Completing the bulk fixed cost import spreadsheet

In this article

• What are fixed costs? 
• Adding fixed costs to the spreadsheet
• Importing the spreadsheet
• Errors
• Want to know more?

What are fixed costs?

The fixed costs section is a central repository for all your standard preliminaries or fixed costs . These are items that you want to charge your client for, that you do not consider suitable to form part of the measured works in the bill of quantities.

Fixed costs are given a set standard price that you charge per unit, and from that, on a project by project basis, you can determine what profit you expect to make on that item based on the the costs you have allowed for.

Fixed costs can be added manually or can be imported using our fixed costs import template. 

Adding fixed costs to the spreadsheet

To bulk import new fixed you will need to have the necessary permissions. If you don't see the options in the steps below but believe you should have these permissions, please speak to your system administrator or contact our support team.

Steps to add a fixed cost

1. From the black menu click the 'Settings' icon, then click the 'Resources' icon.
2. Select 'Fixed costs' in the menu bar at the left  of the screen.
3. You can check to see if the fixed is already set up by typing part of the name into the filter at the top of the screen.  If it is not already set up you can add to the spreadsheet as a new item. 
4. Click the '+Import fixed costs' button in the top right of the screen.
5. Click the 'Download fixed costs template' button.
6. Open the spreadsheet and complete the fields:
   
   • Fixed cost name (required) - enter the name of the fixed cost. Names need to be unique.
   • Type (required) - Select the category type for this cost
   • Unit (required) - choose the applicable charging unit for the item being created (Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Lump Sum).
   • Rate/Unit (required)- enter the rate that will be charged to clients for this item. This is what will appear on tenders and applications. This is the rate you will be charging your client, not the rate you will be paying for the fixed cost.
   • Profit unit (required) - If any profit is included in the rate for the item, you will need to add it in this section.

Importing the spreadsheet

Once all the details have been added to the spreadsheet for the fixed costs to be imported, you can import the spreadsheet into Chalkstring.

1. From the left menu bar click the 'Settings' icon, then click the 'Resources' icon.
2. Click the ‘Fixed cost’ sub menu.
3. Click the '+Import fixed cost' button in the top right of the screen.
4. Drag and drop the saved copy of the fixed cost import spreadsheet into the 'Upload files' box, or click the box to browse to the copy of the import spreadsheet on your machine.
5. Click 'Import'.
6. If there are any issues with the spreadsheet, a list of the errors will be displayed.
7. Correct any errors on the spreadsheet, save, and then follow steps 1 - 5 above again.

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Errors

There are a number of potential errors you can receive when bulk importing fixed cost. If you receive any of these errors, the detail listed show which areas of the spreadsheet you need to update before reimporting.

Mandatory fields not completed

• Error on <Cell>(Fixed cost name): Expected a value for Fixed cost name
• Error on <Cell>(Type): Expected a value for Type
• Error on <Cell>(Unit): Expected a value for Unit
• Error on <Cell>(Rate/unit): Expected a value for Rate/unit
• Error on <Cell>(Profit/unit): Expected a value for Rate/unit

Duplicate fixed costs

• Item <number> validation issues: name: There is already a Fixed cost with this name

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Want to know more?

• Video: Materials (video)
• Adding and editing materials
• Adding and editing material types
• How to import a material quote