unlock an Estimate, simply use the drop-down provided on the Estimate Card:
• Alternatively, from within an Estimate, users can lock an estimate by selecting the "options" drop-down on the top right-hand side of the screen and select "Lock estimate."

• Only Administrators are given the ability to Delete an Estimate. To delete an Estimate, simply use the drop-down provided on the Estimate Card to "Delete estimate":
• Alternatively, from within an Estimate, users can delete an estimate by selecting the "options" drop-down on the top right-hand side of the screen and select "Delete estimate."

• Resources can be added to an Estimate on the Resource tab or when developing your Estimate (once an activity has been added) using the Mini Resource Dictionary that appears on the right-hand side of your screen once an activity has been added.
• To add a resource from the Resource tab, select respective resource type: Labor, Subcontracts, Materials, Other Direct Costs, Internal Services. Within the type, select the specific resource category. Once added, Resources can be left as generic categories or customized using the resource drop-down (see “How do a create a custom Resource (Labor or Material) to assign to Activities within my Estimate” for more information). The types and categories are as follows:
• • Labor: ORNL Personnel, Wage Pool & Org Burden, and Total Personnel Cost
  • Subcontracts: Task Bases, Govt Transfers-Other Labs, Govt Transfers-Non-Labs, University Students, Staff Support.
  • Materials: Materials Other Direct Cost: All ORNL Business Travel and Miscellaneous Other Direct Cost
  • Internal Services: Other Services, Waste Services, Space- User-Defined, Utilities-User Defined
• To add a resource from within the Estimate, use the dictionary icon at the top right-hand corner of your screen to open the Resource Dictionary. You can expand each type as necessary to see/select existing resources. To add a new resource, select the + sign by the respective resource type and select the specific resource category. Users are then given the ability to select and/or enter related resource details.

You can use the Activity and Resource Reports to display Estimate summaries to print and/or export information to multiple formats, including: PDF, Excel, or Word.

Within the Report section of the Estimate, Users can create a report based on Activity or Resource by selecting the related tab. They can customize these reports further by selecting the level of detail they need from the drop-down menus on the left-hand side, and by expanding and selecting specific columns of interest from the “Select Column” drop-down on the top right-hand side and pressing the “Apply” button.

Yes, users can reorder Items and Activities on the Estimate tab. To reorder an Activity or Item, simply hover over the activity and press the up or down arrow that appear over the activity number to move up or down. The numbering will change accordingly.

Similarly, within an Activity, Items (resources tied to an activity), can be reordered using the arrows provided.

Users can define custom resources that can then be assigned to multiple activities for planning purposed.

To create a custom resource, first select the related resource type (Labor, Subcontracts, Materials, Other Direct Cost, or Internal Services), then use the drop-down on the right-hand side to “fill in resource detail”:

Users can then define the related custom name (optional), specify a Unit Cost and related Unit. If Users enter “hour” or “hr” as the unit, it will enable FTE calculations on the Estimate tab:

On the Estimate tab, users can then add the resource to an activity on the Estimate tab and enter a related number of units (i.e. each, hour, FTE, etc.) in order to calculate the related cost for the activity:

Entering “hour” or “hr” within the Unit field of a Resource (either under the Resource tab or in the Mini Resource Dictionary”) will enable FTE calculations in the Estimate section. Note that entering “hour” or “hr” within an Activity will NOT enable FTE calculations.

FTE is calculated for an activity based on the FTE % specified for the duration of the activity (rather than for the entire FY); therefore, Users should enter the %FTE they expect the individual to support the task during the activity period. For example, if you identify a resource as 50% FTE for an activity that lasts 3 months, the application will calculate the cost of 50% of their time (FTE) for the three-month period identified.

An Estimate Title must be present in order to save the Estimate. Users are given the ability to save or not save as they navigate between tabs; however, the Estimate Card, Sharing/Access Privileges, and Reports will not update to incorporate these changes until they have been saved. Therefore, if you want to view or print a report without saving the changes to the original Estimate, it is suggested that you make a copy of the Estimate.

When a user attempts to navigate away or discard changes without saving, they will be provided a confirmation message to verify the user is aware their changes will be lost. Note that as users can navigate between tabs without saving, keep in mind that there may be changes on other tabs as well that have not been saved.

Once a resource is assigned to a specific activity, it is considered an “Item.”

Yes, if a user marks an Activity for removal or removes an Activity, the items within the Activity will also be marked for removal or removed accordingly.

You can not currently import your Estimate directly into the Project Management Tool; however, RES plans to integrate these tools going forward. In the meantime, your Estimate can be used to populate your spend plan entered under the Financials Tab within the Project Management Tool.

No, Estimator takes into account material fees and overhead, but similar to SAP and ePlan, taxes are not automatically added to materials and subcontracts. Users should determine whether these resources are taxable and add the applicable sales tax to the cost accordingly.

Users should add this cost as a Lump Sum Wage Pool Cost (as the Rated Unit Cost x Number of Participants x Number of Months). This should account for the cost and correct the Org Burden Overhead rate being estimated.