Estimating

Your first estimate

Walk through creating a new project, setting up cost folders, and adding your first line items.

This page walks through the high-level flow of creating your first estimate in CSR Foundry. Detailed per-screen guides follow in later pages.

The overall flow

Every estimate in CSR Foundry starts as a project. Inside a project, you build a tree of cost folders that mirror the work breakdown structure. Each folder contains line items — labor, equipment, and material entries priced from your reference libraries.

The rollup happens automatically. You never write a SUMIF or manage a formula chain. The tree structure guarantees the totals are correct.

Three steps to a working estimate

1. Create a project. Name it, set the basic parameters, and you land in the empty cost folder view.
2. Build the cost folder structure. Mirror your WBS or start from a template. Folders can be rearranged, duplicated, and extracted into reusable libraries at any time.
3. Add line items. Pull from your reference libraries where possible — that's where crew productivity and historical pricing compound across projects.

Next up

Detailed guides for each step are in progress:

• Setting up reference libraries
• Production-rate driven pricing
• Working with the AI sidebar
• Exporting to Excel and PDF

In the meantime, the fastest way to get oriented is to request a walkthrough. Email sales@csrfoundry.net and we'll schedule one.