When you open the projects application you will see a list of capital project estimates. Learn more about changing columns and filtering the data to search for your own proposals. Learn more about project list columns here.

Click on or pause your mouse over the NEW button to create a new project estimate, either by:

1. Clicking on the NEW button directly creates a generic capital project estimate. Select the appropriate type on the SETUP tab
2. Select what type or kind of proposal you want to create from the "Create from Type" menu. The type influences workflow steps, screen layouts (tabs, fields etc. you can access) and many other aspects of the proposal estimating process.

Authorized users can maintain templates in the main navigation menu for templates.

To create a new capital project estimate, or to edit key info for an existing project, open the SET-UP tab. The following fields are required/most important:

1. Enter or edit the project title or description
2. Different types of project can be selected from the drop-down
3. Enter the from/to dates for the anticipated period of performance
   • Period of performance are dates when you estimate the project will start and finish. You can modify the dates later and reschedule the project cost estimates accordingly
4. Select what type of estimate this is which also indicates your anticipated confidence in the resulting cost estimates
5. Select whether your project has a single or multiple sets (delivery options) or phases. You can only maintain phase/option attributes if you check Yes
6. Select the primary organization unit or company, as well as optionally the site or department leading this project
   • You can also select from a list of any other sites involved
   • Company or group currency for this project will be set to the currency of the primary org. unit, and displayed in the company or group currency field below
   • Local currency for each delivery organization (including the default local currency) is set from the site's currency
   • Exchange rates for the selected company, department or any other departments involved will be defaulted automatically into the proposal exchange rates popup
7. Upload any other documents or files relevant to this project. If you manage these files in another file management system such as Teams, Drive or Drop-box then click the button to add links to each document in the files popup
8. You can either create a new project, copy from a template, or copy from a prior project
   • Depending on your selection will be asked to search for the template or project to copy
   • You can choose what to copy in the screen panel shown below
   • If your a template is automatically appearing then your implementation consultant assigned one to the project type. Leave it unless you know you want to use a different template as a basis
9. Enter the project description, objectives and other remarks. You can format your text and paste from Word into this field.

When copying from a previous project or curated template from your library, iPE scans the source document to see what can be copied, and presents you with the options below including a count of any source document elements which can be copied to your new project. In this panel you can:

1. Copy phases or set options, or not. If you current project has a phase with the same description as a copied phase, it won't be duplicated

2. Copy the source work breakdown structure (cost structure) or not. Normally you should copy the WBS, which is appended after any existing WBS in your new proposal (and renumbered accordingly), because cost estimates invariably refer to this WBS

3. Copy tasks, or not. Tasks are below WBS elements, so WBS elements must be copied with tasks

4. Select whether to copy requirements

5. Assign a complexity factor to the copied estimates. This factor if specified is applied to the labor hours, and quantities for material, copied

6. Specify whether the original source proposal's dates should be left as-is (because you plan on rescheduling the new proposal anyway) or  automatically rescheduled to fit the new proposal's start and end dates

7. Copy any formula input parameters, sizing inputs or proposal-specific rates which impact cost estimating relationships, or not. You can edit proposal-specific parameters after they have been copied without impacting the source proposal formula

8. Maintain a reference to the original capital project request, accessible from the MORE toolbar button OPEN menu

9. Specify whether you want to copy risks and opportunities to the new project

10. Specify whether tags and any values assigned to the source proposal should be copied. Tags are custom defined fields which can be used across your company or in one specific proposal. When you check this box tags from the source proposal or template are merged with tags in your current proposal which means:

    1. Tags which are the same in both source and new proposal are merged

    2. Tags which are unique to the source proposal are appended onto any existing tags in the new proposal, so the source tags will appear after the new proposals tags in the SETUP tab

    3. Tags in the new proposal are never overwritten or deleted

11. Copy funding sources funding the program, or not

12. When copying a template, any resources which are not assigned to a company, site or department are transferred to the segment or company and site or department of your new proposal. This may in turn lead to new resource codes and cost or bill rates being determined. When copying a real capital project you can check this box to force the site or department for resources in the copied proposal to be transferred to the department listed

13. Specify whether detailed cost estimates such as labor, material, travel or other direct costs, should be copied. Check the box to copy each type of resource if you want to copy, including their hours/quantity and cost or revenue (with new rate look-ups based on site transfers or date reschedules). Note that:

    1. Manually created material estimates are copied (select the Proposal bill of material box below Labor to copied BOM-generated material estimates)

    2. Copying these estimates takes place in the background and the copied estimates must still be released from the new proposal's WBS tab

14. Specify whether the proposal bills of material should be copied or not. If the bill of material is standard then it is better to reimport the latest, however if it is proposal-specific then you should copy the source proposal-specific bill of material, together with any consolidated material cost estimates generated

Don't forget to click the COPY button after making your selections. If you decide against copying anything then clear the source project in the "search for" field above.