Here is how fees are distributed in Estimator where there is a negative number involved.
example: 1% is distributed to $400,000 on the Sub Type.
No Negative Numbers
Negative Number
Explanation:
The original fee screenshot:
- Direct Cost = $400,000 and 1% of Sub = $4,000
- 4 line items with Aggregate $100,000
- 1 line item with Aggregate $0
When the user changed that $0 line item to be -100,000, the Direct Cost goes down to $300,000 (400k-100k). Therefore, the 1% fee is now only $3,000
Based on this, fee distribution to cost items is based on their absolute value, not their face-value (positive/negative) value. So in this scenario, all of the cost items will get “treated” like $100,000 for the purpose of distribution. And since the fee is a positive amount $3,000, a positive distribution should be applied to all affected line items.
Therefore the expectation of $1,000 and -$1,000 distribution is incorrect because one of the distributions is negative.
So, going back to the absolute value math, $3,000 is proportionately distributed across 5 line items. Therefore, each cost item receives a positive $600 (3k/5, since their absolute aggregate costs are all the same). That means that the Grand Totals will be 100,600 and -99,400, which will correctly sum to $303,000 for the Total Cost.