Glossary of Terms

Active Floor

The active floor feature facilitates the identification of the floors in a building that are being used by a specific use group. For instance, the quantity of "Ice Makers" can be determined by counting the number of floors with hotel rooms. Each use group has a dedicated column for active floors. The behavior of these columns is as follows: if the number of floors under a use group is zero (0), the floor status for that group is set to Inactive. Conversely, if the floor count is non-zero, it is marked as Active.

Alternates

Alternates are typically pre-contract options for a project that are priced independently from the base bid, but are factored into the estimate prior to its acceptance by the end customer.

Area Check

The area check enables us to assess the net area and the efficiency of a given floor. This information is especially valuable when communicating with clients and demonstrating how effectively the space is utilized per floor.

Area Sheet

A high level assembly that defines the massing and geometry of a building in table form. 80% of the line items in an estimate are connected to this sheet, so values on this sheet need to be assignable to a line item from the formula editor.

Assembly

An assembly is a term commonly used in the industry to refer to a combination of multiple line items. In the context of Ediphi, an assembly can be either a traditional assembly line item or a high-level assembly.

Attribute

An attribute is any data point in the database that is chosen to be recorded for all projects. The purpose of these attributes is to facilitate searching and filtering of projects within the historical database. These data points can be diverse, ranging from the quantity of a line item to a line item metric, or even project-specific information like a name and address.

Buildings

Buildings are discrete area sheets that are used when a project consists of multiple structures, each with their own floors, areas, perimeters, and floor heights. Switching between buildings in the area sheet screen will display the corresponding area sheet for the selected building.

Buy Sheet

A place to level and ultimately award bids.

Common Area

While the Unit Mix delineates the quantity of each unit type on each floor of a building, which comprises approximately 80% of the finishes on a floor, there are additional finishes on these floors that are not contained within the units, such as the corridor carpet, ceiling, and base, among others. These finishes can be accounted for utilizing the common area section.

Common Walls

Common walls provides a centralized platform for tracking all the walls throughout the entire building. This feature is especially valuable when considering walls that are shared between two rooms. Instead of individually counting these walls in our Quantity Take-off or Rooms tab, this functionality prevents duplication by automatically calculating the square footage based on a takeoff of lineal feet and the height of the floor.

Cost Codes

A subset of a sort code, cost codes are sort codes that exist in three different formats: MasterFormat, UniFormat, and parameter format. Although cost codes are classified as sort codes, it is important to note that not all sort codes are considered cost codes. What sets cost codes apart is their utilization across all departments for the purpose of assigning their own specific attributes to objects. Furthermore, it should be noted that cost codes are exclusively employed as interdepartmental sort codes.

Cost of Work (COW)

All of the direct costs associated with a project. In other words, the total of all line items before any markups have been applied.

CSI

The Construction Specifications Institute is widely recognized as the industry authority on UniFormat & MasterFormat.

Detailed Summary

In the detailed summary tab, things are broken out to another level of granularity. A lot of the time, you can use this page in a similar way as you might use the line items page. You can edit anything in this tab the same way you would in the line items view. You can change quantities, units of measurement (UM), price, use group, name, etc.

Estimate

The main deliverable to clients in the form of a .pdf or .xlsx document(s) that is usually transmitted by email.

Estimate View

The primary display of the estimate. This provides the user with a visual representation of how the estimate will appear once it is exported to a .pdf or .xlsx file and subsequently shared with the client. The user retains the ability to modify the majority of the fields in this display, similar to the Line Items view.

Facade

Every floor that you takeoff will have a perimeter, and a floor-to-floor, which will give us our gross facade and help us when we’re calculating different aspects of the building later on.

Finish Schedule

The notion of a finish schedule has been a longstanding feature of architectural plans, wherein architects employ a grid layout to delineate rooms and their corresponding finish materials. This grid typically encompasses columns representing Walls, Floor, Ceiling, and Base, with each cell containing the specified finish material. In our digital implementation, we have faithfully recreated this convention under the Rooms tab, augmenting it with the capability to incorporate supplementary line items that denote additional scope within each room.

Formula Editor

A user form or modal that enables users to view, modify, or create the formula of a standard line item. The formula editor establishes connections between the area sheet and the line items, line items to other line items, metrics, and so on.

General Conditions

All of the staffing costs directly assigned to a project, along with the burden and support costs associated with that staffing, which are allocated to Level 1 of MasterFormat.

General Requirements

All of the direct costs associated with overseeing the construction of the project, including but not limited to fencing, interim cleaning, and job site trailers. These costs are allocated to Level 1 of MasterFormat.

High Level Assembly

A standalone web page or worksheet that several line items link to. High level assemblies (or HLA’s) include: Area Sheet, Rooms Schedule, and Unit Mix.

Historical Database

A distinct database that encompasses cost data and attributes of previous projects. The historical database comprises multiple phases of each project.

Industry

The categorization of projects based on client type. Industries can include: Residential, Education, Office, Hospitality, Healthcare, Retail, Entertainment, Non Profit, Science & Technology, Aviation & Transportation, Government, Assisted Living, Gaming, and more.

Interdependencies

The quantity of a line item that is dependent on the quantity of another line item.

Keys Configurations

These are the “keys” following the naming convention of the finish schedule on architectural plans. These “keys” can be tagged for rooms in the Walls, Floors, Ceiling, Base columns. For each key, there is a corresponding line item in the estimate. Keys also contain Marks.

Line Item

The fundamental component of an estimate. A line item in its simplest structure comprises the following attributes: Description, Quantity, Unit of Measurement (UM), Unit Cost (UC), Total, etc.

Line Items View

The line items view is a recreation of the database-style estimating approach, in which all line items are displayed, allowing for filtering and sorting. Its main objective is to facilitate batch editing of line items by narrowing down to the desired line items and applying batch modifications.

Markups

These are line items that apply percentage markups on the cost of the work. These are formulas that a user can modify based on the agreed business terms with the client.

MasterFormat (MF)

Cost codes that are defined according to the industry standard CSI. The Ediphi database includes 3 Levels of MF by default. Any additional levels, such as a 4th Level of MF, would be considered a User Defined Sort Code.

MEP

The Mechanical (HVAC), Electrical, Fire Protection, and Plumbing trades.

Metric

A field to the left of the quantity field of a line item that the formula of the line item depends on (can be expanded by clicking on the button in the quantity column). The purpose of a metric is to give the user a dial to modify the quantity of the line item quickly, and to provide a key data point for the Historical Database. A line item should theoretically have the ability to contain infinite metrics, but in reality there will rarely be a need for more than three.

GR Labor

This module is designed for tracking labor on a weekly basis. Within this section, we have implemented the concept of "Crews" and "Crew templates". These features enable the assignment of various types of laborers, each with their designated rates, to specific activities.

Phase

Every project undergoes multiple phases as it progresses from a conceptual stage to a design that can be constructed. Each phase is accompanied by its own estimate. In certain cases, projects may consist of numerous phases, each with their own estimate. Furthermore, in such scenarios, multiple design alternatives are frequently evaluated for the project.

Quantity Take-off (QTO)

Quantity take-off provides a comprehensive view of the finishes for every room in your project. When accessing the quantity take-off feature in the platform, you will observe that you can utilize quantity formulas in a similar manner as you would on the line items view, the estimate view, the rooms view, or any other relevant section in Ediphi where quantity formulas prove beneficial.

Region

The geographical grouping of projects.

Rooms

There are spaces that serve a purpose to the function of the building as a whole, which we refer to as Rooms in the platform. The Rooms tab allows us to catalog all these rooms within a project. Typically, there are many more geometrically unique functional rooms than there are geometrically unique units, so we wanted to provide a separate method of visualization for the user to edit and track these unique functional rooms and their finishes. 

Schedule of Values (SOV)

An overview of each category of line items included in the estimate, with the categories defined either by MasterFormat or UniFormat. A schedule of values is typically included as an exhibit in a contract with the owner, however, in Ediphi it is essentially regarded as the summary.

Scope Sheet

An place designed to facilitate the management and tracking of bids for a specific bid package scope.

Sort Field

A field in the UPC database that enables line items to be sorted, grouped, and filtered. The mandatory sort fields for items in the UPC include MasterFormat Level 3, UniFormat Level 3, and Parameter Format.

Sort Codes

A sort field comprises multiple sort codes. The minimum mandatory sort fields will be pre-populated with sort codes. User-defined sort fields empower the user to include, remove, and alter sort codes.

Standard Line Item

A subset of line item, this is any line item that can be assigned a formula from the formula editor.

System

Systems are defined as collections of line items that are not restricted to a single scope of work, trade, or line item. Instead, they are applicable to multiple scopes, trades, or line items. These collections of line items often exhibit interdependencies among them.

Traditional Assembly Line Item

A parent line item that contains one or more child line items. A traditional assembly line item consolidates all of the child line items into one.

UniFormat (UF)

Cost codes that are defined by the industry-standard CSI. The Ediphi database is configured to support three levels of UniFormat (UF), and the UPC currently includes three levels as a default.

Unit Mix

A unit mix refers to the composition of the different recurring units in an estimate, such as the quantity of one-bedroom one-bathroom units in a condominium. This principle is applicable to any kind of repeating units depending on the nature of the project. For example, in the construction of educational facilities, classrooms may constitute the unit mix, while in hospital projects, exam rooms may recur. The unit mix and its associated quantity take-off can be customized to suit the specific requirements of your project type and stored in your cloud database.

UPC

The Unit Price Catalog is a centralized database that contains line items. Each line item in the UPC must be coded with a minimum of the following Sort Codes: MasterFormat Level 3, UniFormat Level 3, or parameter format. Ideally, all items in the UPC will also have a Formula and System associated with them.

Use Group

Use groups categorize different aspects of your estimate based on their intended use—sometimes called asset classes—such as above or below grade parking, retail, condominiums, or hotels. This not only expedites the estimating process, but also facilitates effortless cost comparisons between like-for-like uses, even when project details differ (ex. hotel above casino vs. hotel above parking).

User Defined Sort Codes

In addition to the sort codes incorporated into the UPC database, the user has the option to include additional sort codes, such as "Room", "Phase", or "Bid Package". Theoretically, there is a limitless range of user-defined sort codes, but in practice, the number of such codes is typically limited to no more than ten.

Versions

Versions can be an incredibly valuable tool when your project is undergoing design iterations or when significant changes are being made to your estimates. For instance, let's say you have duplicated an existing estimate to serve as the foundation for a new project. Maybe the general requirements are slightly different for this project, and you wish to remove the entire section and begin anew. To ensure that crucial calculations are not inadvertently deleted or customized line items are not removed, it is advisable to save a Version before implementing any of these substantial modifications.

Vertical Transportation

The vertical transportation tab enables users to include various forms of vertical transportation, such as stairs, elevators, or escalators, in their area sheet.