Estimate structure

An Infrenta estimate is a structured document, not a free-form grid. The commercial record is composed of line items (or compiled cost items) that each carry identity, description, quantity, unit, and rate — plus the method used to produce the cost.

Organization

Estimates live on a project and can have:

• lines / cost items — the commercial atoms
• breakdowns — grouping for presentation and review
• scenarios — alternative commercial pictures on the same estimate
• revisions — frozen or comparable versions of the document

The exact on-screen grouping labels can vary by workspace version. The important contract is that items remain addressable so a later trace can say which item produced which total.

Cost items

A cost item typically includes:

• a stable identifier
• a description
• a quantity and unit
• a rate or a compiled rate from a method
• a method or nature (for example a vendor quote, an allowance, a production-based crew build-up)

Methods are not decorative tags. They change how the graph compiles the item. An allowance is not the same thing as a measured production item, even if both show a dollar total.

Quantities and units

Quantities may come from:

• layout / BOM outputs
• takeoff
• user entry
• a formula that depends on other graph nodes

Units must stay consistent with the rate. Mixing “each,” metres, tonnes, and hours without a method that converts them is a common source of silent estimate error. Infrenta’s graph is designed to keep those conversions explicit.

Cost composition

A compiled item can expose more than a single lump sum. Depending on the method, composition may include raw material, yield, BOM explosion, routing hours, crew, equipment, production, trucking, galvanizing, scrap, freight, and indirect duration costs.

See Cost build-ups.

Totals

Cost, markup, and sell price are kept semantically separate in the engine. A markup percentage is not allowed to masquerade as a cost, and a sell price is not just “the number in the total column.”