Estimates, also called "basis' of estimates" or BOEs, are essentially WBS elements from the project or proposal which are marked as estimates. Each estimating WBS is assigned an owner who is the person responsible for completing and submitting that estimate based on the estimating workflow. Following  release, the estimator uses the estimating application to complete one or more of:

• Labor estimates for non-recurring or project-based activities like engineering or software coding
• Travel estimates for travel to/from customer sites, or for internal travel
• Materials estimates for purchased material and for in-house produced or installed parts, including parts from configurable bill of material. Installed and in-house manufactured parts create labor estimates whereas purchased and lease parts or equipment generate material estimates
• Other direct cost estimates such as for subcontractors or insurance policies.

It is easy to modify the estimating tab labels and sequence so your estimating worksheets might be called something else, like for example DIRECT COSTS and INDIRECT COSTS.

Open the estimating application by clicking the main navigation ESTIMATES to view a list of estimates. You can filter the list for example only showing estimates you are the owner for, and you can change the columns which are displayed.

1. Filter the list of estimates by any criteria you choose, such as BOE owner as yourself
2. The description of each estimate is the same as the WBS description which was marked as an estimate. This is in turn often copied from a template. The WBS code is also displayed
3. Key information such as the design-to-cost target (DTC) and current cost estimate for estimates which are already in process, is displayed. The rolled-up cost is the cost for this entire estimate vs. the cost or DTC assigned directly to the estimating top level WBS
4. Who created this estimate, and when, based on who released the estimate from the proposal or capital project
5. Estimates are assigned a confidence score based on the aggregated or average confidence weighted by cost of the individual items in that estimate. For example the confidence of each resource in a labor estimate is rolled-up and shown here as a % score
6. Click on the speech icon to enter remarks or assumptions for your estimate (the same as the assumptions tab)
7. Double-click any estimate link to open it, or click on the pencil icon.

The following columns are available to show more information about your estimates:

• The number of risks or opportunities assigned to this estimate
• Approver - who is approving this estimate once it is submitted
• Changed by - who last updated this estimate
• Confidence score - as explained above
• Cost estimate - total cost estimated so far
• Created on - when it was created
• DTC - design to cost target as explained above
• Estimate description or name
• Estimate Owner - who is responsible for competing the estimate
• Estimating strategy - the list of allowed estimating options e.g. labor, travel, material or subcontract & ODC cost estimates
• Labor cost - estimated so far (both directly for the estimate WBS and for all WBS elements below). Note: this includes make-part labor
• Labor hours estimated (incl. rolled-up labor hours which includes mark-part hours)
• Material cost - estimates so far. Note: this is for purchased material only not make-part labor
• Profit center - from SAP
• Project or proposal this estimate is for
• Remarks - for the entire estimate. Assumptions, explanations and item or resource/material specific remarks are separate
• Workstream & Sub-workstream (or sub focus area) as a common classification system for WBS across multiple projects
• Work package - indicates that this WBS is a work-package in SAP
• Work-stream - or primary focus area (determines the possible sub-workstreams you can choose from).