Its easy to confuse the Unit Cost and Cost/Unit columns, but it’s important to understand how different they really are. This article offers a clarifying look at the Cost/Unit column and its relationship with the Unit Reference selection in the CIV (Cost Information View).
Unit Cost vs. Cost/Unit - What’s the Difference?
Unit Cost:
The Unit Cost column offers a straightforward view of the per unit cost of a line item, calculated simply by dividing the total aggregate cost of a line item by its quantity.
Formula: Unit Cost = Aggregate Cost / Quantity
Cost/Unit:
The Cost/Unit column calculates the cost per a user-configurable variable called the Unit Reference. In the simplest terms, it divides the aggregate cost by the variable that is selected in the Unit Reference drop-down in the CIV (or via the Unit Reference column, if you have it visible in your Estimate View). The Unit Reference can be set to represent common values such as total building area or number of floors.
Formula: Cost/Unit = Aggregate Cost / Unit Reference variable
Setting the Unit Reference Variable
The Unit Reference can be set for each line item in the CIV, or via the Unit Reference column in the Estimate View:
The list of Unit Reference options is pulled from the numerical Project Properties that are defined in the Project View (important: only numerical variables are shown as Unit Reference options).
Project Properties included in Beck Tech's standard Project View include Total Building Area, Total Site Area, Number of Floors and such. Of course, you can also add your own custom Project Properties, which can then be used as Unit References.
You can learn how to add custom Project Properties in the following online training course: 13.0 DESTINI Estimator Basic Training: Estimate Properties, Project Properties, and Project View
Example Use Case
In this example, we have an estimate with a Total Building Area of 20,000 sf, as defined in the Project View.
In the Estimate View, we have 5,000 sf of Wood Flooring with a total cost of $75,000.
As you can see, the Unit Cost column simply shows the cost of the wood flooring per sf.
Unit Cost: $75,000 / 5,000(sf) = $15.00
Meanwhile, the Cost/Unit shows us how much the wood flooring contributes to the overall per-sf cost of the total building area:
Cost/Unit: $75,000 / 20,000 = $3.75 per sf
As you can hopefully gather from this example, effective use of Project Properties and the Cost/Unit column can serve as a powerful tool for exposing the impact of any given cost item on a particular aspect of your project.