Manage Use Groups for your Company
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.
With Ediphi, you can leverage Use Groups and access each use group’s associated historical cost data within a single cloud-based platform. That means no more side sheets! 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). This also makes it that much easier for you to present clients with costs based on use—particularly helpful if your clients are funding the project by use.
Suppose you want to conduct a cost comparison between building a hotel above a casino versus a hotel above a parking garage. Building a hotel casino is much more expensive than a hotel above a parking garage, but how much more? How do you determine the cost of building just the hotel portion of your project? Better yet, how can you take your past estimate of a hotel and use it to quickly provide clients pricing for a new project?
With Ediphi, you can leverage Use Groups from past estimates, such as a previously estimated hotel, to easily compare costs across different projects. And, because your data is in the cloud, your historical cost base grows over time, making it faster to provide clients with accurate pricing.
See below for steps on how to create and manage Use Groups within the Admin tab.
In this article
Creating Use Groups
- Hover over the Admin prompt on the menu bar at the top of your page and select Use Groups in the dropdown that appears.
- On the next page, select New Use Group.
- Enter a Use Group Name, select a Category (both of these are required), and a Unit Label (optional). You can also Manage Unit Specs. These selected Unit Specs will then be reflected in the Units tab of your Estimate for that specific Use Group. Previously, the unit count was always referred to as "Unit Count", without being contextual to the use group in which it lives.
Once you’re done setting up your Use Group information and its respective Unit Specs, click Save.
Editing Use Groups
- Hover over the Admin prompt on the menu bar at the top of your page and select Use Groups in the dropdown that appears.
- On the next page, click on the ellipses for the Use Group you need edited. Select Edit.
When in the Edit screen, you can also Manage Unit Specs for each Use Group (you also have the option to create new Unit Specs). These selected Unit Specs will then be reflected in the Units tab of your Estimate for that specific Use Group. Previously, the unit count was always referred to as "Unit Count", without being contextual to the use group in which it lives.
You also have the ability to add a Unit Label when creating or editing a Use Group, which will affect how that Use Group is presented in the Unit Mix under the Units tab. So for example, if for our Apartment Use Group we add an “Apartments” label:
Then that will override how it shows in the Unit Mix.
Deleting Use Groups
- Hover over the Admin prompt on the menu bar at the top of your page and select Use Groups in the dropdown that appears.
- On the next page, click on the ellipses icon for the Use Group you need deleted. Click Delete.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact our support team and we'll be happy to help!