The Catalog, Estimate, Alternates, Change Orders, or Summary tabs all use a spreadsheet format to organize information into rows and columns. The format of the rows cannot be changed, but the format of the columns can be changed significantly.

You can change column width, column order, which columns are displayed, and the number of decimal places displayed for columns with numerical information. This enables you to organize the columns to display information any way you want in the Catalog, Estimate, Alternate, Change Orders, and Summary tabs. You can save the column format using a column view. You can also rename columns using the Estimating Preferences screen.

You can hide and show columns. When you choose to hide a column, the information contained in that column is still calculated, but it is not displayed in the tab.

You can move columns to place columns of information together to make it easier to read and compare data. For example, you can move the Quantity column next to the Units column or you can move the Base Cost column next to the Adjusted Cost column to compare costs. You can move a single column at a time or many columns at once.

You can set the number of decimal places that appear for each column. This feature only changes the number of decimal places that appear on screen when you print the tab. All values are always calculated to four (0.0001) decimal places. Note that the Estimating module rounds up the displayed values when the number is 5 or larger. For example, 2.7451 shown to two decimal places is 2.75.

Once you have created a column view, you can save the layout and apply it to the tab at any time. You can create and save an infinite number of column views. This makes it possible to quickly and easily display information and generate reports that show only the information you want in the format you want.

For example, you can set up a column view to display only the Description, Quantity, and Unit of measure for each item in an estimate. You could then print the information in this column view to generate a report you can use when ordering materials for a job. By changing the columns, you can selectively show information without losing any of the information.

Column views that you save in either the Catalog or Estimate tab can be viewed in either tab. Column views saved in the Alternates, Change Orders, or Summary tab can only be viewed in the tab where they were saved. Column views are not job-specific. This means that a column view you save in one estimating job will be available in all other jobs in the Estimating module.

To open a job in the Manage Estimates screen, click Estimating > Estimating > Manage Estimates in the All Tasks pane. Then select the job you want to open, and click OK.