While estimating is often a discrete activity, for example calculating the labor effort from a previous bid or based on the number of full-time equivalent staff times duration of a task, it is possible to estimate effort as well as other costs using parametric formulae. These formula rely on parameters which can be:

• Company-wide, meaning that the value of this parameter is shared across all proposals in your company
• Proposal-wide, meaning that while the parameter value is specific for this proposal, there is only one parameter across the bid
• WBS-specific, meaning that each basis of estimate WBS element can have a different value for this parameter in the same bid
• Resource-specific, meaning that each resource on a basis of estimate WBS can have a different value for this parameter
• Product-specific (base parameters only), meaning that the parameter value is calculated for each item or product in your estimate
• Automatically calculated (also called a base parameter) parameters, computed from other labor or other direct cost estimates.

To view and edit the parameters used in your proposal open a proposal and click on the PARAMETERS tab, highlighted below.

You will see two lists, a list of editable or proposal/WBS/resource specific parameters, and a list of non-changeable or fixed value parameters, which are defined by your administrator here.

1. Proposal, WBS or resource specific parameters are displayed in the upper table, with the total count of such parameters shown after "Records" in the top right corner
2. Click the + button to add a new proposal-specific parameter value, or the - button to delete a parameter value
3. Select the parameter from the list. If you cannot find a suitable parameter contact your system administrator to set one up for you, along with the required formula
4. For each parameter you select that parameter's scope will be displayed. Parameters in the top list will be proposal-wide, BOE WBS specific or specific to a single resource within a BOE-WBS
5. Click on the cells under "Value" column to edit the value of each parameter, for this proposal, WBS or resource depending on the parameter scope
   • Note: in order to maintain parameter values that are specific to a WBS you must click to show the WBS column first and select a valid value for the WBS
   • To maintain parameters that are specific to a WBS and a resource you must show columns for both WBS and resource and select values for both, prior to assigning a value
6. The lower grid contains a list of company wide (non-proposal specific) which appear in one or more formula in your current proposal
7. You cannot edit the company wide parameters, but you can view their parameter code, description and scope
8. You can also view the current value of any company-wide parameters or of any "base parameters" which are automatically calculated based on other quotation estimating data.

If your parameter scope is based on WBS or resource, you need to add the columns for:

1. WBS, where you select which WBS from your proposal this specific parameter value applies
2. Resource, where you select which resource & WBS in combination this specific value applies

Note: you cannot assign parameter values to a resource without a specific BOE WBS.