I uploaded my estimate, but the Burdened Total Cost didn't import.
Even though there is a way to display Fees in the Estimate View, Procore does not read the column, Burdened Total Cost where the data is displayed in DESTINI Estimator.
For more information about the Procore Import process, reference Procore Support Article: Import a Budget
Upload to Financials in DESTINI Estimator
Here are some details about how the Procore Financials Integration works with DESTINI Estimator.
Procore Financials bases their Budget numbers solely on the 5 cost categories in DESTINI Estimator extended by the quantity. In order to distribute fees to line items in the Estimate View, there must be a quantity of 1 and a unit cost of .00001 to display the Fee amount in the Burdened Total Cost, the math multiplies out to .00001 in Procore. Since there is some cost in the Material and Labor Cost columns in our example below, a line item will display in the budget after import, but no real dollars populate.
Procore defaults to Calculate Subtotal Automatically during the process of import, so it is looking for values in Quantity and Unit Cost only to make the calculation.
Even the manual import process to Procore uses the above logic, unless the Manual Calculation column is populated with TRUE in the Procore Excel Import Template.
The only item in this example that will upload with true cost is 099100.100 Paint – drywall, because it has a Quantity of 100,000 sf and a unit cost in the Other Cost category of $4.50; therefore, the uploaded dollar amount equals $450,000.00.
There are no fees distributed to the Paint - drywall line item; therefore, the math works and matches the Burdened Total Cost column.
After the upload the financials integrations is complete from DESTINI Estimator, the line items in the budget are set to Override Subtotal Manually so that the Fees may be hard keyed in fairly quickly. Click the ellipses in the Original Budget Amount cell in Procore for more information.
The Upload to Financials process from DESTINI Estimator to Procore is very helpful and works quickly. You will want to weigh out the benefits of the upload and the time that it may take to manually enter the Fee amounts after upload, before moving toward the alternative manual process outlined below.
Manual Export / Import Process
Since the Estimate View may be configured to have the same columns as needed for the Import to Procore, it is possible to use a manual export to Excel, then import to Procore process for either the Fee items only, or the whole estimate.
There are a few things that need to be setup in the Estimate Template or Cost Database regarding WBS properties first, so that the correct columns are present and named correctly for the import.
According to Procore's documentation at the time of this article, the only required fields for import are Cost Code, Cost Type, and Manual Calculation. Since manual calculation is the method we want to use, the additional field of Budget Amount is necessary for inclusion. Description will be imported if included, so that column is present in my Estimate Layout, too.
1. Set up an Estimate Layout called Procore Import Fees with the following columns: Cost Code, Cost Type, Description, Manual Calculation and Budget Amount.
Cost Code, Cost Type, Manual Calculation, and Budget Amount are custom WBS Properties that can be setup either in the Estimate Template or the Cost Database. My recommendation is to setup Cost Code and Cost Type which match Procore per line item in the Cost Database and Manual Calculation and Budget Amount in the Estimate Template.
Here's why...
When I created the Manual Calculation WBS, I set it to default to TRUE, so every time a line item is added to the Estimate, it will bring TRUE with it. There is no need to store that in the Cost Database to take up space.
Budget Amount is a formulaic WBS. I am essentially copying the Burdened Total Cost column into Budget Amount so that it displays in a column pre-named to what Procore needs it to be. This will reduce the work I need to do in Excel to prep the file for Import to Procore. The Cost Database does not need to know about this formulaic WBS Property.
I do not have any other Distributed Fees besides the ones that I want distributed to specific line items; therefore, this workflow is appropriate. It may be necessary to put a column filter in place within Estimate View to isolate the Fee only line items before exporting the Unformatted Excel Report from Estimate View, especially if this is a secondary process after using the Upload to Financials for the Direct Cost items that do not have Distributed Cost.
2. With the appropriate rows and columns in place in the Estimate View, select the button From Estimate View > Unformatted Report from the ribbon.
3. Open the Excel workbook.
4. Rename the sheet/tab to Budget Line Items.
5. Change the Budget Amount column type to Currency.
6. Delete any additional columns included if this is a secondary process and Fees only are being imported.
7. Save the workbook as .xlsx.
8. Login to Procore > Budget.
9. Complete the Import process.
The original budget column in Procore should have all three line items populated with cost.
Below is an example of completing the secondary process: use the Procore Integration, then import Fees only.
We recommend you pick either the Upload to Financials process or the manual import process and skip filtering for Fee line item items, especially if there are additional distributed fees that should be included in the Original Budget.
Article published, June 2024 based on DESTINI Estimator 2023 1.2.9.