Download pdf - Presto Manual 15 (ENG)

Presto Manual 2015 New features Presto 2015.01 1

Using Presto 3

Use interface 5

Fields 7

Windows 8

Editing items 10

Layouts 15

Filter elements 22

Text windows 24

Presto in the design stage 27

Estimate 27

Stages and activities 50

Integration to BIM 69

Take-off lines: CAD drawing 70

An information system 75

Presto in the planning stage 95

Economic planning 95

Financial planning 105

Temporary planning 108

Primavera and Project link 119

Presto in project management 123

Tender bid for complete work 123

The certification 124

Cost tracking 130

Presto for construction company 135

Procurement and subcontracting 135

Production 148

Invoices 150

Centralized invoicing 162

Analysis of costs and expenses 165

Menus and options 175

FILE 175

EDITION 189

VIEW 190

REFERENCE 221

TOOLS 222

PROCCESS 223

PLUGINS 224

CALCULATIONS 224

REPORTS 225

WINDOW 229

HELP 229

Tutorial of estimates 233

1 Creation of concepts 233

2 Take-off lines 239

3 Completion estimate 242

4 Printing and connection with other programs 244

5 Certifications 246

Cost tutorial 249

1 Estimate of estimated cost 249

2 Purchases 251

3 Invoices 257

4 Orders and deliveries 261

5 Calculation of actual costs 263

Design report 267

File 268

VER 269

TOOLS 278

SECTION 280

Expression builder 283

Link to Excel and Access 287

Excel 287

Access 288

Appendix I. Technical documentation 291

Directories and files 291

User restrictions 292

New features Presto 2015.01 1

New features Presto 2015.01 The manual includes the novelties of the new version.

Filters

When you activate a filter by differences header are highlight-

ed.

It displays numerical ranges in filters by content or differences.

Temporary measures

Window simple and easy to use.

It detects take-off lines that may have been removed from the

reference.

New option to assign work items per family and type of work

items.

“Copy for Revit” contextual option.

Take-off lines and activities

New options to reorder activities.

Improvements consolidation options take-off lines.

Access columns for the “Activities” table.

User parameters

The windows of keywords let to visualize data related to

groups of parameters and measurement units.

Easy to create custom user settings or add the existing ones.

When you delete a variable, the keywords or parameters of

the same name are removed.

Measurements in XCA format

New option “FILE: Import” to create works with their corre-

sponding take-off lines from this format.

Temporary planning

Improvements in the calculation and representation of tasks

with breakage.

New fields of cumulative percentages and ALAP dates.

Cost control

Improvements that facilitate the management of supplies con-

sumed by target.

2 Manual de Presto manual

Control of users with network licenses

It allows each user to the required modules. It requires be pre-

viously identified.

Tracking changes by user in shared projects

Generation of files of activity by works with the most im-

portant actions performed by each user.

Content and examples

Bars reports adapted to current types of tasks and currency

management.

The project “Estimate” replaces “Example of BIM” and “Esti-

mate and measurements”.

New project of example “rac_advanced_sample_project” Cost-

It-generated.

Template of works, “Grille analytique détaillée - UNTEC”.

Using Presto 3

Using Presto In addition to this manual, there are other resources for learning to

use Presto in www.presto.es, section “Using Presto”.

Training

Know the official centers and certified trainers Presto, attend our

webinars or hire our online courses and customized.

Support

See doubts concerning the latest version free e-mail and from the

“HELP: Send inquiry to Presto” or hire our personalized service.

Technical notes

Find detailed processes, ideas and examples of using Presto.

Technical questions

Solve the most frequent questions on the use and installation of Pres-

to made by users. You can also access from Presto in the “FAQ: Fre-

quently asked” menu.

Books about Presto

Discover and request publications available.


Use interface 5

Use interface

Presto windows.

Presto uses the Windows usual criteria to manage windows, menus

and options.

Frames and main windows

The information of the options of the menu “VIEW” as “Estimate” or

“Gantt Chart “, is displayed in main windows, which appear as tabs

within a common framework.

A frame may be split by dragging a tab to the edge of the initial

frame. The frames are all horizontal or vertical and always completely

fill the main window Presto, without overlaps or gaps. You can move

tabs between different frameworks and adjust the width or height of

each frame.

The options in the “WINDOW” menu open predefined combinations

of main windows, targeting the most common processes of Presto,

which can be modified by adding or removing windows.


Subordinate windows

Each main window in turn may have subordinate windows, like “Take-

off lines” or “Text”, which appear as tabs within a subordinate frame.

These subordinate tabs can be dragged to alter your choice, either

floating or within its framework.

Other windows

The “CAD” and “Design report” options open separate windows in the

overview window.

The options “Working environment” and “Project settings” open dia-

log boxes.

Access to options

Each option icon and column header has a clue, or brief help text that

is displayed when the cursor.

The toolbar offers contextual options to choose the bars to include in

the main window.

The options accessible through menus with the left mouse button,

indicated by listing the succession of options, starting with the main

menu, which is written in capital letters:

FILE: New: Path

It refers to the “Path” box on the “New” from the “FILE” menu. When

several followed the same menu options, only the last is indicated.

Options accessible via context menus

It appears with the mouse right button, and depend on the location

of the cursor:

At the head of a column, applied to the entire column, such as

“Hide column”.

On a table field or the central area of a window, apply the

countryside or the entire row, such as colour filters.

<option name>

Shape that indicated in the manual the contextual options.

Function keys or accelerators

[Shift + F7]

The key or key combination in brackets, separated by “+” is indicated.

The combinations are to be pressed simultaneously.

Use interface 7

Fields

Most estimate data is stored in tables containing similar data sets.

Each element of a table has a set of fields with a fixed meaning, as the

code or price.

The list of all tables with all possible fields, you can see in the dialog

box and expressions builder in the “Field List” option from the

“REPORTS: Design reports” window.

The track that appears when the cursor is on the top of each field dis-

plays a descriptive summary.

Each field is identified by a name that should be added as a prefix the

table name as it should be used in expressions and reports. The repe-

titions of the same table are ignored.

For example, the code of a concept is identified as:

Concepts.Code

Editing fields

The editable fields can be modified to slow double click or [F2].

You can also copy the values from the next fields:

Copy the field above or [F9]

It copies the contents of the top field in the active field or in the se-

lected range of fields.

Copy field left or [Shift + F9]

Copy the contents of the field to the left of the active field.

Autofill fields

Many fields are automatically filled with the appropriate values to

each field, such as provinces, suppliers, measurement units, or prices.

Refer to “Suggest” or “[F7]”.

Fields lists

Values not modifiable by the user, such as categories or forms of

payment for maturities.

Date fields

It displays a calendar to select a date. You can manually change, and if

not completed, and the appropriate values are added.


Suggest

The button to the right of the active field proposes a list of useful

values to fill by clicking on chosen value, or other information con-

cerning the same.

Field Suggestion

Price Prices adjusted to inflation or geographical areas

Code Automatic codes for new concepts

Code2 Decimal coding of the concept

Summary Conversion case sensitive

City City or town corresponding to the zip code

Quantity Inverse of the quantity or performance

Unit Standardized units of measure

Duration Estimation by costs and returns

The first suggested value is the current value of the field.

The list will automatically filtering if a character is typed. This list can

be sorted by any column by clicking the right mouse button in the

header.

If a column or selected range, there are two types of suggests:

Fixed, which is filled exactly the same value in all selected

fields.

Calculated, in which each field takes on a different value, such

as “Convert to uppercase”. They identify with the magenta

colour.

Suggest or [F7]

Equivalent to press the button, but after accepting the value, is

passed to the next field, so that you can hold on to fill several fields

simultaneously.

[Shift + F7]

Similar to the previous option, but going to the inferior field.

Windows

All Presto windows, except text ones and graphics, displays infor-

mation of tables.

To move in these windows, in addition to the standard options of

Windows, you can use the following keys and combinations:

Use interface 9

Action Effect

[Intro] (numeric key-

board)

It acts as the [Tab] key of the main keyboard.

[Begin]

[End]

It goes to the first field of the row.

It goes to the last field of the row.

[Ctrl] + [Ini]

[Ctrl] + [End]

It goes to the first field and element of the

table.

It goes to the last element of the table.

“Previous”

“Next”

Move to the previous and next item in the ta-

ble

“First element”

“Last element”

It goes to the first and last element.

Quick fill

The “Last element” option moves to the last element of the table fast-

er than in the normal filling, but not is allowed to work in other win-

dows at once. You can return to normal mode pressing “Cancel”.

Specific Resources of the “Estimates” window

Action Effect on “Estimate” window

Double-click in the header

Icon ”Up”

Upgrade to superior concept.

Double clicking in a con-

cept

Go down to the lower concepts.

“Previous”

“Next”

They goes same level concepts without up

and down on successively.

“First element”

“Last element”

They move to the first or last item of the

same level.

Double click on the con-

cept

Go down to the lower concepts.

Route in the header Path from the root concept to the active con-

cept, which allows access to any of the parent

concepts, as well as the previous and the next

level.

Icon ”Go to concept” It positions in the selected concept.

Double click on fields of document windows

This action can open other windows on the pulsed field.


Go to concept

It let searching for concepts from the full codes or initials. The list of

concepts to choose progressively is reduced as being written mask

concept.

Hierarchical windows

The windows “Tree”, “Dairy” and “Gantt chart” are hierarchical.

Hierarchical windows have a similar behaviour than table windows,

but do not support filters and always have all the information that

corresponds to the selection from the dropdown list.

You can choose the visible levels with the drop-down list showing the

hierarchy levels, or with the symbols [+] and [-] to the left of each

concept; whether to display the list there are items selected, only

open the levels corresponding to those elements.

Double-clicking on any field opens or closes the level.

Editing items

Add elements

To insert elements, some tables require first filling required fields,

such as code or document concept.

Action Procedure

Add a line at the end [Enter] or cursor down from the last line.

Collate a line “Insert line” or [Insert].

Drag and drop You can do this from another window of the

same project or from another project; the cursor

takes a rectangular shape.

Selection of elements

Most actions on the elements of a table can be applied to all ele-

ments or a selection.

You can select:

Selection Clicking and dragging on

Lines Numerical box to the left.

Columns Column header.

All Left upper corner.

Equivalent to “Select All” and [Ctrl + E].

Is cancelled by pressing again on the top left corner.

Use interface 11

Ranges A cell or a rectangular group of contiguous cells.

To check and uncheck groups of rows or columns, use the [Ctrl] or

[Shift] keys, with the usual criteria in Windows. To deselect, click any

cell outside the range selected.

Context menu Options

Copy | Paste

It inserts into the active table the information in the clipboard.

If the information has been copied from an equivalent table in the

same or other project, is inserted on a new line at the cursor position.

If the information comes from another program such as a spread-

sheet or a Word table, or Presto, but the source and destination ta-

bles are not compatibles, the fields are pasted from the field where

the cursor is, as if the data were typed manually.

Hidden fields and inactive and the information is not supported, as

the text in a numeric field are ignored. Line breaks of the clipboard

contents generate a new line and tabs change of column.

When something is copied to the clipboard from another program has

priority it copied from Presto previously. To avoid this, deselect.

Cut

Delete the text of a field and copy it to the clipboard.

Delete

Select the desired line and press [Delete]. It removes the selected el-

ement and all associated information.

If you eliminate a concept of the last decomposition where is,

it also eliminates the concept.

You cannot delete elements that have associated information

affecting cost control, as concepts with supplies or suppliers

with documents.

To eliminate Option

Complete tables “Project settings: Tables”, selecting the tables

and deleting.

All texts “TOOLS: Working with Text”, “Delete” option.

Associated files “VIEW: Files”, select the files and delete.

Stages “VIEW: Activities and certifications” and clear the

fields with quantities.


To eliminate Option

Stages and activities “VIEW: Take-off lines”, select the take-off lines

and delete.

Temporary planning Remove all precedencies.

Duplicate

Create an identical concept but with a different code, which includes

most of the information associated with the original, as the quantity

and measurement lines, text and associated files.

This option appears in the “Code” windows budget, concepts, activi-

ties, organizations, and management systems field.

Rename a concept

When you type or paste a non-existing code in the code of a concept,

the concept is renamed.

If the code already exists, the concept is replaced by the new, keeping

the information associated with the above concept, as the quantities.

Except in supplies windows, where the code change represents a

change of provided concept.

Undo | Redo

These options, accessible from the “EDITION” menu or its icon, allow

unlimited editing work done.

Undo

It cancels the operations performed by the user, in reverse order.

It ignores the actions that only affect the interface, such as open or

close windows or work environment, or undo the actions of other

users working on the same project.

The text windows have undo and redo specific options.

Redo

Cancels the effect of immediately preceding undo operations.

Special undo

It displays the list of actions that can be undone or redone, with the

number of operations in each transaction, time, date and current price

of the estimate.

Double clicking on a line undo or redo all operations until it once.

Use interface 13

Activate

The undo option can be disabled to speed up the work, for example,

to perform time-consuming operations.

If during the saving process of a project, “Cancel” is pressed on the

part that keeps undo actions, this option is disabled.

Create snapshot

Enter a line in a list of undo to which you can easily return.

Copy

It copies the actions list to the clipboard for combining the different

users and control or audit the operations.

Mask selection | Mask unselection

On a column header, select rows based on the contents of the select-

ed column.

Non selected items are still visible, unlike the filter options that elimi-

nate temporarily window elements that do not match the conditions.

Reorder elements

In many windows exists global ordering options.

In “Estimate” and “TakeOff” windows and in subordinate “Supplies”

you can sort an element by dragging it to its new position within the

same window.

The “Display order” dropdown list in the header indicates the display

order of the tables that have more than one key field, as the “Invoic-

es” window.

Sort ascending | Sort descending

On a column header, order permanently the column elements.

These options are activated in some columns in tables of “concepts”,

“Relationships” or “Measurements”.

Ascendant sorting on screen | Descending sorting in screen

They have the same effect as the previous, but it is temporary.

Up | Down

Move the concept before or after the concept adjacent in the list. In

the “Activities” window, change the “Number” field.


Increase level | Demote

First you have to physically be at the computer where the authoriza-

tion system to be activated is installed. From this computer, go to

“Presto Activation Manager” to generate the activation file by follow-

ing this procedure:

Move [F4]

It inserts in the cursor position concepts or take-off lines copied to

the clipboard and removes it from its previous position.

If there is nothing on the clipboard, Presto requests a mask, inserting

in the cursor position all the concepts that match and eliminating

from its previous position concepts that have only one superior.

It is only enabled in “Estimate” and ”Take-off lines” windows.

Operate

It applies a predefined operations to a column or to a single column

range.

Refer to “Expression builder”.

In operations that appears in the first line of the dialog box is enough

to enter the desired factor and press “Apply” and “Accept”.

In the alphanumeric fields, in addition to match them to a content,

you can apply the sum, which adds a text to the end, and the subtrac-

tion, which removes a text from position where you are.

The generated result must be compatible with the field type and:

While operating on calculated quantities, the elements from

dependent are eliminated, as take-off lines or stages.

The concepts of percentage-type or not editable are not oper-

ated.

Operating on calculated prices, the program asks if you want

to block the price or remove the decomposition.

Replace

This option searches a text and replaces it with the one.

See what displayed on “Search”.

Find

Search for text in columns or selected range of cells, or column where

the cursor is.

Use interface 15

The option is disabled if there is a selected column whose content is a

graphic, as if nature or information fields.

Characteristics

To search in numeric or date fields, the value to find you have

to write in its format, i.e., with decimal separator, thousand

separator and date separator.

The wildcard “*” at the end of each word is assumed. With the

text “door” also searches for the text “doors”.

With the prefix “+” only elements with that word are looked

for.

With “-” prefix, items with this word are avoided.

The text to search can include the special characters:

Character Meaning

^p Paragraph break

^t Tab

^0nnn Any character, given by its ASCII code with three digits

The search text can be separated from surrounding text by blank

spaces, punctuation, tabs and carriage returns.

Search in all texts in the active window

If the cursor is in a subordinate window of text and this option is ena-

bled, also searches in the text of the concepts or documents visible in

the main window.

Layouts

The table windows layouts are selected using the dropdown list to the

left, and represent different ways of displaying the information in the

table, including:

The combination of visible and protected columns.

The filter or mask applied to the elements of the table.

The display order, if the window allows.

Customizing layouts

Layouts have options that allow you to customize the displayed in-

formation and adapt to the customs of each user or organization, or

adapted according to the geographical area where they are used.


These options let you set the default content of the layouts, and shar-

ing the definition between different users.

Table windows have several layouts of user for each user design it

according to their preferences.

Save default schema

Once selected columns visible, protected or not, user columns and

format multiple fields if they are available, and the filter expression

used, this option saves the settings as standard schema or schema

default.

By using “Restore layout” option, it recovers the corresponding saved

definition.

Schema export

It generates a file with “.PrestoLayout” extension, which contains the

definition of the active layout. The file name is formed with the win-

dow name plus the name of the exported layout, and is in XML for-

mat.

Retrieve original schema

It replaces the default layout by the program original layout.

EDITION: Restore layout

Changes made by the user in each layout, except filters, remain until

this option is used, which recovers the default layout that be defined

at the time.

Global Options layouts

In the “FILE” menu there are options to export and import files con-

taining layouts definitions.

Import: Layout definition

It imports a layouts definition file generated before, and replaces the

contents of the same exported layout, not on the layout where is im-

ported.

If desired, the definition can be saved as a default layout.

Export: Default layouts

It generates a layouts definition file for each of the layouts of all pro-

gram windows.

Use interface 17

Uploading configuration files of default layouts

1. Initialization

When starting Presto, takes the default configuration, and performs a

sequential search of configuration files that can exist in different di-

rectories.

If you find these files in any of the steps, the process terminates, and

otherwise continue to the next step.

2. User files, in the configuration directory

(PrestoNNN.PrestoLayout)

The first time you boot Presto does not exist, and is created with the

original values once Presto closes.

On several occasions it boots Presto, it looks for this file.

If it exists, the default layout definitions are updated.

3. Administrator file, in the application directory

(Presto.PrestoLayout)


4. Location file in the “Data” directory of each location

(Presto.PrestoLayout)


Columns

The head of the numeric columns in a table may contain two types of

values:

The same value of the column, for the concept header.

The sum of the column values, in brackets.

The track on the column header shows the table to which the field

belongs, as should be used in expressions or user reports as “Con-

cepts.Description”.

Fit column width

This option appears in the “EDITION” menu, enable automatic ad-

justment of column width to its content.

You can set a column width to another by clicking on the vertical line

separating the header of the column at the right. When setting a col-

umn automatic setting is disabled.


Freeze column | Mobilize column

It prevents the columns on the left of the window disappear when the

other columns move to the left.

Protect column | Unprotect column

Fields of a protected column, which appears in the softer colour than

non-editable columns, can be edited if unprotected.

Choose visible columns

It lets modify the combination of visible columns, by a dialog box that

shows the possible columns and selected.

To move columns from one side to another you can use the arrow or

double-click on its name. The “Up” and “Down” buttons change the

position of the column.

In all layouts it’s possible choose several user columns that appears at

the end of the list of possible columns, and their properties are edit-

ed with contextual “Edit user column” option on the column header.

User columns

The schemes have up to 16 columns that you can customize with ex-

pressions of Presto, using the appropriate options that are in the con-

text menu of the column header.

The process can be performed by one of the following modes:

Inserting a user column via “Choose visible columns”, then ed-

iting its content using “Edit user column”.

In one step, using the “Insert Column user” option.

Insert user column

It lets inserting a column with the user-defined content. The column is

inserted immediately before the column where this option is pressed.

It opens the Expression builder dialog, where the user can select one

of the existing in “Fields and expressions” or create a new one.

Edit user column

It lets modify the content and format of the user columns. It activates

only over the column where the right mouse button is pressed, and

allows you to set the following properties:

Property Description Suggest

Use interface 19

Property Description Suggest

Name Unique name that identifies the

expression.

List with the names of

the fields and available

expressions.

Origin Expression of Presto. Expression builder, with

fields and expressions

available.

Help Descriptive text of the expres-

sion that appears as track.

Format Appearance as the data type. Automatic

· Numeric

· Date

· Alphanumeric

Text colour Text colour for the field. Palette.

Background

colour

Background colour for the field. Palette.

The properties of a user column are the same regardless of where the

layout is used, and are different for each user and profile.

Name

Besides the names provided by the “Suggest” button, the user can

directly enter the name he want to assign to the expression, showing

a warning if it already exists in the list of fields and expressions.

Origin

Pressing the “Suggest” button, the available fields and expressions

appear, and if any of the expressions used in a user column, layouts

where it is are displayed.

You can also create new expressions. Refer to “Expression builder:

Fields and expressions”.

Format

The properties are similar to those described for the text boxes of

reports on “Design report: VIEW: Properties”.

The differences are:

Type: Automatic

If the result of the expression is:

Number: it applies the usual format for numeric fields.

Text: left justified.


Type: Numeric

Header

It let’s choosing the behaviour of the second line of the user column

header:

“Default”, try to execute the same expression for the superior

element, if any, and the estimate windows. It does not display

values in hierarchical or list windows.

“Sum” shows the result of adding the contents of the visible

cells of the column.

Remove or create a field or expression

These operations are performed from the “Expressions builder”. When

you select the “Fields and expressions” element on the left frame, the

names of the predefined or user- created expressions appears.

Delete

To delete an expression, you must hide the column where it is being

used in all layouts. If the expression is in use in some layout, this op-

tion is disabled and displays the name of the layout where is.

Save as

It let saving a new expression with the name indicated by the user,

which facilitates its identification in the list of “Fields and expressions”

and in the layouts columns.

Columns multiple fields

These fields appear in the layouts that shows scheduled information

for each concept, such as quantities or amounts by stages or activi-

ties, contracts suppliers, or entities of comparison of prices.

Are chosen in different form to other columns, and placed to the right

of the layouts.

Columns of information fields: Info

Indicate the types of information items in the table.

Field Icon It has Windows

Ia Associated files Documents Con-

cepts Diary

Id Vector drawings Concepts Diary

Ie Price. Not in “Info” Concepts

Ig It is supplier in any document Concepts

Use interface 21

Field Icon It has Windows

Ig Documents Diary

Ih Keywords. Not in “Info” Concepts

Ii

Images Concepts Diary

Ij It is a supply in any document Concepts

Il Precedencies Relations

Im Take-off lines Relations

Ip Specifications Concepts Diary

Iq Records Diary

Ir Inferior concepts Concepts

Ir Resources Diary

Is Over one superior Concepts

It Text Documents Con-

cepts Diary

Iu

Stages Relations

Iv Maturities Documents, Diary

Inferior and more than one

superior. Only in the “Info”

field

Concepts

Documents equals Orders, Deliveries, Invoices

Some icons such as “Texts”, appear with grey background colour

when the information is in one of their inferiors, bottomless when the

information belongs to the active concept, and half grey when the

two situations.

For this information as text using the field indicated on the left, pre-

ceded by the character “%” and the name of the table. In the result,

the letter refers to the concept and the upper to the lower.

For example the expression which indicates the existence of associat-

ed files in a concept is:

% Concepts.Ia

If the result is “aA”, both the concept and inferiors have associated

files.

Concepts.Info

Indicates the types of information associated with the concept.


Filter elements

The visible elements in a table can be chosen by different types of

masks and filters, which are chosen in the icon bar at the headwaters

of the columns or the context menu on the fields.

It can be activated a filter of each type, shown at the top of the win-

dow and whose effects are accumulated.

Unlike selection options, filters temporarily remove from visualization

the elements that do not match the condition.

In key fields

Mask

The masks are chosen in the “Mask” dropdown list and support the

wildcards “?” and “*”.

It applies only to the table key fields, usually the codes. If multiple key

fields, such as documents windows, is applied to the selected field for

sorting it.

In other fields

Filter by content

It displays the lines with the same contents as the field on which the

option, except in numeric fields, showing the values within the range [

… | 0 to 1 | 1 to 10 | 10 to 100 | 100 to 1000 | … ].Negative numbers

are grouped into a single range.

If a range of fields or rows are selected, items containing any of the

values of the selection are displayed.

Filter by text colour | background

Displays lines with the same text colour or background in that field.

Joined filters

Add filter by content

Collect any active filter then filter by content.

In columns

The columns in which a filter for differences there on, show a header

colour different from other columns.

Filter by differences

Removes display items whose value is duplicated, except for numeric

columns, hiding the all range values minus one.

Use interface 23

When placing the cursor on the filter field, a track shows the number

of hidden items with the same value as the field. After filtration col-

umn, can add a filter that collects content from before.

Add filter by differences

After filtration column, add a filter for differences that accumulates

the previous filter.

Filter builder

Filter by expression

Show items that meet the condition or result of an expression of Pres-

to.

It displays the dialog box of the expressions builder, with a quick help

to define comparison filters between a field and a value:

Field

It let choosing the field on which the filter will act in a list of fields

in the active window.

Operator

List the most common comparison operators.

Value

Field value to compare.

Clicking “Apply” is generated the necessary expression, that definitely

applies pressing “Accept”.

You can modify this expression, create other expressions or combine

multiple filters following the rules described in “Expressions builder”.

If mark “Filters” in the left window of the Expression builder you can

use the predefined filters that appear in the right frame.

Word filter

It filters the elements whose alphanumeric fields, visible or not, con-

tain the right words, as written in Internet search engines:

It is not necessary that the words are complete; with door ap-

pears elements as “door” and “doors”.

You can put expressions in quotes, such as “white wall”.

Separator It equals to Example Filter elements containing

or door window “door” or ”window”

+ and +door +window “door” and “window”


- not +door -window “door”, but not “window”

In concepts windows are also looking at the keywords associated to

the concept.

“Include the Text window and associated files” option also active the

search in the texts associated to the concept.

Remove filters

Cancel all user filters and retrieves the default filter in the layout.

Filters can also cancel by closing the window or change the layout.

To cancel only the mask, enter “*” in the mask to apply to the layout.

Text windows

It let editing texts in the formats supported by Presto. The “Gallery”

window has the same behaviour when it contains a text.

The options allow you to add the most common format attributes.

Other attributes, such as tables, numbering, bullets and pictures, are

also supported if the text comes from other programs. The undo op-

tion in this window is only for changes in the text.

Multibit characters such as Unicode can be used in text windows, but

its format may be altered by some tools Presto related texts.

Translate

Translate the text to the specified language in “TOOLS: Translate text”

options.

Export | Import

Export or import the text in RTF or TXT format.

Word wrap

It displays each paragraph on a single line of unlimited length.

Pass associated file

It converts the text in a file associated to concept, with the “TEX” as-

pect.

Create table

It creates a table in the text, with an optional header containing spe-

cific columns for testing.

Use interface 25

Check ortography

It checks the words in a dictionary, available for Castilian and Catalan

as the project language displayed on “VIEW: Project settings: Miscel-

laneous”.

Translate text

This option of the “TOOLS” menu takes the translation of the texts of

the work to the selected language. It also allows translate some Pres-

to fields, depending on the selected language.

You can use the services of Google for translation automatically to

any of the supported languages, keeping the format of faithful text to

the original, with some exceptions, such as managing the size of im-

ages and translation of texts with images.

Translation is better if the texts do not contain abbreviations or mis-

prints.

If the translation process aborts, part of the project will remain un-

translated, so it is better not to save the changes and repeat the

translation from the start.

User Dictionary

The translation generates by default a file “Dic.RTF” which is a diction-

ary with pairs of messages, with the original text and its translation.

This file is usually contained in Presto configuration directory, but you

can change its name and location.

The dictionary has the following advantages:

It avoids send to Google messages that have already been

translated, saving cost and time.

It is an alternative for translations if you have not the transla-

tion service offered by Google.

You can change the translations, obtaining better results each

time.

If red cells without content in the dictionary, future translations of the

text are not performed, so be deleted rows that are willing to trans-

late, or even delete the file.

Google key for translation

The user must have an API key Google translation, and must accept

the specifications and conditions required by Google at any time.

First you must be registered on Google: https://accounts.google.com

https://accounts.google.com/


The translation service is available at:

https://code.google.com/apis/console

In “Services”, find “Translate API” and verify compliance with manufac-

turer’s requirements.

To get the key, go to “API Access” section “API key”.

Improve and customize Google translation

If you want to improve the translation by Google, you can create a

dictionary that changes the translation, replacing the keyword ob-

tained by Google with another appropriate to the local context.

Example:

estimate=Estimate

The dictionary is a text file called “fixtranslation.txt” and must appear

in the configuration directory of Presto.

Features:

The conversion is case sensitive.

It lets you writing comments in the text, after the character “;”

Special characters are written putting first the “\”

Working with Text

It lets standardize the format of all texts of the estimate or docu-

ments, or delete them.

You can convert selected text to the same font type and colour, con-

vert case sensitive or apply the same justification.

https://code.google.com/apis/console


Presto in the design stage In this manual the terms estimate and project are equivalent.

This chapter describes the processes usually performed by the editor

of the project, including, between others:

Creating of the structure of estimate WBS.

Product of each concept, inflation, currencies and other addi-

tional costs.

Detailed measurements, activities and statements of approval.

BIM link: Revit and Allplan integration.

Further documentation of the work, construction agents and

all kinds of files associated with concepts.

Estimate

An estimate is a tree which breaks down into smaller and simpler el-

ements from the chapters to the materials in a hierarchical structure

of levels sometimes known as Work Breakdown Structure, WBS.

Tree estimate

The estimate is created in “Tree” and “Estimate” windows and in the

manual is usually called the windows of the estimate.

Concepts

Each element of the structure of the estimate is a concept.

The window “VIEW: Concepts” shows all concepts type price, ordered

by their “Code”.


A concept may have lower concepts, forming decomposition. In turn,

a concept may be part of one or more higher concepts.

Concepts.Code

To register a concept you must enter a code in one of the windows of

the estimate.

The suggest button, to the right of the field, proposes an automatic

code.

When writing a code, if:

Not found in the work, a new concept is created.

Already contained elsewhere in the work, is also inserted un-

der the new superior concept.

Derived from an existing parametric concept in the work, the

concept derived inserts.

.Unit

Unit of measure to which the unit price is concerned.

.Description

Brief descriptive text, complementary to general text.

This field supports multiple possibilities as:

Change colour via the context menu. Check “Presto in the de-

sign stage: Estimate: States of approval”.

Switch to uppercase, lowercase or fill from text. Refer to “Sug-

gest” or “[F7]”.

Translate to a language. Check “TOOLS: Translate text”.

Improving its readability expanding their abbreviations, using

wizards “Summary type tasks del cuadro de precios IVE” or

“Summary type tasks del cuadro de precios Centro”.

.Est

Unit Price of the concept as contained in the project estimate. The

unit price of the higher concepts is the sum of the yields of lower

concepts multiplied by the unit price.

There are other prices, which are described in other sections.

.Text

Unlimited text describing the concept. It’s introduced in the “Text”

subordinate window.

.NatC

In this field is the icon that represents the nature of the concept.


When creating a concept, the program chooses the correct code type

and encoding chosen “Project settings: Data: Origin” but can be

changed later using the contextual menu on the field.

The concepts commonly used in the estimate are those the price type.

Type NatC Price concepts

Root Unique concept, superior to all.

Chapter Groups other concepts.

Chapters under other chapters are called “Sub-

chapters”.

Work item Also called “Work items”, are the key elements of

the estimate that can be measured and certified.

Manpower

Material

Equipment

Others

Also called “natures” or “basic “.

If they have decomposition are called “Auxiliaries”

but still have a specific nature.

The background colour code identifies the type of concept and is

described in the “FILE: Environment: Appearance”.

If you change the type of a concept that already contains information,

such as converting a work item with take-off lines in a chapter, review

the output, because although not usually remove Presto data incom-

patible with the new situation, can change their behaviour.

.Nat

This field represents the possible values of the nature of the concept,

and its behaviour varies depending on the site of use.

Use Behaviour Example and

results

Column It displays the text of the nature.

The column was chosen to be included

in a layout.

“Work item”

Numeric ex-

pression

It displays the numeric value of nature.

The possible values are on track as-

signment options of each nature.

The field can be used in an expression,

column or user folder.

Concepts.Nat ==

5

1


Alphanumeric

expression

It displays the alphanumeric value of

the nature if preceded by “%”.

The alphanumeric field can be used in

an expression, column or user filter.

Nature + ““ +%

Concepts.Nat

“Work item na-

ture”

Approval status

Black | Green | Red | Grey

Contextual options are activated in the “Summary” field, and the re-

sults in colour are also seen in the same field.

Concepts.State

Their respective numerical value is 0, 3, 1 and 2.

.DataBlack | .DataGreen | .DateRed | .DateGrey

Changing the state, the concept updates the respective date.

Other fields of the concepts

Some of these fields are used especially in the project root concept,

as indicated in “Project information”. Others are free use or have spe-

cific behaviours for some program options.

The list with all the concepts fields and of the other tables is con-

tained in the expressions builder or in the “REPORTS: Design report”

window, in the “VIEW: Fields list” option, with the numerical values of

the fields that correspond to types or statuses.

.Clase

Typology to which the nature of the concept belongs.

.Code2

Alternative concept code.

.Origin

When creating a concept, the root source of the project is copied.

This way you can identify their origin but later copy to another pro-

jects.

.Description2

Complementary or alternative text to the description.

.UsrNum

Numeric field of free content.


Other fields help to visualize the structure of the estimate

.EDT

Decimal code with the hierarchical position of the concept. It is visible

in concepts with a single superior.

.Level

Concept depth in the hierarchical structure. The level of the root con-

cept is “0”.

.NumInf | .NumSup

Number of inferiors and superiors of the concept.

Prices and alternative units

It let’s getting prices based in others inducers or other criteria, such as

floor area, number of rooms or beds, etc.

.EstUnitAlt

This field allows you to display a second price of each concept in an

alternative unit to the main.

.UnitAlt

Unit of the alternative price.

.UnitAltFactor

Field where the conversion factor between the unit and the alternative

unit is introduced.

When you create a chapter, the default value of the conversion factor

is the constructed surface, taken from the general variable “SurfCons”.

Thus, the chapters alternative price is the price per square meter.

Relations

Between each pair of upper and lower concepts there is a relation-

ship, and is characterized because it is only in the work. The hierar-

chical structure of the estimate is formed from these relationships.

The decomposition of a concept is given by the number of relation-

ships in which figure as superior.

Every relationship contains the data of the lower concept that is dif-

ferent in different higher concepts. For example, the performance of

a material in a work item or take-off line of a work item in a chapter

are properties of the relationship between the two.


The structure of relations is naturally seen in the “Tree” window. In the

“Estimate” window, the inferior concept is in the central area of the

window and the superior concept in the header.

Relations.CodSup

Code of the superior concept of the relation.

.CodInf

Code of the inferior concept of the relation.

.Relation

Complete code of the relationship between the upper and lower con-

cept.

.QtyPres

Quantity, yield or measurement of the concept by unit of the parent

in the estimate. As in prices, there are other quantities for certification,

planning and execution, described in other sections.

The take-off of a work item can be entered directly into this field or

disaggregated by take-off lines, as described in “Take-off lines”.

.AmntEst

Product of the quantity by the unit price of the inferior concept.

.Note

Specific text of the relationship of a concept with its superior.

.UsrNum

Numeric field of free content associated to the relation.

Calculation of prices and quantities

Presto automatically calculates the price and quantity of each concept

when changes the data that affect it.

These values can be associated with various methods of calculation.

Type and value [*] Method of calculation

Manual [0] Value not calculated, written by the user or process.

Calculated [3] Value calculated from other data.

Locked [1] Value written directly, different from that calculated.

“Lock” and “Unlock”

It’s not saved [2] Is calculated at each time depending on other values

of the estimate and is not saved with the project.

[*] Values of Concepts.TypeCalcul[1..5] field


To directly modify a price or a calculated quantity, the data those de-

pends their calculations are deleted, such as the quantities or take-off

lines of inferior concepts.

Prices and quantities cancelled

The cancelled fields are not calculating their superior concepts, and

can be included or removed at any time by “Set field as null” and

“Set field as normal”.

The cancelled fields have the gray background.

Concepts.TypeNull[1..5]

It equals 1 if the price is cancelled.

Relations.TypeNull [1..5]

It equals 1 if the quantity on the price structure is void.

No modify the estimate

For not modifying the values of the take-off lines, performances and

prices of the estimate, the user can stop it. Refer to “FILE: Working

environment: General: Block estimate alteration”.

Calculation options

The following options allow you to set the level of automation of the

calculations.

CALCULATIONS: Prices

It recalculates prices and quantities when are executed global opera-

tions, such as updates, importing files, etc.

CALCULATIONS: Calculate all

It performs all calculations, including the results that are not part of

the automatic calculation. Run this option before considering a pro-

ject as definitive to print or deliver it.

FILE: Working environment: General: Automatic price calculation

You can disable this option to speed up work on very large projects.

Operate with prices

“TOOLS” menu option that changes all the project prices or the inferi-

ors to a chosen concept applying a different factor to each nature.

Adjust price

“TOOLS” menu option that modify the yields or concepts prices to

reach a fixed amount of the project or chosen concept, or modify it in

a percentage.


Blocked or percentage prices or cancelled prices or yields are un-

changed.

The messages window shows the exact applied settings, which may

be more than one. Due to rounding, not always is possible reach an

exact amount. The maximum setting can be obtained by setting in the

project settings rounding for display only.

Do not alter concepts which appear in further breakdowns

This option limits the adjustment to the concepts involved exclusively

in their chosen concept or lower, keeping the price of other concepts.

Fields related to the calculation

Concepts.Date

When you create a concept or modify its price, this field takes the

general date of the estimate, accessible “Project settings: Planning”. If

the concept has children, price calculation assigns it the oldest date of

all.

Decomposition and adjustments in civil engineering

Prices can be adjusted by using separately or together other fields

that can represent production equipment, adjust the resource

productivity or include losses of material form.

The use of the following fields implies that performance may have

other meanings consistent with the given, such as the number of re-

sources, percentage of dedication, etc. use.

Relations.Factor

Coefficient of the relationship between two concepts, which operates

on the amount as follows:

If the factor is positive, it multiplies.

If the factor is negative, it splits.

The factor used to adjust the performance of a concept without losing

its original value, allowing for example to add a percentage of losses

to a material, consider the terrain swelling or alter the productivity of

a resource.

Concepts.Difficulty

Concept coefficient that operates the quantity or yield of their chil-

dren of manpower or equipment nature, and affects all pricing struc-

tures:

If the difficulty is positive, it multiplies it.


If difficulty is negative, it’s divided, allowing represent the

equipment production.

Unlike factor is applied globally for each concept, and serves to adjust

yields to the particular conditions of execution, without affecting the

material consumption.

Quantities and total amounts

These fields are calculated if the automatic pricing is enabled. Other-

wise grayed.

Concepts.QtyTotEst

Total quantity of concept on estimate.

.TotEst

Concept total amount according to the estimate.

Prices per natures

.MatEst | .MdoEst | .MachEst | .OtherEst | .SubEst

Concept amount according to the estimate corresponding to each

nature, calculated from the inferior level.

If a supply concept is labelled, it is considered not decomposed. The

items accumulate in the “OtherEst” field, unless they are supplies that

accumulate in “Sub”.

Fields indicated contain the values for the estimate. Qty be obtained

for other pricing structures, replacing the suffix “Est” for the corre-

sponding.

Number of manpower or equipment for pricing structures

.QtyMdoEst | .QtyMdoCert | .QtyMdoTgt | .QtyMdoPlan |

.QtyMdoReal

.QtyMdoEst | .QtyMdoCert | .QtyMdoTgt | .QtyMdoPlan |

.QtyMdoReal

The fields contains the number of hours of manpower or equipment

per unit of the concept, calculated from inferiors whose units are

hours.

To calculate the number of hours or amounts of manpower or

equipment based on the take-off of a work item, you can multiply

one of these fields by the measurement, either use predefined ex-

pressions available or create those wishing to:


hhEst | hhCert | hhTgt | hhPlan | hhReal

hmEst | hmCert | hmTgt | hmPlan | hmReal

Manpower or machinery hours of the concept in a relationship.

AmntMdoEst | AmntMdoCert | AmntMdoTgt | AmntMdoPlan | Am-

ntMdoReal

AmntMachEst | AmntMachCert | AmntMachTgt | AmntMachPlan |

AmntMachReal

Amount of manpower or equipment of the concept in a relationship.

Roundings

Project settings: Roundings

Rounding apply to all operations of official or administrative type,

which are usually tested by third parties, such as the estimate, certifi-

cations, invoicing documents, maturities and accounts with suppliers.

The results of operations are stored internally as accurately obtained,

so that if subsequently the number of decimal places is increased,

reappear with more accurate values.

Internal or analytical use operations, as actual costs or sums by na-

tures, are made with the highest precision of the computer and the

results are rounded only when viewing or printing.

Rounding of quantities, as yields and take-off lines are defined de-

pending on the nature of the superior concept, so that all inferior

concepts have the same number of decimal places.

: Roundings for display only

Opera with all the significant figures and provides more accurate re-

sults. The number of decimal values are used only for presentation.

: Rounding work items that act as auxiliary

They adapt the result to some particular requirements of price tables

and administration departments.

Indirect costs

Presto takes into account the specifications of the Spanish LCSP, Law

on Public Sector.

Indirect costs represent resources to be used to execute the project

but are not part of the estimate and therefore not invoiced in certifi-

cations, as the cost of the project manager or the crane.

The sum of direct and indirect costs is called PEM, Material Estimate

Execution. Presto also uses the expression total cost.


In private project, the estimate is often seen as equivalent to PEM. The

estimated final prices, offered or awarded ones include the direct and

indirect costs, but without explicitly disaggregation.

Percentages and results are in the dialog box “Project settings: Calcu-

lations”.

Automatic indirect cost

In public works, the regulation indicates a certain percentage for indi-

rect costs, which is common to all work items.

You can also enter the percentage manually, as the last element of

each decomposition. However, the automatic indirect costs, in addi-

tion to its easy management, has other advantages:

When copying concepts from a database price or from anoth-

er project, assume the percentage of indirect costs of the des-

tination project.

When a work item appears in the decomposition of another

one, the indirect cost is not doubled, as would occur if is an

explicit part of the decomposition.

Presto applies the percentage of indirect costs indicated in the esti-

mate amounts and certification of certifiable concepts, i. .those as less

of a chapter and are not chapters. No indirect costs are applied to the

prices of target and actual costs, but calculating the amount of pro-

duction.

Prices and amounts of chapters and their superior concepts include

the total costs. At inferior concepts, such as basic natures and the

auxiliaries, the prices are only the direct costs.

In all types of concepts, their unit costs broken down into direct and

indirect costs are in the fields:

Concepts.CosteDir [n]

Concepts.CosteInd [n]

Amounts are in the fields:

Relations.PrTot[n]

Relations.Ind[n]

Where n is 1 or 2, respectively, for the estimate and for certification.

In “Project settings: Rounding” it is possible specify whether you want

the direct cost is round or not before calculating the indirect cost.


When using automatic indirect costs is necessary to consider its ef-

fects by exchanging estimates with other programs or formats like

BC3 or Excel.

Project settings: Rounding: Do not apply rounding before calculat-

ing indirect costs

It fits the computation to the demands of some government agencies.

Overhead, industrial profit and allocation coefficient

In “VIEW: Project settings”, the “Calculation” section has several fields

which include these values.

The percentages and the results are used in reports and templates

that generate the summary sheet, and can be seen in the diagrams

windows estimate, adding the “Relations.AmntEstAdj” column.

Prices and amounts of the concepts of the estimate not include any of

the percentages described below, to be applied only on the total

amount of the PEM.

Project settings: Calculations: PerGeneralExpenses | PerIndus-

trialProfit

Percentages of overrun accordance with the rules for official work.

: EstTender

: EstAward

It lets the calculation of the low auction.

The value of these fields is entered manually or using the suggest

button, that calculates the amount after applying the percentages of

overrun to the current estimate of the project.

The value does not change but later change the estimate.

: CoefAward

Also called low auction, is the low that is applied in the certification.

The result is seen in the reports of summary of certifications.

Suggest button provides the ratio of the above amounts.

Concepts of percentage type

Codes with “%” character in its code, with red background, represent-

ing a percentage over the concepts that precede it in its breaking

down and that meet the mask specified by the characters to the left

of the character “%”.

The price of the concepts of percentage type contains the type in

percentage, so each different percentage requires a new concept. This


percentage is always rounded to two decimal places and is not affect-

ed by operating prices, adjust or alter the currencies.

The thus one is automatically calculated as the sum of the amounts

divided by one hundred, and displayed in the quantity field.

The percentage amount is the result of multiplying the much per one,

contained in the quantity, by the percentage that is in the price. The

criteria for their calculation can be modified:

“VIEW: Project settings: Calculations”

Percentage applies only until former percentage

It lets setting the calculation basis only from the previous concept of

percentage type. It is incompatible with the BC3 format.

Round the base before calculating percentages

It lets round the calculation base to which the rate applies.

“VIEW: Project settings: Roundings”

Using concepts such percentage as accurately

It allows to calculate the amounts of the concepts of percentage type

using all decimal internally have in their field “Est”.

Organization of the estimate

In general, only those concepts should be organized in hierarchical

order shown in the figure and in the table at the beginning of the

chapter.

To use the Presto resources is advisable to keep an orderly hierar-

chical structure:

The concepts of type chapter and work must have a unique

superior. Its quantity is always the unity.

A chapter can have lower mixtures directly as chapters and

other concepts.

The predefined reports, colour codes and other program re-

sources support up to six levels of chapters.

Coding

We recommend using a consistent and uniform coding all projects.

Chapters, if not other criterion, use chapters with three-character

codes of CENTRO database prices. In work items is advisable to keep

the original code database prices.

When printing, or before sending the project to third parties, they can

automatically replace the original codes by a decimal coding.


Project and reference

In general, an estimate is made copying existing concepts in other

estimates or price tables. To do this you can open several projects

simultaneously.

We call project to the active estimate at all times and reference to

another open project.

Copy of concepts from other projects

To insert a concept from another project, copy and paste or drag the

concept between the two projects. The concept is copied to the des-

tination project with all its associated information in the original pro-

ject. If its currency is different from the currency of the destination

project, is treated as described in “Currencies”.

You can copy and paste or drag information between any compatible

windows of the opened projects. If the information is not homogene-

ous, a question of confirmation is made.

Reduce levels

“TOOLS” menu options that eliminate concepts by levels or types,

simplifying the estimate without altering prices, whenever possible.

It should always select the concepts to which you want to apply the

option, not their superiors’ concepts.

Chapters (trades)

It removes the first level of chapters. If there not subchapters, the

work items become dependent root concept and its take-off lines are

lost. The quantity is maintained, but can change the rounding.

Subchapters

It removes all levels of subchapters and work items become depend-

ent on the chapters. If there are repeated work items are grouped in

one, including its take-off lines, if information is uniform. If not, as a

work item with raised quantities in a chapter and take-off lines in an-

other, it’s grouped the quantity by the total, with disaggregating.

Refer to “TOOLS: Restructure take-off lines” for converting lump sums

in take-off lines.

Work items

The work items that have decay are removed and the lower concepts

become dependent chapters, grouped if they are repeated.


Auxiliaries

Inferior concepts affect the corresponding superior.

Restructure breakdown

“TOOLS” menu option that lets you alter the decomposition of a set

of work items.

To operate exclusively with target decompositions use the options of

the “PROCESSES” menu.

Delete breakdown

It removes from the decomposition of the work items selected the

concepts of the marked natures.

If all natures are marked, the price of the work item is maintained.

Add to the breakdown

It inserts in the work items the concepts introduced in the list, which

must already exist in the project. If the proportions do not sum to

100, yields are calculated pro rata. The original price of the work item

is maintained, except for differences due to rounding or when con-

cepts type percentage are added.

Replace concepts

“TOOLS” menu option that replaces a concept by another in decom-

positions that appears, keeping your take-off lines, stages and quanti-

ties.

To replace a concept for another in a particular place, you can drag

the new concept over the old pressing the [Shift] key. The cursor takes

the form of [x] and the concept is replaced by the new, keeping the

properties associated with the relation with the superior, as the quan-

tity and the take-off lines.

To add or remove a concept in the decompositions of several con-

cepts simultaneously, add or delete these concepts in the “Superiors”

window of the first.

Replace according to list

It let’s making concepts substitutions in block, from a list of pairs of

codes, original and replacement ones, separated by a tab in a text file

(.TXT).

The concepts that replace the originals cannot exist in the project. In

this case, the data of the concept will be empty, and must be com-

pleted or updated with those of another project or table prices.


Replacement instructions are executed in the order listed. You can use

masks and unfold and delete codes.

Possibilities Original Replacement Result

Replace AB454 PC3465 AB454 is replaced by

PC3465

mask * 1234* O* 1234HTJ is replaced by OHTJ

Mask? PQ?5 PTH?5 PQB5 is replaced by PTHB5

Split AB45 BH23

BH37

BH42

AB45 unfolds in BH23, BH37

and BH42

Delete TY56 TY56 disappears of the de-

composition

The percentages

are not duplicated

A1

A2

T1

%C

T2

%C

If A1 and A2 are in a same

decomposition, are replaced

by T1, T2 and %C (once)

Concept update

“TOOLS” menu option, replacing the information of the project con-

cepts for which they are in another project:

The price table selected in the working environment.

The first open reference.

Another project to select.

Only the price of a concept is updated if not decomposition or if it

changes because of the update.

It takes into account the currency, if different between project and

reference.

To update only the target decomposition use the appropriate option

of the “PROCESSES” menu.

Updating options

The “Only non-protected fields in active window” option allows selec-

tively update only the editable fields, in white. You can protect fields

with “Protect column” option over the menu on the header.

The “Add only (never delete)” option fills the empty fields only, but

add selected types of information.


Inflation

Presto suggests the appropriate value to update prices between the

date of origin of each concept and the estimate date, and can selec-

tively apply them.

Diary.Index

Monthly inflation indexes must be entered in this field from the win-

dow of dates. It only uses the value of the months.

The index can be any base, since they apply in relative terms. If a

month has not defined the index, look for the previous month that

does.

The book Excel “price revision index” has the inflation rate in the

“DATA” tab, and you can copy and paste in this field.

Concepts.IPC

Coefficient suggested to update the price of the concept; dependent

on:

The field “Date” of the concept itself.

The date of the estimate, set to “Project settings: Planning”.

The ratio between the “Index” fields of two months, defined

on the diary.

The suggest button on a budget or price target sample these prices

with the coefficient already applied, so it can be used directly to up-

date the price of the concepts.

Currencies

Presto lets you convert the prices of an estimate to another currency

or to make estimates with prices in multiple currencies and in the

same project.

To manage prices conversion, is necessary to define the currencies

used in the estimate, choose the project currency, and the associate

to the concepts their corresponding currency.

Configuration of the currencies used in the estimate

Project settings: Currencies

It is a table where you can enter the specific currency for the project.

CurrISO

Acronyms ISO of currency.

: CurrName

Name of currency, used for example in the reports.


: CurrAcronym

Symbol or abbreviation of the currency.

: CurrExchgRate

Exchange rate between the currency and the currency of the

work overall.

General currency of the project

Is the currency in which prices of concepts, except they have one in

their own field “Currency” are expressed.

You can select:

“VIEW: Project settings”, under “Data”, “Currency” field.

Field “Concepts.Currency” the “Root” concept.

Calculation process

The concept price that has children concepts in different currencies

are converted to its own currency during the prices calculation, apply-

ing the corresponding parity.

When are imported concepts of a reference in a different currency:

If the original currency of the concept is already in the table of

the project of destination, is transferred to the same price.

If the currency is not on the table of the project of destination,

is added to the table, taking the parity from the original pro-

ject.

If the currencies table is full, it converts the price to the cur-

rency of the project and a message is generated.

Concepts.Currency

Currency of the price of the concept. The suggest button displays the

available in the project.

.CurrExchgRate

Change the currency that appears in the project settings.

.SumPrec

Sum of the prices of the concepts associated to price assignment en-

tities of type “Price”, converted to the primary currency of the project.

Relations.AmntSumPrice

Amount obtained from the product of the “SumPrec” and “Rela-

tions.QtyEst” fields.


Converting the prices from one estimate to another currency

If the currency of the work is modified, and both the old currency and

the new are in the table currency will be converted to the new curren-

cy prices of all concepts that do not have a specific currency.

Estimate normalized in various currencies to the currency of the work

Each concept has its price and its corresponding currency. The results

are becoming or normalizing to the currency of the parent concept,

until the “Root” concept or the project.

Estimate in multiple currencies with separate amounts

This system requires:

Estimate containing basic concepts (materials, manpower,

equipment, etc.), or work items without breakdown.

Entities of type “Price” representing each of the currencies in-

volved.

The use of estimate windows, “Price comparison” layout.

Each basic concept has a field that corresponds to any of the entities

or currencies, where its price is introduced. The amounts are accumu-

lated at the superior concept without making any conversion, until

the root concept or the project, where the estimate amounts in each

of the currencies involved are seen.

A plugin makes automatically and in both directions, the adaptation

of a standardized estimate in another with independent currencies.

Results of managing estimates in multiple currencies

Estimate in multiple currencies

Parametric concepts

Parametric concepts, with the bottom of the code in orange, contain-

ing several questions.

By selecting the answers in the “Parametric” window creates a deriva-

tive concept, with its text, breakdown and price. To copy to the pro-

ject, use “Copy” icon and paste it into the appropriate destination.

To use some bases of parametric prices, as the ITEC, it is necessary

previously selecting the parameters of a global parametric concept

associated to the project root concept.


Regenerate parametric

“TOOLS” menu option that regenerates estimate concepts derived

from parametric concepts.

Parametric regenerating can be in the same work, or reference.

When you import a BC3 file, this option runs automatically if exist

parametric concepts containing other parametric concepts, except

that they are compiled.

Create parametric concepts

The user can create his own parametric concepts following the rules

established for its creation.

Specific tools for generating, testing and development, and are de-

scribed in “Service request” web of Presto, section “estimates: Work-

ing with price tables.”

Tests and checks

Presto offers many possibilities for testing the estimate prior to print

or generate.

Cross-check two projects

“TOOLS” menu option that detects differences or similarities between

the active project and another.

The results of the comparison can be sent to Excel or mark in active

project, changing the colour of the description.

Price concepts

This option compares only the information of concepts, regardless of

the budget structure. It is useful to find differences between the pric-

es of the work and a price table.

Other options also taken into account the structure of the estimate,

i.e., the lower concepts and their order.

Mark previously all concepts in black

It removes previously all colours of the description.

Mark differences in red

Make the descriptions of concepts where there are differences.

Mark matches in green

It assigns the descriptions of concepts where matches. It let’s validat-

ing the concepts of a project respect of several price tables, using the

option successively.


Export to Excel

If in the decomposition of the reference the concept is in another

position, the code in the project is red (differences only) or black

(matches only).

Are not taken in account the concepts of the reference that are not in

the project. To detect them, do the reverse comparison.

Comparing the texts are exported:

256 characters if the concept does not exist in the reference.

The texts to the first difference, plus 10 characters.

9 characters, if the texts match.

Categorization

The category is selected in a dropdown list, which can be seen in the

estimate windows, “Help for measurement” layout.

A wizard does this automatically, depending on the source and nature

of the concept.

Then the utility that can be applied depending on the nature and cat-

egory assigned is displayed:

Field Nature Utility Criteria

Root Calculate the work term in

months, depending on the

estimate amount.

RD 1020/1993

Constructive Typolo-

gy, by uses.

CatSyst Chapter Estimates by subsystems,

indirect costs.

CTE systems.

CatFunc Work item Checking of surface meas-

urements.

Functional units

CatMat Material Quality Control Plan.

Study of waste manage-

ment.

Type tests.

LER residue code.

CatCol All Differentiating by colour.

Fields of “concepts” table

Checking surfaces

On an estimate, areas of the different layers of the items representing

surface elements must be related to measures of other units and the

dimensions of the building.

Each functional element, such as the ground or facade can be as-

signed up to four layers combined:


Category Example

Functional element Facade

1: Home Walls

2: Auxiliary Isolation, permeabilization

3: Coating Plastering, tiling

4: Finishing Painting

Some work items that represent surfaces, but are measured per unit,

as the carpentries, the wizard can deduce the dimensions from the

text contained in the description, where explicit. Thus, fills “m2” as an

alternative unit in the “UnitAlt” field and the surface in the “UnitAlt-

Factor” conversion factor.

Concepts.Category

The internal value of the category is obtained by adding the number

of the row and the header; for example, the pitching is “0.122.0.0”.

Internally, the field contains an IP address number, with four groups

of values separated by a dot:

Chapter.WorkItem.Material.Color

It can be assign to each group its own category, regardless of the

type of concept that is. The new concepts take the categories of the

superiors.

Surface analysis by categories

This report of “01 Estimates and take-off lines” group, shows grouped

the similar categories, so that they can easily recognize discrepancies

and errors.

Results of the estimate

The documents required to present the estimate are obtained with

reports and templates, which can be printed on paper, exported as

PDF, or RTF format for later editing.

Reports of the group “01 Estimate and take-off lines”:

Estimate and take-off lines

Document with all the necessary information for printing the estimate,

with or without text, take-off lines or prices.

Summary of the estimate

Report printed or Excel workbook with the list of chapters, with per-

centages of cost overrun and signatures.


The obtention of the summary sheet requires that the project identifi-

cation data be enlisted and the “Developer” and “Proyectist” entities, as

described in “Project information”.

Database prices 1 and 2

Document for administration, with the texts of the work items and

their unitary prices in letter (prices table number 1) or its decomposi-

tion by natures (prices table number 2).

Database prices 1 and 2 by chapters

Similar to previous, showing the work items grouped in its corre-

sponding chapter.

Table of decomposed

It prints work items, choosing selectively the properties and the de-

sired format of the decomposition.

Table of broken down by chapters

Similar to previous, showing the work items grouped in its corre-

sponding chapter.

Database prices disaggregated by natures

Prices table in which each work item is broken down by each of the

natures that built it, showing the yield and price of each.

If there is any auxiliary work item, is considered material.

Total quantities required by work items

It displays the work item and their decomposed. For each of them, it

shows the quantity of the decomposed required for making the work

item take-off lines.

Auxiliary concepts

List of basic concepts with decomposition.

Basics

List of concepts by basic natures, which generates reports of materi-

als, manpower and equipment.

You can include the total quantities and prices.

Partial estimate

Partial estimates are considered the work items that have, as inferior

concepts, some work items with take-off lines.

Work items

List of work items ordered by any criteria you choose.


It has two separators that indicate 20% and 80 % of the amount of

the project, allowing you to quickly identify work items with more

impact on the estimate.

Estimate with decomposed and measurements

Similar to the report of estimate and take-off lines; it adds the de-

composition of the work item, and change the format of the header

of the take-off lines.

Texts, graphics and specifications

It displays graphical information and the texts of the project.

Stages and activities

This chapter describes the breakdown of the number of work items

for its later tracking:

Take-off lines.

Activities in the take-off line.

Components of the take-off lines.

Advanced tools for reorganization of take-off lines.

Import and check take-off lines.

Take-off lines and concept of activity

The take-off lines are associated with activities through the dropdown

field “Activity”. The text in the list of activities is contained in the “De-

scription” field of activity, and can be changed by accessing the “Ac-

tivities” window.

Meaning of activity

An activity may represent a different criteria that allows grouping the

results obtained from the take-off lines, alternative to the estimate

structure:

Areas, plants or portions of the project.

Stages of execution.

Tasks functional groups or construction processes.

Each take-off line of a work item is associated to an activity, which

allows to obtain a matrix structure of both.

Description Quantity Act1 Act2 Act3 Act4 Act5

Work item 5.620 300 600 1.500 120 3.100

Measurements by activity

Act1 100


Description Quantity Act1 Act2 Act3 Act4 Act5

Act1 200

Act2 100

Act2 500

Act3 800

Act3 700

Act4 50

Act4 70

Act5 1.300

Act5 1.800

Similarly, the amounts for each activity of each work item involved in

each activity are calculated.

Create, edit and view activities

The activities are managed in the “VIEW: Activities” window, where

you can create and edit, and generally behave like any other item.

You can also create in the estimate windows, allocating the “Activity”

nature, and in the take-off lines.

This window has similar layouts and multiple fields to the estimate

window, as several subordinate windows:

Text and “Thumbnail”, with the same functionality as indicated

for concepts.

“Work items”, to display the work items with take-off lines as-

sociated to each activity and its corresponding quantity.

“Resources “, to display the resources needed to perform the

activity. These resources must first be calculated using the

“PROCESS: Calculate resources” option.

“Children”, to display the activity optional breakdown.

Uses and possibilities

Like any concept, an activity can be part of the decomposition of a

chapter, or can be decomposed into other concepts.

For example, you can copy a group of activities and paste them in the

decomposition of a chapter. This structure allows the distribution of

activities in the Gantt chart, described in “Temporary Planning”.

Effects to consider this organization:

The quantity of the activity is the unity, as in the chapters.


To not duplicate the project amounts, should be properly an-

nulated the quantities or prices of the estimate structure chap-

ters or from activities.

If in the decomposition of a chapter activities and work items

are mixed, the result by stages in the chapter cannot be uni-

form. It prevails in this case the calculations obtained from the

activities.

Fields

Activities.Number

Activity number; is independent of the code. Never change even

change of type or code.

In the window of activities, listed in order by this field.

.Code | .Description

Equivalent to the same fields of “concepts” table.

Create and modify take-off lines

In general, you can only enter take-off lines in relations where the

superior concept is a chapter and the inferior is a work item.

If the superior concept is another work item, you can enter take-off

lines to create partial estimates or break down a yield, but cannot be

associated to stages, as indicated in “The certification”.

A work item can appear in different chapters with different take-off

lines.

Insert and delete take-off lines

Enlisting a take-off line:

It is associated to the last used activity, which appears in the

header.

If it is visible the “Activity” column, which shows the colour or

approval state, the last state used is repeated.

Stage numbers whose columns are visible are copied.

While copying existing lines activity is not altered, but takes into ac-

count the above two behaviours.

Therefore, before adding or copying take-off lines, make sure be on

the right layout to the desired result.


Similarly, while deleting a take-off line only the fields that are visible

are deleted. The line only disappears completely if not contained in

any stage.

Take-off lines edition

For example, to repeat the value of a cell in a column, simply copy the

value, select the desired range and paste.

Presto specific options, accessible via the context menu, add other

possibilities such as:

Operate the selected fields using an expression.

Copy the top field [F9].

Copy field on the left [Shift + F9].

Use the suggest button, that shows the most commonly used

values in the upper rows, and their variants [F7] and [Shift +

F7].

Sort and filter by various criteria.

You can also insert lines and drag them to change their order, as in

the rest of the program.

Fields of take-off lines

TakeOff.Est

It is a flag that indicates whether the take-off line is included or not in

the estimate and not affect to the rest of pricing structures.

They are not included in the estimate lines whose approval status is

“Red” or do not have assigned any “Activity”.

Check compatibility with earlier versions “Presto at the stage of pro-

ject: An information system: Data and general properties of the pro-

ject: Comp1200”.

Relating to activities

.Activity

The association of activities to the take-off lines lets:

Analyse the draft Alternatively, as described in “Presto in the

design stage: Take-off lines: Take-off lines and concept of ac-

tivity”.

Get automatic subtotals.

Match the take-off lines from one work item to partial meas-

urement of another.


You can create activities directly in the dropdown list, selecting the

next available number, which appears with the sign “+”.

The take-off lines without activity not belong to any pricing structure.

The background colour of this field indicates the approval status, ex-

plained in another section.

The amounts of the activities are calculated in “CALCULATIONS: Take-

off lines” and can obtain the values of all fields that depend on the

allocation of the take-off lines to estimate status and to planning,

certification and execution stages.

Relating to the dimensions and rounding

Concepts.RedParc

Number of decimals fields dimensions, quantities and subtotals are

used in rounding. The work item total sum is rounded to the number

listed for the quantities of work items.

Each work item can have a specific rounding in their take-off lines,

which is introduced in this field in the concepts of work item nature.

This field can be found in the window of concepts, “Work items:

Take-off lines” layout, or may be included in any layout of the esti-

mate windows.

Take-offLines.N | .Length | .Width | .Height

The “N” column does not round decimals or apply thousand separa-

tors.

Cancel | Uncancel

It lets respectively include or not the value of a dimension or formula

in calculating the quantity of the take-off line.

Cancelled dimensions have grey background, and generally treated as

if its contents were nothing.

.Quantity

It is the product of the four columns of dimensions other than zero,

except when take-off lines formulas were used.

Instead of using dimensions, you can write directly a total quantity,

which will appear in black colour.

Other values

TakeOffLines.UsrNum

User numerical value associated to the take-off line.


.Perimeter | .Surface | .Volume

Resulting values for different measurement units. Usually come from

BIM models and allow the user to select the most appropriate to your

measurement criterion value.

Subtotals and sums

You can create intermediate take-off lines to see subtotals, with the

sum of the quantities in the lines from the subtotal immediate last.

.QtyPres

The values of subtotals are in the field or its equivalent in other pric-

ing structures, as they may be different in each.

The grey background colour indicates that it is not included in the

estimate.

.Type

Equals 1 if the take-off line is a subtotal.

.OrQtyEst

This field, and their equivalents in other pricing structures, contain the

sum of all the lines, to source.

Project settings: Calculation: Automatic subtotals in take-off lines

It generates an automatic subtotal after each group of take-off lines

with the same activity and approval status. Also assigns a subtotal to

the last take-off line. This option:

It removes all existing manual subtotals.

Disable options Regular and Interval subtotal.

Interval subtotal

On a take-off line, the line becomes a subtotal.

Regular

It converts a subtotal line in a normal take-off line.

Split

It creates a take-off line from the line to unfold.

The program asks the quantity and dimension to transfer to the new

line:

If the line has not dimension, it duplicates the original.

If it has any dimension, asks the quantity to unfold in the fol-

lowing order: N, Length, Width, Height, Qty.

The “N” field is not taken into account if it is either 0 or 1.


Take-off lines fields concerning identification

TakeOff.Comment

It includes additional information to the take-off line.

.Note

User text associated to the take-off line.

.Relation | .CodSup | .CodInf

Relationship between two concepts, top and bottom, to which the

measurement line belongs.

.File | .Layer | .Zone | .Plant | .Area

Complementary fields that can come from drawing programs.

.Color

It affects the commentary colour and has the same colour list of Au-

toCAD.

.Element

Take-off lines identifier used by different connections BIM, which fa-

cilitates the location in the model.

.Guid

Unique identifier of the take-off line generated by Presto. In some

cases it copies from the “GuidBIM” field.

.GuidBIM

Unique identifier of the take-off, in IFC format, used for some connec-

tions with BIM models.

.BIMCode

Original code of the work item of origin of the line.

.FamilyBIM

Family name in the model.

.TypeBIM

Name of the type in the model

.Date

Date and time of the work session, which corresponds to the opening

of the project.

.Origin

Origin of the take-off line, and you can choose through a list. Each

element corresponds to a numeric value that can be used in expres-

sions.


Value Origin

1 Presto

2 DWG

3 Take-off lines wizards

5 Allplan

8 Revit

9 BC3

10 Primavera

Sources of take-off lines

Take-off line expressions

When the elements to be measured are not orthogonal prism, is easi-

er to introduce into the take-off lines other geometric dimensions. For

example, the measurement of rounds of steel is more legible when

the diameter in millimetres is introduced instead of the section in

square meters.

Take-off line formula

This option lets you assign predefined selected lines, which can be

edited in “FILE: Working environment: Formulas” formulas.

TakeOff.Formula

The expression is written in this field and may contain:

The “A”, “B”, “C” and “D” letters (in upper or lower case) to re-

fer to column “N”, “Length”, “Width” and “Height” respectively.

Columns that do not explicitly appear in the expression act

normally, multiplying the result.

Numbers, using the dot to separate the decimal part.

The four arithmetic operators.

La exponentiation"^".

The letter “P” as equivalent of pi.

The following functions are also supported:

Function Result

ABS (x) Absolute value.

SQRT (x) Square root.

SIN (º) COS (º) TAN (º) Trigonometric function of the angle, in de-

grees introduced.


Function Result

IPE (C) · IPN (C) · UPN (C)

HEA (C) · HEB (C) · HEM (C)

Profile cm2 section of each series in the sylla-

bus of “Arcelor”, with its hedge in mm in the

column C.

L (C, D) Idem, in function of wing and thickness.

REBAR (C) Weight of a steel rod with diameter in mm in

column C.

In the example of the steel bars, the appropriate expression to intro-

duce the diameter in millimetres in the “Width” column is:

(C^2/100)/4*P*0.785

In the “Formula” field you can enter measurements with arithmetic

expressions without using dimensional fields, such as:

(70*12.5)-3*10*10

Examples of formulas applicable to take-off lines

Comment N

A

Length

B

Width

C

Height

D

Formula

Triangle N Base Height Thickness 0.5

Trapeze N Base1 Base2 Height (B+C)/2

Circle N ø Height B^2*P/4

Circumference N ø Height P

Earthworks d = 20

m (*)

N Area1 Area2 (B+C)/2*20

Earthworks d <>

20 m ( *)

N Area1 Area2 Distance (B+C)/2

Ditch between

sections of 20 m

E

m

ba

nk

m

en

t

Base Cota

red1

Cota

roja2

(B* (C+D) +

(C^2+D^2)/A)*10

Armor N Length ø mm REBAR(C)

Metal profile N Length Area

cm2

0.785

(*) d=distance

The REBAR formula corresponds to steel reinforcements.


In profile in “L”, it is considered that the wings are the same size “H”.

Results of take-off lines with formulas:

N

A

Length

B

Width

C

Height

D

Formula

Quantity

1 5,00 2,00 3,00 A * (B / C) * D 7,50

1 5,00 2,00 3,00 (B / C) 7,50

1 5,00 2,00 3,00 4 120,00

1 5,00 2,00 3,00 5-3 60,00

1 3 + (5 + 4.5 + 0.5) * 2 23,00

1 5,00 240,00 IPE (C) 195,50

Measurement formulas associated to the concept

Concepts.Formula

This field allows you to associate a default formula to the concept,

which will apply to new take-off lines that are created associated to

itself. It also automatically associates a formula to the concept if is

associated manually to all their take-off lines.

In any case, the active formula is contained in the take-off line, which

may be different from the overall formula of the concept.

.TexComment | .TexN | .TexLength | .TexWidth | .TexHeight

The headers of these columns of take-off lines can be customized for

each concept using these fields.

These headers provide guidance to fill them when they have associat-

ed formulas and are printed in reports of take-off lines.

Measuring by approval statuses

To get the necessary information when additions or modifications on

the project, must be entered as take-off lines and associate to an es-

timate approval status.

Initial estimate (black) | Approved change (green) | Pending

change (red)

The approval status is selected using the context menu in the take-off

lines, and identifies with its background colour in the field of activity.

The manual will refer to these states either by name or colour. The

suffixes in this table are used in many Presto fields and tables, so it

should be taken into account unless otherwise indicated.


TakeOff.StateEst

Field that contains the status of the take-off line.

Status Value Suffix Approval status

Initial estimate

(black)

0 Ini Initial project estimate.

Approved change

(green)

2 Mod Modified, amended or approved

changes.

Pending change

(red)

1 Pend Estimate pending of approval. No

addition to the estimate.

Results by activities

In estimate windows and layouts

You can see the overall results of each work item and chapters to

which they belong.

The take-off lines of each work item are in the “Take-off lines” subor-

dinate window.

As the measurements are associated with one or more activities, you

can view the results of each activity for each work item and chapter in

the “Activities” subordinate window. These results can also be seen in

the multiple fields of the estimate windows, indicating the initial

number of the activity you want to view.

In the “Activities” window

You can see the results of the estimate for each activity, and its

breakdown by natures.

In the sub window “Work items” work items containing lines measur-

ing the activity and the amount that is involved.

Reports of the group “01 Estimate and take-off lines”

Activities by work items

It is an estimate by chapters and work items whose quantities are

broken down by activities that are associated with take-off lines.

Basics concepts for activities

Activities with their work items, and resources or basic concepts

needed.


Activities with their work items, and take-off lines associated with

both.


Estimate and take-off lines by activities

It’s a traditional variant of estimate, in which the take-off lines are

sorted by activity, regardless of its order within the take-off lines of

each work item.

Measuring transfer

The task of measuring a project greatly is faster if the measurements

of some key elements are reused to generate others. This occurs, for

example, if the coatings are generated based on the measurements of

the enclosures.

Presto allows you to insert in a take-off line a reference to the results

of other take-off lines of the estimate, which will be automatically

updated if they change.

Link to work item

The option is also available with the suggest button in the “Formula”

field, and displays a dialog box with two types of information:

The structure of chapters and work items with a breakdown by

activities.

Quantities for the selected work item or activity.

Quantity Formula

Total quantity =CodSup/CodInf

Quantity in one of their activities =CodSup/CodInf/Code de la activity

Sum of values in a column =CodSup / CodInf.SumDimension*

Most repeated value in a column or

mode

=CodSup / CodInf.ModeDimension*

Perimeter in plant =CodSup/CodInf.PeriHor

Perimeter of the front face =CodSup/CodInf.PeriVert

Perimeter of the side face =CodSup/CodInf.PeriHor

Horizontal surface =CodSup/CodInf.SurfHor

Surface of the front face =CodSup/CodInf.SurfVert

Surface of the side wall =CodSup/CodInf.SurfSide

Volumen =CodSup/CodInf.Volumen

Sum of negative lines =CodSup/CodInf.Discount

* “Dimension” can be “Length”, “Width” or “Height”.

Check the consistency of the results:

1. When void dimensions are used, because they are taken in account.


2. When copying and pasting take-off lines between different works,

because the activities of both works cannot match. If the activity does

not exist in the work of destination indicated in the formula by

“<Act??>“.

The mode, or more repeated value, lets identify the height of the par-

titions, regardless of isolated sections of another height.

The sum of lengths allows obtain the sockets from the measuring of

the partitions.

The sum of horizontal surfaces lets to calculate the cleaning concrete

of foundation from the volume take-off.

These values also lets quick check the take-off lines, and can be seen

for all work items in “Help for measurement” layout of the estimate

windows.

Reference fields from take-off lines

Relations.SumN | SumLenght | . SumWidth | .SumHeight

Sum of the values in each column of the take-off lines.

Relations.ModeN | .ModeLenght | .ModeWidth | .ModeHeigth

Most repeated value of each column of the take-off line.

.PeriHor

Summation of (Length * 2 + Width * 2) of the take-off lines.

.PeriVert

Summation of (length * 2 + height * 2) of the measurement.

.SurfHor

Sum of (Length * Width) of the take-off line.

.SurfVert

Sum of (Length * Height) of the measurement.

.SurfSide

Sum of (Width * Height) of the take-off line.

.Volumen

Sum of products of all dimensions of the take-off lines.

.Discount

Sum of quantities of all negative take-off lines.


Go to reference

It is situated in the work item corresponding to the source of the ref-

erence.

See the references of a project

In “VIEW: Take-off lines”, “Take-off lines references” layout, are all

cross-reference between work items.

References.Destination

Ratio of the take-off line which contains a reference to the take-off

line of another work item.

.Origin

Relationship of the referenced work item from the “Formula” field of a

take-off line.

.Activity

Identification of the activity of the referenced work item.

Restructure take-off lines

“TOOLS” menu option that lets doing automatic operations to create,

copy and merge take-off lines.

Replace references for take-off lines

This option replaces the take-off line with the reference by all refer-

enced lines, so that the total result of the calculation is not modified.

It’s necessary to print the take-off lines with all its detail, or to per-

form certifications and other operations of tracking, which are differ-

ent in the original work item and in the destination one.

Convert lump quantities into take-off lines

It creates the take-off lines of the selected work items that be neces-

saries to reflect the quantities entered directly into the work item or in

stages, which become calculated (magenta).

It lets continue in form disaggregated the work started with lump

sums.

Consolidate take-off lines

Several options allow recast take-off lines that are equal or similar. If

not items selected, applies to all.

These options are also accessible from the context menu of the take-

off windows. In this case the selection is made with take-off lines to

consolidate.


Some fields of the take-off table are not taken into account when

comparing lines will be consolidated: “Guid”, “GuidBIM”, “Item”,

“Date”, “Source”, “Type”, “Id”.

Consolidate equal lines

Merges into a line of take-off lines identical except the “N” field. The

“N” field is the sum of the consolidated “N”.

If the line contains a formula that applies to the field “N” an operation

without the distributive property, the result of the consolidation will

be inaccurate. For example:

N Length Width Height Formula Quantity

Line 1 2 3,00 4,00 5,00 (A+B)*(C+D) 45,00

Line 2 3 3,00 4,00 5,00 (A+B)*(C+D) 54,00

Result 5 3,00 4,00 5,00 (A+B)*(C+D) 72,00

Correct score: 99.00

Consolidate similar lines

In this case, the lines can have a different dimension. Replaced by a

line where “N” is the unity and the field with different dimension con-

tains the sum of the products of the “N” field and the different di-

mension for consolidated.

No lines having formulas are consolidated, because the described in

the previous option can be applied to any columns.

Consolidate lines by stages

It groups lines of equal measurement, but belong to different price

structures. For example, recasts two equal lines that are separately in

the estimate and in a phase of certification.

Find the work item to which a take-off line is

Go to work unit

Stands as active heading to which the take-off line belongs concept,

and is shown to activate windows estimate.

Edit or delete take-off lines in all the project

In the “VIEW: Take-off lines” are all take-off lines of the work, and it

can modify or delete dimensions, change of activity or status, or even

eliminate all take-off lines.

You can also delete all take-off lines on “VIEW: Project settings: Ta-

bles”, option, eliminating “Take-off lines” table.


Take-off lines importation

Importing measurements inserted into the current, or destination,

take-off lines coming from another work, the work of origin or refer-

ence work.

This option allows you to import, among other possibilities:

Measurements that come from Cost-It, the Revit Plug for Pres-

to.

BC3 files, XCA or any other, previously imported to a new

work.

Changes to the estimate or planning made on a copy of the

work.

Certifications current estimate, introduced in a copy of the

work.

As always measurements are imported from another work, in this in-

termediate can work out the checks and modifications as are appro-

priate before making the transfer to the current work.

The import is run from “FILE: Import: Measurements” or the “Import”

window “VIEW: Temp take-off lines” icon. In this window all the re-

quired checks and final transfer to the work performed.

While importing take-off lines, existing temporary take-off lines are

erased, and during import:

Are not taken into account the lines without associated activi-

ty, and not part of the estimate.

In lines that contain references to other measurements it is

checked whether the number is still correct. If not, the total is

kept, but the dimensions and cancel reference.

Imported lines can be inserted directly into the work or previously

compared with existing to detect changes and combine new infor-

mation with existing, as indicated below.

The “Transfer” icon inserts into the work the selected lines or all, if not

selection, and removed from the temporal window and table. The

lines not transferred remains in the work.

Comparison

The “Only lines of the same origin” allows checking only between the

lines that have the same content in the “Origin”. This option allows

updating the take-off lines come from a specific source without dis-

turbing the rest of the information entered by the user.


The fields in the window are generally the same as measuring lines

contain duplicates to display the value on the existing line and the

new, in this case, the “Org” prefix.

The schemes allow to show the data available for each case, including

the amount representing each variation. For the scheme “New units of

work” is not required beforehand checkout.

If the take-off lines of the reference contain elements from Revit, the

option can be used “Copy to Revit” and locate the element in the

model.

Search for missing lines

It detects all take-off lines that exist in the project but not in the take-

off lines of the reference. You can view this information in the corre-

sponding scheme and decide whether deleted or included in the final

transfer.

Check

This process seeks “Guid” identifiers in all take-off lines of the refer-

ence in existing measurements on the work. If exists this identifier, the

two lines are matched, and otherwise it is considered that imported

line is new.

TakeoffLinesTmp.Checked

Indicates whether or not the line is checked.

Comparing lines are not taken into account some special fields. In

each case the program will take the right decisions.

Field Performance

Relation You can change both the work item code as the chapter to

which the line is assigned.

Activity It fits the existing in the work of destination, if not exist.

Date

Type

UsrNum

Id

Are made of imported line.

Note It is taken from imported line. It allows transferring messages

between agents without considering that the line is different.

StateTgt It is not used.


Review and assign work items

The first step before the transfer is to review the work items and

chapters assigned to lines of imported measurement.

.OrgRelation

This field contains the chapter-heading covered by the take-off line is

assigned relationship. Its content may come from several sources in-

dicated in the table below:

Color Description

Chapter/Work item Relation of imported work.

Chapter/Work item Relation of imported work that does not exist in the

work.

Chapter/Work item Relation that has been modified by the user.

Chapter/Work item Relation that has been modified by the checking

process.

Colours and meaning of assignments of work items

.DescriptionSup | .SrcSupDescription

Chapter Summary or higher concept in the work and reference, re-

spectively.

.OriDescription

Description of the work item in the reference.

.CodInf | .ScrCodInf

Code of the work item, the background colour is taken from the state

of concept work and reference, respectively.

Mapping options

Suggest box let’s to assign a work item or modify existing manually.

Several systems of automatic assignment, based on the “Code”,

“FamilyBIM” and “TypeBIM” concepts and measurements fields are

also available.

By inferior code

Search on site the first relationship whose lower code equals the

line time measurement, and assigns temporary measure the rela-

tionship found.

Per family and type (heading)

It searches on work the first relation whose inferior has a family

and BIM type that matches to the line of temporal take-off line. If

found, assign the inferior code.


Per family and type (measurements)

It searches on the project the first take-off line whose family and

BIM type matches the temporal take-off line. If found, it assigns

the inferior code of the relation of the take-off line.

The concepts and relationships needed to attach the lines to pass that

do not exist are created automatically. If not possible, the line is not

passed, the “State” field is as “Untested” and “Action” field is like “In-

sert”.

Treatment of the activities

The activities that are assigned measuring lines in the reference may

be the same or different from the work.

.SrcActCode | .ScrActDescription

Codes and summaries of the activities of the reference. If there are

differences with the data of the work the background colour shown in

the table shown.

Background

colour

Description By transferring

The activity exists in the reference

and the work.

It remains the

same.

The work has an activity with the

same description than the reference

activity, but the activity number is

different.

It prevails the

number of the

work.

The activity does not exist in the

work.

A new activity is

created.

The box suggest about the “SrcDescriptionAct” field to assign a take-

off lines available activities.

Result of the transfer

.Action

This field indicates what will happen to the measurement line if the

transfer of the work is done.


Action Description By transfer-

ring

None Imported line and your partner in the work

are identical or not provide price changes.

Value: 255 or 244 (respectively)

Not trans-

ferred.

Insertion The imported line is new.

Value: 0

It is inserted

in the work.

Actualization The imported line and the work one are the

same except in one of the stage fields.

Value: 1

Stage fields

are updated.

Erasing The imported line will modify an existing line

such that will not provide any quantity to any

pricing structure.

Value: 2

The line is

deleted.

Actualization There are differences in fields that are not

stages fields.

The context menu displays the differences

detected to help make decisions.

Value: 4

New line

data are

updated.

Erasing Take-off line existing in a work item of the

current work that is going to receive take-off

lines of reference, but that line is not among

them.

It represents the case of elements that have

been deleted in the reference after a previous

transfer and therefore should be deleted.

Value: 5

The line is

deleted.

Color table for the field “TakeoffLinesTmp.Action”

The presented information can be modified, filter, sort and verify as

much as desired to be sure what will occur exactly when executing the

transfer. If you modify a line that is checked, it automatically becomes

an unchecked line.

Integration to BIM

The system integration between Presto and BIM is based on complete

processes geared to actual working conditions.


Integration between Presto and Revit

Complete information about the integration is in the BIM

www.presto.es section.

Allplan catalogue

This option “FILE: Export” will generate a catalogue with all codes of

the estimate or a prices database, facilitating the association of the

work item to each entity model.

The catalogue generated must be copied to the STD data directory,

which should also be the KATALO.TAB file

The catalogue files are located in a directory whose name is the root

concept code of the work, the file is added KATALO.TAB

No supports catalogue names with more than 8 characters.

XCA: Measurements generated with Allplan

By “FILE: Import: XCA” option, measurements are imported directly to

the active work, creating the necessary concepts if not listed in the

file. To perform a previous check before entering the take-off lines,

you can import on an empty work and then add them your work

through “FILE: Import: Take-off lines.”

Take-off lines: CAD drawing

The DWG drawings reader lets extracting take-off lines information

from these files from AutoCAD.

You can apply the same system to image files in the same formats of

the “Gallery” window. These files contain not layers or entities, so that

resources of measurement that use these properties cannot be used.

Only are described the specific options of the CAD window that are

not repeated in the main window of Presto.

File

In the CAD files that have model space and paper space, it’s taken in

account only the information of the first one.

External references or nested blocks in the plans are broken down to

the last level.


Save the work

It saves within the project, attached to the chosen concept, the draw-

ing is being measured, the state as- found, with defined zones and

without the removed layers.

Double clicking on the thumbnail of this file, CAD window opens di-

rectly.

Working environment of the CAD window

Appearance

It determines the appearance of the entities that are being measured

and the shape of the counting point.

Colours

It lets you to choose in the AutoCAD standard table the colours of the

measured entities, the background of the drawing, the drawn lines

and zones. The chosen colour for the measured entities is transferred

in the manual measurement to the “Color” field and applies to the

comment.

Type of take-off line

Line type with are redrawn the measured plane lines.

VER

The display options are compatible with AutoCAD and are described

in “VIEW: Gallery”.

Layers

The “View” button toggles the plane layers for easy viewing and limit

the entities to be measured. The layers that did not originally have

measurable entities are not shown.

You can delete layers you do not have interest to this work. Its con-

tent disappears from memory and is not stored on the project, but

not altered in any case the original file.

If there is a concept with the same name of the layer, its summary

appears.

CAD entities

It displays the different types of entities, separated by colour and line

type or block name. It is similar to the layers window, without the de-

lete option.

Areas

The zones are rectangles that can be created on the map to:


Add the name of the area to which belongs each entity to the

comment of their take-off lines. If it belongs to several zones,

listed in the order defined in this window.

Restrict the automatic measurement to certain areas, disabling

“View”.

To zoom on an area quickly.

To create or redefine a zone, double-click on the “Zone” field or “Co-

ordinates” and check the two corners in the plane. Change the name

if desired. The first zone corresponds to all of the drawing; you can

redefine and rename it, but if you delete all zones will appear again.

Automatic measurement

It shows the plain measurable entities, such as lines, arcs, circles, pol-

ylines and blocks, ordered by entity type and layer, and taking into

account the activated filter options.

To associate a work item to one or more lines of this table, use the

option of suggest in the “Work item” field.

By associating an item is linked to the type of entity, layer, block

name, colour and line type, allowing you to leverage the association

in other drawings with the same characteristics. The associations are

stored in the “PartidasEntidades.TXT” of the directory file of Presto. To

remove the associations you have to delete the file.

Export take-off lines

Icon of the subordinated window that generate the take-off lines cor-

responding to the selected entities, and transfer to “Temp take-off

lines”, where you can check and change before final transfer.

If not selected lines, crosses all.

During the transfer:

Filled the “File”, “Layer”, “Element” and “Zone” fields take-off

lines.

In the “Color” field, inserts the entity colour, as the AutoCAD

table number, which affects the commentary colour.

In the “Source” field enter the value 2, which corresponds to

“DWG”.

The comment of the take-off lines forms with the names of

the areas containing the full entity. If not, the file name is

used.


The length of the lines, or the area, if any, is transferred to the

first unprotected field size of the temporary window meas-

urements.

If there is, the height of the lines going to the field “Height”.

The measured entities are labelled in the drawing as described in

“Working environment: Appearance” and are not remeasured.

To return to your original position active “TAKE-OFF: Measures to

restore entities”.

TAKE-OFF

The menu has several options to set the drawing scale, formats and

other alternatives to manual measurement.

Scale factor

It converts the plain drawing unit to desired for measurement. If the

plane is drawn in inches, to obtain measurements in meters the scale

factor should be 0.01.

Roundings

It rounds the plane values up the decimal places indicated.

Measurement format

It determines the properties of the take-off line:

Option Description

Sign

Changes the positive or negative sign of the field with the

number of units of take-off lines. If you move during a totali-

zation applies to the total result.

Perimeter It measures the perimeter of the measured entities.

Area It measures the area of measured entities.

Total

By clicking the icon, the generated lines accumulate in a sin-

gle line, which is only transferred to Presto pressing the icon

again.

By totalling identical lines the number of units is increased. If

vary in a single field, such as height, it’s added the field that

varies. If vary in two or more fields, the sum of the partial

results comes to the first field of dimensions that are not

protected and in other fields is entered “1”.


Reference objects

It facilitates the manual measurement because accurately locates the

selected object, whose terminology is to AutoCAD.

Manual measurement

It lets measuring entities by marking them on the plain. To facilitate

the data entry use the options of “TAKE-OFF: Reference objects”.

The manual generation of take-off lines is similar to automatic, except

that only takes into account the known fields, depending on the type

of entity and graph format. If the entity does not exist in the plane,

the colour is set in “FILE: Working environment: Colours”.

The generated take-off lines are inserted in the “Temp take-off lines”

window, which can be modified and transferred to the estimate’s own

instructions in this window.

Option Description

Count Clicking on a point in the plane a mark is drawn and

counted.

Existing entity It measures lines, arcs, circles, polylines and blocks exist-

ing in the plane, selected one by one.

Line by two

points

Straight segment, the ends may or may not be existing

points.

Continuous

line

It lets to measure perimeters or areas of polygons not

existing in the plane, marking their vertices. The line is

automatically closed by noting again the starting point

(provided there is a proper way to refer to objects) or

“Close continuous line”.

To finish without closing use “Cancel” or [Esc].

Rectangle If areas are measured, the dimensions are entered in the

first two unprotected fields.

Other options

Option Description

Continuous

line close

End the take-off of a solid line to the starting point.

Cancel It finishes the take-off of continuous lines and entities

that need more than one point. It cancels any orders, and

is equivalent to [Esc].


Option Description

Measures to

restore entities

It lets measure again the entities measured automatically

or existing in the plane and eliminates the marks of the

manual take-off.

Drawing window

Party properties

Double-clicking on an entity supported by Presto, or via this context

menu, appear their relevant properties for the measurement, with the

number of similar entities (or equal, in the case of blocks), its length

and its area.

You can mark new entities without closing this window.

Zoom by zone

It lets zoom in on any of the previously defined areas.

An information system

Besides economic data, the estimate may include many other infor-

mation:

General information about the project.

Building agents involved in the building project.

Specifications and additional files.

Diary with texts, files, and economic data by periods.

Prices per geographical areas, suppliers or other alternatives.

Integrated description of a group of projects.

QMASS integrated quality systems, such as study and plan

health and safety, environmental management and quality

control, as described in “The quality management. QMASS”.

Data and general properties of the project

Presto let’s saving in the estimate a set of general estimate data and

information that serve as the basis for generating other additional

documents and to track the execution.

This information is organized in several groups:

Data pertaining to the root concept.

General variables used in the program.

Variables defined by the user.


Connections variables generated by BIM models.

Data

The root concept of the work has the same fields as the other con-

cepts, but some have special meaning.

The most important data for identifying the project can be entered in

“Project settings: Data”. Some of these fields appears while catalogu-

ing projects with “FILE: Projects”.

To refer to a field of root concept within an expression, write:

Concepts [Nat == 0] .field

Calculated fields contain the same results as other items, totalled for

the work, and consult on the same schemes.

Concepts [Nat == 0] .Code

The content is copied to the “Source” field of new concepts. It may

differ from the file name of the work.

To integrate estimates and projects this code must be different in all.

.Code2

The first three characters are used as a prefix to differentiate docu-

ments and records created automatically in each project.

.PostalCode | .City | .Province

Fields of postal code, city and province can be filled with the suggest

button from any of them. The code affects the suppliers search.

.Category

Type of construction or use of the building, and is used to estimate

the term.

The list of uses is on the assessed value, RD 1020/1993

.Origin

Coding of reference, which determines the initial nature of the con-

cepts of new creation.

The suggest button shows the supported encodings and the prefixes

of their basic natures. If codification is not on the list, you have to

select the most similar. For example, the encoding of ITG, “Instituto

Tecnológico de Galicia”, is similar to IVE and CM.

.SurfCons

The constructed surface of the work is the default value alternative

unit of chapters.


Variables

The general data exists in all works and are complementary to the

root data item.

Generally correspond to settings and data that have been introduced

in each work by:

Options box “Properties work” except in “Data” dialog.

Answers given by the user in the reports, templates and wiz-

ards.

The generation of variables by some accessories.

Are consulted on the “VIEW: Variables” window, in the layouts:

Origin Layout Creation

0 User Variables created by the user.

2 Common Options of “Project settings”, except “Da-

ta”.

It lets understanding the variable name.

3 Reports and tem-

plates

Answers to reports.

4 Reports and tem-

plates

Answers to Word templates.

5 Reports and tem-

plates

Answers to the Excel templates.

6 Wizards Wizards variables used.

8 Revit Parameters created by “Cost-It”.

Variables.Variable

Name of the variable. Deleting a variable is removed from the “Terms”

table that match this name.

.Value

Value of the variable.

.Description

Description variable.

.Type

Nature of the data that will contain the variable.

.Length

Size in bytes of the variable.


.Origin

Origin of the variable.

.User

It equals 1 if the variable has been modified by user.

.List

Wizards specific. It equals 1 if the variable is populated by a list of

default values.

Specific variables “Cost-It” visible in the scheme “Revit”

Some of these variables on the diagrams in terms of concepts, provid-

ing additional parameter information from Revit.

.Tag

It indicates that the variable is to be exported or printed.

.DisplayUnitType

Unit of measurement.

.UnitType

Type of the measuring unit.

.ParameterGroup

Parameter group.

.ParameterType

Type of parameter.

.Shared

Indicates whether the parameter is shared.

.StorageType

Storage type.

.ReadOnly

It indicates whether the parameter is modifiable.

.Guid

Unique identifier of the variable.

Variables use

To use the value of a particular general variable prefix “Work” and the

name of the variable, which can be consulted in the “Variables” win-

dow scheme “Common” is used.

For example, the variable that contains the length of the working day

is:

Work.CalcDurLab


Using user variables

If a personal variable “AmountFees” is created, you can print its value

in a report with the expression:

Variables[Variable==“AmountFees”].Value

Groups of variables

Different groups are described below, and for readability, the full text

of the variable is used.

Calculation

Percentage applies only until former percentage

Round the base before calculating percentages

Check “Presto in the design stage: Estimate: Concepts percentage

rate”.

Automatic subtotals in take-off lines

Check “Presto in the design stage: Take-off lines: Take-off lines and

concept of activity”.

Percentage of indirect costs

Check “Presto in the design stage: Estimate: Indirect costs”.

Other additional costs

Check “Presto in the design stage: Estimate: Overhead, industrial prof-

it and low auction”.

Consider only documents in approved stages

Check “Presto for the construction company: Invoicing: Documents of

economic control”.

Miscellaneous

Language

The chosen for the project, and affects the spelling checker and

scripted texts, translation of dates and convert numbers to letters.

In the reports, it affects the function that translates:

tr(“language1;language2;…;languageN”)

The texts in the project languages are separated by semicolons.

The order of the language corresponds to the language list of this

option.

When you create a project, the default language is contained in the

language for the program, which is selected in “FILE: Working envi-

ronment: Generals”.


NumFloors

Used by some wizards and for generating documents.

ProjectCode

Reference data for documents and reports.

IRR

Internal rate of return of all receipts and payments.

Rate

Annual percentage rate to calculate the net present value.

VAN

Net present value of all cash flows.

The calculation of the IRR and NPV is made from the cash flows gen-

erated by maturities.

Comp1200

It maintains the compatibility of take-off lines between Presto current

version and versions of Presto 12 and previous, reporting discrepan-

cies are detected.

If a value other than 0 is entered, prevents:

Modify the mark of “Take-offLines.Est” field, whose status is

approved or pending.

Change of status a line that corresponds to the initial estimate,

if “TakeOffLines.Est” field is disabled.

Activating the field, through all the take-off lines, and those approved

or pending with “Take-offLines.Est” field turned off, passes to the

state of the initial estimate.

Creating a project, its value is 0, but if open a previous project to

Presto 13, its value is 1.

Accounting

Name of the tax

It let replaces “VAT” by another text in reports.

Percentage of VAT on professional fees

Overall tax rate.

Percentage of VAT on construction works

Tax rate applicable to the estimate of execution.


VAT is calculated monthly

Monthly VAT calculation, rather than quarterly, while generating ma-

turities.

Agents of the industry

Entities that represent natural or legal persons involved in the project.

They are listed in the “Entities” window and let:

Using data on estimates and other documents.

Assign responsibles to the controls.

Participate in the project execution as suppliers or customers.

There are others entities that allow you to assign multiple prices to

other concepts for comparison, as described in “Presto at the stage of

project: An information system: Comparison of multiple prices”.

The agents follow the definitions of the Spanish LOE. If multiple the

main is considered the first by alphabetical code.

Other fields identify economic values are described in “Presto for the

construction company”.

Fields that have a specific use in the concepts of entity type are:

Concepts.PostalCode | .City | .Province

These fields can be filled with the suggest button from any one of

them.

.Address | .Fax | .Telephone | .Telephone2 | .Country | .Email

Other complementary data. Mail is used in offers asking.

.Collegiate | .Title

Professionals and agents data.

Specifications

Contract documents

REPORTS: 02 Other documents of the project: Statement of adminis-

trative clauses

This Word template generates a list of valid administrative clauses for

conventional building works executed with the traditional procure-

ment and payment system, taking into account the following varia-

bles:

Warranty period.

Term for withdrawal of equipment.


System security of the contractor.

Compensation by delay end of the works.

Interest of delay.

Technical specifications associated to the concepts

The text of the specification files are text files associated to each con-

cept and a particular aspect, as described in “Attached files”.

To create a text of this type, from the thumbnails window:

Use “Create Text File” or import a file in text format.

Assign the desired aspect with the same context menu.

Double-click if you need to edit.

REPORTS: 02 Other documents of the project: Specification special

technical conditions

This report generates the specification when all texts are associated

with the concepts of the estimate.

Additional Files of the project

Besides all the predefined information that can store Presto, you can

include a wide range of associating files to different concepts, entities

or dates. With it an added value to the project by including technical

specifications, assembly drawings or photographs that guarantee the

quality of the product is obtained.

It lets to associate files:

RTF, to create specifications

Word

PDF

Excel

Vector drawings

Photographs

Video-Audio

Associated files

They can be kept with the project all kinds of files, built to keep all

information related to it, such as:

Reports, plans and texts for specifications.

Pictures and videos for the monitoring of execution.

Scanned originals documents.

Spreadsheets.


A file can be associated with one or more concepts, to a document or

budget, and are always linked to a date.

The concept files, document or date are displayed in the

“Thumbnails” subordinate window, described below.

The files of all the project are managed together in the “Files”

window.

Associating files

In addition to the menu options of the “Thumbnails” window, you can

drag files in multiple ways.

From Windows explorer to a concept or document thumbnails

window. If you drag the thumbnails of the diary or the file

window, remains associated generally to the estimate.

From the “Files” window to a thumbnail window.

From a thumbnail window to another program. To drag from a

thumbnails window to another, first press the [Ctrl] key.

Each file is saved in the original format in a file of the work.

Presto especially recognizes some formats, and clicking on these files

gallery window opens.

Type Available formats

Text RTF, TXT

Picture BMP, EPS, JPG, PCX, PNG, TIF, GIF

Drawing DWG, DXF, WMF

In other cases, the program that is associated with the extension in

the operating system opens.

The changes in open files cannot be saved again, except text formats. If

you want to change, save the file and import it again.

Operate files

“TOOLS” menu option allows you to merge, update and export all

attached files. The total number of files specified in the option header.

In “VIEW: Files” can restrict the number of files to update or export,

pre-selecting the files.

Update

It regenerates the thumbnails and also updates the files whose path

listed in the “Path” field, which are accessible and whose date is after

to the “Date” field.


Export

It saves the files in the selected directory, forming the file name with

the ID and name.

Merge

It recasts same files that are associated with more than one concept,

thus reducing the project size.

Operate with graphics

“TOOLS” menu option that lets you change the format of the selected

images or creating images from vector drawings.

In the conversion to JPG you can specify the desired compression

factor. The quality obtained must be verified by testing.

JPG compression index 0 10 30 50 100

Approximate finished size (%) 100 21 11 8 6

We recommend using JPG for photos, PNG for geometric images.

Thumbnails

It displays an image for each file that is associated to the concept,

document or date.

Thumbnails are created when importing different file types supported

by Presto and the other types whose extensions are associated to

programs that can create them from the operating system, such as

PDF. The remaining records show a generic thumbnail.

Import

Imports a file to associate to a concept.

Transfer file to text

It transfers the text from a text file to the main text of the document

or concept.

Export

It exports the selected files, forming the name of the exported file

with the numeric identifier and the name. For RTF texts, aspect abbre-

viations are also added.

Create text file

It creates an associated file of RTF type, empty.


Aspects specifications

These options convert associated text files between different aspects

of the specifications.

Associate thumbnail

It lets to associate an image as a thumbnail to the file formats not

supported by Presto, or change in the other files.

Fields of the files

Files are saved in the “Files” table which has the following fields:

Files.Code

Concept or document associated to the file.

.Id

Unique identifier created by the program.

.Name

When you import the file is the original name or the name of the as-

pect.

It can be modified without losing the relation to the original file, as

shown in the “Path” field.

.Path

Directory and file name at the time of importation.

Grey indicates that this file is no longer accessible and the red colour

means the original file date is after the one of the “Date” field.

.Date

Date of the imported file.

It can be modified if desired, but will not affect the original file. If the

date is prior to the file, it is considered that the file is no longer up-

dated and is red. If the file does not exist, it appears in grey.

.Hour

Date of the imported file.

.Type

File types recognized by Presto.

Type Value

Undefined 0


Facet Specification 1: ESP, 2: TEC, 3: PRE, 4: EJE, 5: MED, 6: CON,

7: SEG, 8: GMA, 9: NOR, 10: MAN, 11: VAR,

19: TEX.

Parametric 20: PAR

Image 30: GRF

Revit Family 31: REVIT

.TypeThumbnail

Thumbnail file format. 41: JPG, 45: PNG.

Normally the thumbnails must be generated with programs homoge-

neous bits 32 and 64 together.

.Extension

Extension of the associated file.

.Bytes

Size of the associated file.

.ThumbnailBytes

Miniature size of the associated file.

.Facet

Text in RTF or TXT format of the associated file.

Multiples prices comparison

Presto has a system that allows you to assign different prices to each

concept, with the following objectives:

Keep several prices for each basic concept, which may corre-

spond to geographical areas, price tables or suppliers, and get

the estimate corresponding to each alternative.

Request, receive, compare and awarding bids to tender com-

plete projects.

Pricing assignation entities allow associate several prices to each con-

cept to obtain averages and make comparisons.

The pricing entities are created in “Entities” window, assigning the

entity type as a nature plus:

Type Associates prices to ... Utility

Price Work items and natures Pricing alternatives geographical are-

as, currencies, etcetera.

Bidder Work items Compare bids for complete tender.


The system operation is similar, and the differences are:

Properties Price Bidder

Applies inflation Yes No

Apply indirect Yes No

Use default price Yes No

Value if not assigned price Est NA

Introduction of the prices

The prices can be entered manually, creating the entity of the proper

type and assigning the prices in the comparison layout that corre-

sponds to each type.

In the “Entities” window, “Price assignment entities” layout displays

the fields that affect some comparisons, as the dates and surfaces,

and in the “All” layout identifying data of the entities are displayed.

Entities whose status is “Grey” do not appear in comparison layouts or

in the calculations. To incorporate an entity in the comparisons, you

must assign it any state other than “Grey”.

FILE: Import: Prices | Bids

These options import estimates containing prices of either types, cre-

ating the entities if necessary.

Layouts of comparison of bids and prices

In windows estimates are layouts “Compare ...”, showing the prices

assigned to each item for each of the relevant entities. Right layouts

multiple fields, limited to 60 entities of each type, excluding marked in

gray appear. If a multiple field is hidden all hidden, and re-display

restoring the layout.

Remove from comparative

It assigns the “Gray” status to the entity specified in the header. Not

displayed in the comparison and does not intervene in the calcula-

tions.

General layouts

In the “Prices” subordinate window, “In price assignment entities” lay-

out, you can check the prices given to the concept by the entity.


Annotation of prices

When an entity has not a price associated to the concept, there is not

corresponding relationship in the “Prices” table and the price is listed

as “NA”, unlike the null. The [Delete] key makes a price in “NA”.

To replace the estimate prices by one of the entities, use the copy and

paste options by ranges, or [F7] “Suggest”.

Calculations vertical (entities)

Presto calculates the amount of the superior concepts from the prices

given by each entity to inferiors, using estimate quantities and the

same colours and rounding criteria, more the specific settings for

each type of entity described above.

Calculations horizontal (concepts)

Presto shows the average of the prices assigned to each concept by

all entities and its standard deviation, taking in account the null pric-

es, but not marked in grey or listed as “NA”.

Because of these possibilities, the average of the higher concepts may

not match to the sum of the averages of the inferior concepts.

Concepts.MedPrec | .MedOfer

Average price of each concept in pricing entities.

.SigmaPrice | .SigmaBid

Normalized standard deviation, i.e., divided by the average.

Relations.AmntAvgPrice | .AvgBid

Average amount for pricing entities.

Fields multiple price

The prices assigned to each concept by the different entities are

stored in the “Prices” table, which also contains the contract prices

and the amounts of the linked estimates. Therefore, this table in-

cludes all concepts fields with economic meaning.

The table also contains the total allocated during calculation process

to superior concepts that have received them directly.

Visible fields in the comparison layouts are as follows.

Prices.Entity

Code of the entity that assigns the price.

.Code

Concept code the price assigns an entity.


.Relation

Code formed by the sum of the entity and code fields.

.Code2

Alternate code.

.Est

Price entity assigned by the concept, other than contracts.

.Amount

Product of the price of the entity multiplied by the quantity of the

estimate.

.Price

Prices quoted by suppliers to the supply of each contract.

.UsrNum

User numerical value associated to a relationship between a concept

and a pricing entity.

.Description

Original description of the concept in the entity.

.Note

Alternative short text.

.TypePrice

It is 1 if is a calculated price.

.State

State the price of a concept for a pricing entity.

Black / Green: taken in account.

Red / Grey: Not taken into account.

Projects integration

Presto lets you manage, consolidate and view information from mul-

tiple estimates or projects, integrating them into a project called cen-

tral.

This integration allows:

Creating and maintaining databases with the prices and quan-

tities of work items and other concepts that have been used

historically in other estimates.

View all estimates economic data together and projects in

progress, consolidated by dates, areas or any other grouping

criteria.


Consult the agents of the building which have intervened in

each of the projects.

The integration is divided into two distinct parts:

Consolidation in a central work of key data that are in the

linked work described in this section.

The management of financial documents, described in “Presto

for construction company: Centralized invoicing”.

The linked data to the structure of the estimate, such as certification,

planning, contracts and production, are made and always kept in the

projects by separate. However, in the central project all data necessary

for the consolidation are saved, so the results are always available,

although some project is not available at the time or has been delet-

ed.

In all cases, each project continues to have an independent existence,

and information in the central project is updated only when indicated.

Coding of the linked projects

To take advantage of integration is desirable to use a uniform coding,

establishing a unique code for each concept you wish to consolidate,

as chapters, work items, suppliers, suppliers and destinations.

Link work

This “PROCESS” menu option lets you to associate or link a project to

a central, creating a concept of “Project” nature in the level of detail

immediately inferior to the root concept. The created concept con-

tains the project overview.

To better observe the initial results, it is convenient to use the “Pro-

jects integration” layout, of the estimate windows.

The “Code” of the linked project is automatically formed from the

Presto file name, but can be renamed at will.

You can create linked projects manually writing the project code to

integrate, and allocating the nature “Project”. The suggest button on

the “File” field allows you to choose the project to link.

Partials grouping in a central work

You can group works to get totals for delegations, zones, customers,

or any other group of projects you want. This arrangement is done

by creating chapters representing different groups, and as inferiors,

should include the linked projects to the corresponding grouping.


Properties of the concepts of project type

They may have inferiors but do not affect their amounts, as they are

relevant to its original project.

Concepts.File

Filename of the linked project.

.Path

Directory where the linked project appears.

It supports relative paths to the location of the central project:

Path Open the linked project located in

(Blank) The same directory in which the center work is located.

..\ The higher directory to the central work one.

ZONE-B\ The indicated directory.

Check the linked project

It is an alternative to open works quickly in the context of projects

integration.

Open project

Open the linked project corresponding to the clicked row.

Update information

This option of the “PROCESS” menu updates:

The concepts of nature “Project” from the root concept data of

the linked project, except “Code” and “Date”.

The concepts of marked type, and if you have any of QMASS

management systems, the information corresponding to the

activated module is updated.

The diary associated with each linked work, if you have the

corresponding module.

The linked works to be imported must be calculated.

The projects updating does not alter the hierarchical structure of the

central project, since imported concepts are not inserted under other

concepts or their children concepts are imported. Nor does it elimi-

nate concepts from the central project, although they are no longer

used in any linked project.

Parametric concepts and percentage type are not imported.

The amounts of each work are linked in the center in their original

currency, so it should be taken into account when analysing.


Concepts.Date

Date of the last time was updated the linked project.

If the work:

It is not updated, the field has the background in red.

There is not, the field has a gray background colour.

Consult in the central project the linked projects data

General information of the projects

Information available from the linked projects is queried and man-

aged with the same resources than in the isolated estimates. That is, if

the user wants to see the projects certified amounts, is seen in the

same window and layout that he would see in an isolated project. In

this case, in the estimate windows, certification layouts. If you do not

want include the data in the central project, you can cancel the pro-

ject price or the quantity, for example to avoid duplicating the

amounts of alternatives or variants of the same estimate.

Linked data to each work linked

The information is queried in the estimates window, “Prices of a work”

subordinate window. This window has the necessary information to

see the information of each type of data, and generally, shows the

elements with some content. This window has the necessary layouts

to see the information of any data typology, and in general, and gen-

erally shows the elements with some content. You can apply filters

available to refine the results.

The list of associations linked data query works in the main window

“VIEW: Prices” in the schemes of project.

Data associated with the concepts

Are consulted in the “concepts” window, subordinated window “Pric-

es”. This window has the necessary schemes to see what works each

concept has been used.

You can see the total quantities of a concept in each project, zones or

groups of projects, as well as for the total of the central project.

Data of entities and suppliers

Are queried in “Entities” window, “Prices” subordinate window. In the

layouts you can see data of the financial management of each suppli-

er in each project, areas or groups of projects, as well as the total cen-

tral work.


Associated data management system QMASS

They are displayed in the “Systems Management” window, “Prices”

subordinate. In the layouts can view the works in which the manage-

ment system entities and agents of the building are.

Data assigned to dates

In the main windows of calendar and date, the information is available

on the entire central, except stages or certifications. The data associ-

ated with each work dates are consulted on estimates windows, sub-

ordinated window “Diary”, using the right layouts for the information

you want displayed. Fields belong to the “DiaryWork” table, and are

equivalent to the corresponding fields of “concepts” and “Diary” table.



Presto in the planning stage This chapter describes Presto processes that are usually performed in

the pre-contract stage, after the draft and before starting the execu-

tion of the project:

Economic planning.

Financial planning.

Temporarily planning.

Economic planning

This planning contains the needed information to describe the model

of revenues and costs incurred in the work, and is based on two com-

plementary estimation groups:

Cost target.

Accrual scheduled of the execution.

Planning can be done by chapters, work items, basic concepts, activi-

ties, time periods, building agents, and a long list of possibilities.

Economic model and pricing structures

The editor of the estimate only considers a price and a measurement,

which are in the project. During certification a new quantity, which

applied to the unit prices of the estimate leads to the certificate

amount appears.

The rows represent the five quantities indicated on the left, from es-

timate to the execution of the work. The value N is the index is used

to refer to the structure in some areas.

The columns represent the unit prices indicated in the header. Esti-

mated in the estimate price estimated cost columns are added before

starting the work and the actual cost, known at runtime.

Other cells contains results calculated by Presto, applying the quantity

of the line multiplied by the price of the column, either for a work

item, for a chapter or the whole project. Blank cells are insignificant

combinations.

Economic model

Presto applies a work model summarized in the table, in which the

possibilities of the program are based.


N Price

Quantity

Estimate

Est

Price project

Target

Tgt

Estimated cost

Real

Real

Real cost

1 Estimate

Est

According to the

editor

project

Est

Estimate

Estimate

2 Certification

Cert

According to the

project manager

Cert

Certification

Certification

3 Execution

Real

Quantity really

executed

RealEst

Production

Production

EV

RealTgt

Earned value

Earned value

AC

Real

Real cost

Actual cost

4 Target

Tgt

Reviewed meas-

urement by the

constructor

TgtEst

Final production

Target produc-

tion

BAC

Tgt

Target

estimate at

completion

EAC

TgtReal

Forecast

Estimate at

completion

5 Planning

Plan

Target to

the current time

PlanEst

Plan production

Planned producti

on

PV

Plan

Planned Value

Planned value

The economic model of Presto

Name fields of the economic model

The Presto field name that contains the output of each cell is made to

the field of the amount over the price.

For example, production to date, which is the actual amount for the

price of estimate is given in “RealEst”.

If the price and quantity are of the same structure, the field is written

only once, as in “Est”, which is the product of measurement for the

price of the estimate.

Several variants on estimate approval states are also contemplated.


AmntTgtEstMod, is the amount of planned production which corre-

sponds to the initial estimate.

All fields are made available from the name, and putting the prefix

table, as shown below.

Value Prefix Example Meaning of example

Price Concepts.Est Unit price of the estimate.

Quantity Qty Relations.QtyReal Take-off or actual performance

of a concept in its superior.

Amount Amnt Relations.AmntEst Product of the unit price multi-

plied by the number at the

superior.

Quantity

total

QtyTot Concepts.QtyTotTgt Total quantity of the concept in

the target.

The concepts prices are always unitary, without multiplying by the

quantity. Accordingly, in the work items and basic natures the price of

certification, “Concepts.Cert” matches the price of the estimate, “Con-

cepts.Est”. In these types of concepts are just different unit prices, one

for each column, while chapters and the whole project may have dif-

ferent the ten prices.

Using the model

The estimate amount contained in the cell of the first row and the first

column, corresponding to the quantity and price of the project.

The amount of the certification, in the bottom cell, is obtained by ap-

plying the certified quantity at all times to the estimate unitary price.

The lower three cells in the same column contain the production,

valuing to estimate price the planned total project, planned and exe-

cuted, from the constructor point of view.

The remaining amounts follow the terminology of cost control system

known as “earned value management” and its initials are capitalized.

Breakdown of the fields

From the point of view of time, the quantities are of two types:

The amounts of estimate and target are not broken down

temporarily and fields that depend on them are in the win-

dows of the estimate.

The quantities of certification, planning and execution are

planned by stages, usually months. These quantities and fields


that depend on them are broken down into multiple fields

stages of the estimate windows, the subordinate stages win-

dow and windows agenda and dates.

Each field can be broken down in turn by state estimate approval.

Comparisons between amounts

For comparison between two amounts is significant must belong to

the same row or the same column. Thus, the effect of price or quanti-

ty that share is cancelled each other and the ratio shows the differ-

ence due to another field.

For example, the deviation in cost is obtained by comparing “Real”

and “RealTgt”, since these values apply the actual cost and estimated,

respectively, to the actual quantity. The difference measures the devi-

ation in costs, without being affected by possible differences in quan-

tities.

The program also calculates some significant percentages.

Fields Meaning

PerCertEst Percentage certificated over the estimated

PerPlanTgt Percentage of planned work to date versus total

planned work

You can easily get other percentages, deviations and comparisons

using user fields or reports, such as:

Expression Meaning

Est - Cert Certification pending

TgtReal - Real Probable pending cost

Phases of the economic model

The stages are temporary periods when the project tracking is divid-

ed. Its creation and overall operation described in “Project manage-

ment: Certification”.

The operation is similar for the three pricing structures susceptible to

scheduling by stages: planning, execution and certification.

The quantities and the planning amounts, certification and execution

only include the values of the approved stages. Thus, at any time of

the project can be compared with each other the three scheduled

values.


If you have entered previsional values of execution or certification, you

can temporarily pass the later stages to see the totals.

The sum of the planning to the end of the project is the target.

As certification, the quantities can be entered directly in each stage or

by take-off lines. In this case, each line may be associated with a dif-

ferent stage for all three structures.

If the parent concept is another work item, you can have take-off lines

for breakdown, but cannot be associated to stages, except the plan-

ning, to be part of the target.

The project amounts based on these quantities are also scheduled

and are available disaggregated by stages, from the work items to

parent concepts.

Revenues estimate and target of cost

The economic planning lets obtain a cost estimate, or target estimate,

which represents the project execution estimated cost from the point

of view of the construction company and serves as the basis for bid

presentation, versus the project estimate, that represents the sale or

income.

In the “PROCESSES” menu there is a wide range of resources to au-

tomate, update and reorganize the structure of the target estimate.

Either estimates can be obtained from the other, and may have:

Various cost and sales prices, which can be obtained by apply-

ing a margin or transfer coefficient, with corresponding

amounts.

Different quantities, if the construction company get different

measurements to estimate, reviewing the draft project.

Economic planning also allows scheduling the execution of target in

stages, to get a temporary breakdown of the cost, control the execu-

tion terms and analyse the financial.

From the point of view of the project manager or developer, this

planning can be applied to a target obtained as a copy of the esti-

mate, without differences in quantities or prices.

Introduction of the target cost

The cost target is introduced into the layout “estimate and purpose”

of the windows of the estimate, which is parallel to the revenue esti-

mate. The production costs are in the fields with the “Tgt” prefix.


You can quickly create the target from the estimate by “PROCESS:

Generate target” option.

Income

In private work, the estimate directly represents the net income corre-

sponding to its execution.

In public works, if defined indirect cost percentages and other addi-

tional costs, revenues used in the comparisons should include these

values.

Relations.AmntEstAdj

Award amount, consisting of the estimate plus the usual percentages

in public works.

.AmntTgtEst

Total planned production or the total expected income. It is calculat-

ed as the target quantity valued at estimate price. Used to calculate

incomes when the target quantity is different from the estimate.

.AmntTgtEstAdj

Planned total production including overhead percentages of public

works.

Cost

In amounts corresponding to the target cost, the program does not

apply indirect costs and other additional costs.

Indirect costs and other expenses attributable to the project, which do

not correspond to certifiable concepts, can be incorporated into spe-

cific chapters of the target and is convenient assign it the “Indirect

costs” category.

.AmntTgt

Expected final cost or amount of the target.

Comparison between income and cost

The difference between the sales price and the cost represents the

margin or profit earned on each concept.

Margin

It calculates the difference between expected production and cost

target.

Generate target

It lets generate the target cost from the estimate or vice versa, chang-

ing the prices of marked natures.


It can be applied to the entire project or just the chosen concept infe-

rior concepts, showing the reference current value, from which the

changes are made in prices.

The quantities are copied from the pricing structure of origin to desti-

nation:

Quantity Behaviour

Work items

and break-

down

Are always copied.

Quantities In the work items are copied as indicated in the option.

When generating the target, stage “1” of planning is assigned to the

estimate approved take-off lines.

While generating the estimate, the state “Initial estimate (black)” to

take-off lines with planning stage is assigned. Neither the chapters

with category “Indirect costs” are copied.

Update target decomposition

It replaces selected prices target price decompositions by the existing

ones for these same work item in the reference or selected price ta-

ble.

Do not alter the target prices of concepts that already exist in the es-

timate. If the work item does not have decomposition in the refer-

ence, directly copies the target price.

This option does not alter neither the breakdown nor the estimate

price.

Restructure target decomposition

It eliminates or consolidates by natures the concepts of target de-

composition of selected work items. You can also group into one all

consolidated concepts, with an identical text to which the work item it

belongs.

In each selected work item it adds the amount of selected nature and

creates a new inferior:

The new code is formed from the initials of the merged con-

cepts that match up, to three, plus the code of the work item.

The summary is the nature, plus the name of the work item.

If the new concept exists, the amount is set and the description is not

altered.


Consolidate work items

It consolidates the selected work items into a single concept. The

structure and estimate prices of the original work items are not al-

tered and not act on awarded contracts.

The take-off lines are not consolidated, since they correspond to units

of measurement and different prices. The resulting work item can

have in its decomposition the consolidated work items, with its meas-

urement and target price of the original estimate.

In addition you can perform the following actions:

Cancel target on source data

The new work item has quantities and target prices, and in the origi-

nal work items the quantities of target and planning are cancelled.

Add to bar chart

The work item appears on the Gantt chart and the original are fold.

Convert to supply

The new work item is bought or subcontracted.

Break down work items by activity

It separates a work item in another, each of which contains the take-

off lines assigned to each activity, in order to plan, contract them or

execute them separately.

The work items generated for each activity, in turn, can be optionally

merge into one.

The applied options to the created work items are described in “Con-

solidate work items” option.

Break down work items by decomposition

This option lets separate a work item in two or more, that be execut-

ed, planned or contracted separately.

To do this, it generates a work item from another, inserting in its tar-

get decomposition the difference in yields between estimate and tar-

get of each of their inferiors, so are two work items whose targets are

complementary of the original unit.

The applied options to the created work items are described in “Con-

solidate work items” option.

To view in parallel and easily modify the estimate and target yields,

you can use the scheme “Estimate and target”.


Features of the new work item:

The code is formed by adding a numeric suffix.

The summary is the same as the original.

The quantity in the target equals to the original work item.

The quantity in the estimate is zero.

Fill economic planning

Target quantities are introduced similar to the certification:

Overall for the work item, the “QtyTgt” field.

Estimated disaggregated implementing the “QtyPlan” field of

each phase, which can be seen in multiple fields to the right

phase.

Broken down in take-off lines, associating to each line the

planning stage for its estimated execution.

The sum of the quantities for all stages is the target.

Economic planning is to accrue the target cost.

Planning is called the sum to the current certification at all times,

which can be compared well with certified or actual execution.

The distribution of quantities by stages can be performed automati-

cally using this option, which fills the quantities of planning by stages

of the work items, erasing the existing planning.

In cases where the quantity is small and the period of distribution is

large, schedules are obtained with very small quantities or fractions,

which are standardized in the last certification to match with the in-

tended target.

If the calculation precision is increased, the setting will be better.

See also “Purchasing and subcontracting: Calculate resources”.

Options to fill the planning:

Using bar chart data

It takes data from the technical planning of the Gantt chart.

It divides the target quantity in each work item in stages correspond-

ing to the estimated start and end dates of the work item, depending

on labour days involved.

Applying planning weights from each certification

It divide the target between different certifications, applying a coeffi-

cient or weight to each, thus obtaining the expenses theoretical plan-

ning.


The weight that each certification has in the planning, is introduced in

the dates window, where the user can indicate the fitted values to

their experience or use the suggested values. A file is delivered in Ex-

cel format with various models of distribution curves for planning

costs, from where you can copy different values of weights.

Fields that lets the planning by certifications are in the “Dates” win-

dow, “Planning” layout, and are:

Diary.WeightPlan

Part of the costs target that is estimated to perform on the stage, or

certification.

The suggest button has several alternatives:

Weight distributed linearly.

Pendant weight, up to 100.

Estimated weight to form a Gaussian curve.

These options take into account the number of existing certifications

in the project; add or remove the necessary for proper distribution.

.OrWeightPlan

Accumulated weight until certification.

.PlanTheor

Amount of the theoretical planning by weight of certification.

.OrPlanTheor

Accumulated theoretical planning until certification.

Applying to the work items the planning of the activities

Divide the target for activities, using the earliest possible dates or late,

ASAP and ALAP dates respectively.

It applies to the work items having all the objective take-off lines with

activities. From the total target, the amount corresponding to each

phase based on the estimated diagram for activities stuffed dates.

Result in a take-off lines for each different stage and planned activity,

which is not included in the estimate is added. If the result exactly

matches an existing line take-off lines, the planning stage match

without creating a new line is entered.

Check “Presto in the planning stage: Temporary planning: Amounts by

stages depending on the ASAP-ALAP dates”.


Results of economic planning

Reports of the group “03 Economic planning”:

Estimate and target

Comparison of income and costs. It takes into account indirect costs,

overhead, profit industrial and low auction.

Target summary

Same as above, but by chapters.

Revenue and cost planning

Project planned work items grouped by stages or months, and com-

pare expected revenues and costs in each stage.

Chapters and work item with stages

Chapters and work items with the stages of certification, execution

and planning.

Quantities or amounts by months

Chapters and work items with the quantities or amounts by months.

Financial planning

The system is based in the creation of previsional invoices and their

maturities, from:

Revenues, calculated from the planning or certifications.

Expenses, calculated from the planning or contracts.

As a result of the balance of the respective maturities, daily cash flow

is obtained.

Create invoices

This menu option “PROCESS” creates pension bills for all phases of

execution of the work, or the current certification.

Check “Presto for the construction company: Invoicing: Documents of

economic control”.

With each invoice also are created maturities, including those corre-

sponding to withholding and taxes, depending on the payment

methods associated to the supplier or customer.

The process removes existing previsional invoices. To convert invoices

into definitive associate the black state.

In the options that associates the invoice to the developer or builder

takes the first by order of code, if more than one.


The “Document” field of the invoice is formed by adding the “Ac-

cSuppliers” field of the entity associated to the invoice.

Concepts.Supplier

On concepts used in this process to assign a certain income or ex-

pense to a developer or builder, different from that in the work.

All stages

With these options, invoices are generated for all stages that have

quantities, and let:

Make a planning of income and expenses from the available

data, such as economic planning, certification or contracting.

Obtain the cash flow of the project.

Income (from the planning estimate price

It represents the amount of certifications according to the planning.

It is calculated based on economic planning, valued at estimate price,

including the percentage of cost overrun as indirect, industrial profits,

overhead, and low auction.

Invoices are assigned to the developer.

Income (from the certifications)

It represents the amount of the certifications.

Are calculated as above, depending on the certification.

Invoices are assigned to “Developer”, except if in the work item “Sup-

plier” field is another “Developer” or “User”, which is assigned to

them.

Expenses (from planning)

It represents the expenses associated to the execution of the project.

It is calculated based on economic planning, gathering the necessary

concepts for execution by stages and supplier.

Invoices are assigned to “Contractor”, except if in the concept “Sup-

plier” field is any, which is assigned to it.

Expenses (from contract)

It represents expenses associated with hiring or purchasing manage-

ment.

In awarded contracts, are calculated and associated under the condi-

tions of the contract.

In non- award contracts, are calculated to price target and are associ-

ated to the constructor.


Current stage

An invoice for the actual certification is generated.

It’s used to send isolated certifications to the developer, or to send

preform invoices to suppliers contained in awarded contracts.

Certification to the promoter

It invoices to the developer, with the work items of the current certifi-

cation to the estimate price and their overrun percentages.

Associated suppliers, to the contract price

Invoices for each subcontractor listed in the “Supplier” field of the

work items, with the certified or actual quantity of the current stage,

to the contracted price.

Subcontractor’s invoices

Supplier Breakdown* Quantity to be transferred to the invoice

Regular Yes Quantity of the approved stage.

Regular No Total quantity minus the sum of the invoiced

quantities of the work item to the same suppli-

er.

Cumulative Yes Sum of the quantities to the current certifica-

tion.

Cumulative No Total quantity.

* Has quantities in stages or take-off lines

Results of financial planning

Results can be viewed at:

Window Layout

Invoices Suppliers, customers

Maturities

Dates Month: Invoices

Dates Month: Receipts and payments

Diary Invoices

Diary Receipts and payments

Finance cost (Dates: Months)

Expression that calculates the interests from cash flow and % interest

or rate. This expression can be included in a user column of the win-

dow and layout described therein.

The rate should be entered in “VIEW: Project settings: Miscellaneous”.


Temporary planning

Presto temporal planning system includes numerous specific re-

sources for construction.

Temporary planning requires the following steps:

1 Set deadlines and dates of the work, and calculation condi-

tions.

2 Select the tasks and their behaviour.

3 Determine the duration of tasks.

4 Situate the tasks in time.

Gantt chart

The hierarchical structure of the bar chart is the same estimate, alt-

hough the concepts are in again and may be different.

In this context, the items shown in the diagram are called tasks, and

their number is limited to one thousand. The basic natures never ap-

pear in the diagram.

Tasks listing

This window has basically the same functionality as the diagram. The

difference is that the tasks are not hierarchically, but as a list, and bear

masks on the code.

Display options: Lists

The windows of bars have drop-down lists to select the types of tasks,

schedules and fields to be displayed in the graph area.

Task filter

In the Gantt chart to select the type of tasks to display. They can be

opened and closed manually levels as any hierarchical window.

Layouts

Different combinations to display dates of all types, lengths and gaps.

Fields to display next to each bar

Choose fields to display on each task bar. The fields are table “Rela-

tionships” and user defined in the diagrams window bars.

Fields to display by stages

Choose fields to display on each task and phase. The selectable fields

are the “Stages” table, and the user are defined in the subordinate

window “Stages” layout “Certification”.


Icons: Bars and graphic elements

Display bar chart

It displays or hides the graphic to the right of the window.

Increase scale | Decrease scale

It modifies the timescale to view details for days, weeks, months,

years or stages.

Display planned dates

It enables or disables the display of the ASAP bars. The colour of

summary tasks type is taken from the appearance options defined for

chapters, and the tasks one is taken from the defined activities. Those

take the superior date include a green line at the beginning and at

the end of the bar.

ALAP

Enables or disables the display of the ALAP bars. The overlap region

of the bars of the ASAP and ALAP tasks is painted darker colour.

Grayscale

Change colors of the ASAP and ALAP bars for better printing in black

and white.

View clearances

It enables or disables the display of clearances bars.

Display real dates

It enables or disables the display of actual dates bars.

Links

It enables or disables the display of the arrows on the precedence

between tasks.

Precedences

Shows or hides the sub window of the same name, which is the type

of link and the overlaps.

State type tasks

It enables or disables the display of the days in which there has been

a change of state in tasks.

Dates

In the diagram the following special dates are marked:


Dates Color

From the start of the work until the current certifica-

tion

Yellow background

(*)

Among the current certification and the last defined

stage or date of completion of the work

White background

Other cases grey background

Holidays Vertical red line

Final date of approved certifications Vertical black line

(**)

End date of current certification Vertical green line

(**)

(*) It takes the background colour for protected columns

(**) Appear if a field is selected phases in the list

Depending on the scale applied at all times, may be other lines-guide

points that facilitate the location of task-date

Aids

A track on each bar shows your description, duration and dates.

Center bar

On any field of a task, position the Gantt chart from the beginning of

the chosen task bar.

Planning

Most global variables involved in the planning and their calculations

are defined in “VIEW: Project settings: Planning”.

Hours per labour day

Labour days per month

It let adjusting the calculations of durations and times.

Simultaneity factor for activities

It indicates the proportion to which each task overlap with other tasks

for the calculation of the durations by cost.

Category

Functional typology, defined in “Project settings: Data”, which affects

the estimate of the period of the project.

Works duration in months

It affects the calculation of durations based in costs.


The suggest box of this field provides an estimate of the period ac-

cording to the model described in Predicting Construction Duration

of Building Project, developed by Joe Martin, Theresa Keoughan Bur-

rows and Ian Pegg.

The data have been adapted to the conditions of construction in

Spain from real projects compiled by Presto.

The result depends on the estimate amount and the type of project.

DateEstimate: Date of estimate

Is assigned to the “Date” field of the newly created concepts and it is

the initial reference date to calculate the IPC for each concept.

DateContract: Contract date

Award date, reference to the start of the repricing.

DateLicense: Date License

Date of obtaining of works permission.

DatIniWork: Date of start of the work

It indicates the beginning of the bar chart display.

DateWorkEnd: Date of completion of the works

It affects to the end of the Gantt chart display and to maturities of

warranty withholding.

Selection of tasks and behaviour

Unplanned task

It excludes the task of Gantt graph and is equivalent to cancel the

“DurTot” field.

The tasks excluded may be again included using the filter “All”, or

from the estimate windows, unannullating the “DurTot” field.

Relations.NullDurTot

Equals 1 if the “DurTot” field is cancelled.

.TypeDurTot

Vale 3 if the “DurTot” field is calculated (magenta).

Behaviours or types of tasks

The behaviour of each task is assigned by menu options windows

estimates and bar chart.


Behaviour Meaning Value Type

Rate job summary Their dates contains those of

their inferior concepts.

4 Chapters

(trades)

Calculated dates They have their own duration

and their dates depend on

their precedencies with other

tasks.

0 Work items

Activities

Contracts

Dates from superior Are adapted dates and dura-

tion of its superior concept.

3 Operations

Control

type con-

cepts

Value: Fields “TypeDateIPlan” and “TypeDateFPlan” table “Relationships”.

Type: Nature of the concept and behaviour assigned by default.

Planning can be altered by changing the behaviours as desired, with

the following restrictions:

Summary type tasks should have some inferior task with calcu-

lated dates.

Not are shown calculated tasks that be inferiors to another

calculated tasks.

Special behaviours

You can force the content of the dates regardless of the task type.

Blocked date

The user sets the date manually and does not account for the calcula-

tions.

If you move the full bar graph, the start date is set.

If you move the right end of the bar, the duration is changed.

The locked date is deleted by selecting one of the types of task.

Relations.TypeDateIPlan

This field contains the value that corresponds to the behaviour or way

of calculating dates.

It equals 1 if the date is locked.

Date unlocked

The user unlocks the date is calculated based on the precedencies.

Concepts.DurUnit

Concept unit duration in hours. It is calculated based on the target

cost, and if not, is calculated based on the estimate.


Duration of tasks

The time duration represents an effort measured in days of work,

while the cost duration represents the reasonable total term of execu-

tion of the task.

Fields involved in these calculations are usually seen in the “Dura-

tions” layout of the Gantt chart.

Relations.DurTot

Duration of task execution in days. It’s a property of the relationship

between the concept and the superior, so that a task in more than

one superior concept has several total durations.

You only need to enter task durations with end date of calculated

type, i.e., based on the precedencies.

This field fills each user, and the “Suggest” button provides two large

groups of estimated values: those calculated from the target and cal-

culated from the estimate.

In general, the estimates described below, any mention of the lens is

also applicable to the estimate.

Estimates of the duration by time

.DurTgtTmp

Estimation based on the task daily production, total production, taken

from the target quantity in the parent, and the number of teams in

their relationship.

.Equipment

Number of equipment / manpower working simultaneously on task

during the execution of the above concept elements.

The suggest button indicates the number of equipment needed to

perform the task in the total period, calculated from the duration by

time and cost.

.ProdDay

Daily production of the task in execution of the superior concept.

Presto suggests the likely values, depending on the income of the

inferior concepts that match the following conditions:

Its nature is equipment or manpower.

The unit of measurement is comparable to hours. Just the unit

starts with “h” or “H”.


It’s calculated as the inverse of the yield of each of the inferiors, mul-

tiplied by the number of equipment’s allocated to the relation, divid-

ed by the difficulty of the superior and converted to days. The daily

production by default is the smaller of these results, rounded.

Estimations of the duration by cost

They are based on the ratio of the total period of the work displayed

on “Project settings: Times”., And the target relative cost between task

to total work

.DurTgt

Estimate based on the total target cost of any task, including the con-

cepts of contract type and activity. It is calculated based on the term

of the work, the relative cost of the task and the coincidence factor

described below.

.DurTgtRec

Estimate based on the proportion of the cost of the resources of

manpower and equipment the task for the whole work.

Requires that the task has lower concepts of these natures.

Task concurrency

To obtain an accurate estimation of the cost duration there is to esti-

mate the number of simultaneous tasks. For example, assuming that

on average two tasks are performed simultaneously, the duration can

be twice that obtained in proportion to the cost.

Presto has a unique mathematical model to estimate the number of

simultaneous tasks. This number is proportional to the project num-

ber of tasks, since in a larger project more operations are performed

at the same time, and is inversely proportional to the relative cost of

each task, as weighty tasks in the project tend to be made with more

efficiency and resources.

The number of concurrent tasks, which can vary between one and the

total number of tasks, can be set between these extremes by a coeffi-

cient that is introduced in “VIEW: Project settings: Planning”.

0 indicates not simultaneous tasks and therefore its duration is

the minimum possible, with the cost obtained.

The value “1” indicates that all tasks are executed at the time

and therefore last as long as the project.


The sum of durations of all tasks will be longer than the duration of

the project, except that the simultaneity coefficient is zero. The adjust-

ment to the actual conditions will be made by precedence relations.

Relations between tasks: Precedence

For obtaining dates is necessary enter precedence relations between

tasks of calculated dates. In Gantt chart “Precedence” subordinate

window are edited.

The links can be created graphically by dragging the predecessor over

the successor task, as the style of Microsoft Project.

The graph of the diagram, the [Tab] key moves successively between

different links.

By establishing a precedence of tasks with blocked dates, do not suf-

fer any change. The user must decide to unlock them or not.

Double clicking on a link to filter the corresponding links.

To delete a precedence, check the link and press [Delete].

Precedencies.Type

The following linking types are supported:

Link Meaning Creation

End-Start The successor can start if

the predecessor ends.

Final of the predecessor

over the initiation of the

successor.

Start-Start The successor cannot start

before the predecessor.

Starting the predecessor

over the begin of the suc-

cessor.

End-End The successor cannot finish

before the predecessor.

Final of the predeces-

sor over the end of the

successor.

Start-Start

End-End

Double link, which com-

bines the above two types.

Begin of the predecessor

over the end of the succes-

sor.

Invalid links are black

.CodAntecesor |.CodSucesor

Codes of concepts predecessor and successor, respectively.

.ResAntecesor |.ResSucesor

Summary of the concepts predecessor and successor, respectively.


.Overlap

The overlap indicates the number of working days in the beginning or

end of the successor task is separated from the beginning or end of

the predecessor. Depending on the type of bond, the overlap can be

front, rear or combined. The part of a link that corresponds to overlap

is represented by the arrow thicker.

.OverlapAfter

Is overlap of End-End type at the double link.

.Critical

0: Not critical

1: Ahead

2: Behind

3: Both

4: Error

Create precedence

Create successive links between the selected tasks.

The following conditions must be met:

The two tasks must be the same type of concept.

The closing date for the predecessor must be calculated.

The initial date of the successor must be calculated and must

not have predecessors.

You can create precedencies over:

The selected tasks, creating successive links between them,

even over all the tasks of the project.

On the active task, choosing predecessor, successor, or both.

Date calculations

If automatic price calculation is enabled, the start and end dates of

the tasks are calculated based on the durations and links, every time

there is a change that affects them. Otherwise, select

“CALCULATIONS: Time planning”.

The start date of tasks without predecessors is the start of the project.

The closing date for each task is the day after completion.

A zero duration task has the same start and end dates.

If impossible restrictions are detected, for example, if a fixed date re-

quires to start a task before its predecessor, its link is olive green.


Start End Meaning

DateIPlan DateEPlan Earliest possible date: ASAP

DayIPlan DayEPlan Consecutive number of working day since the

start of the work, applied to dates ASAP.

DateLITotal DateLETotal Latest possible dates without affecting the end

of the project: ALAP

DayIUTotal DayFUTotal Consecutive number of working day since the

start of the work, applied to dates ALAP.

DateIReal DateEReal Actual dates.

Fields of the “Relations” table

The ASAP-ALAP dates are used to calculate different amounts by

stages, as described below.

Relations.TypeDateIReal | .TypeDateFReal

They have value 3 when the dates are calculated (magenta).

Advances

Percentage Meaning

PerDatePlan Percentage elapsed on the planned duration.

PerDateRealPlan Percentage of real execution elapsed over the real dura-

tion.


View clearances

The clearances are days that can be delayed / advanced tasks.

Clearance Bar Meaning

ClearanceInit No Available time to start a task.

ClearanceAfter No Available time to complete a task.

ClearanceTotal Green

clear

Days that the task can be delayed or increase its

duration without affecting the end of the work.

It is the sum of the previous three clearances.

ClearanceFree Green Days that the task can be delayed or increase its

duration without affecting other tasks.

ClearanceInbe-

tween

Green Days that can interrupt the task or increase its

duration. If the value is negative indicates the

slippage that can have the whole of the task in

its realization.

ClearanceDur Grey The task supports a longer duration, but if the

start is delayed affects other tasks.


Clearance Bar Meaning

Clearance The work item duration is different from the

number of days between their start and end

dates.

Green If lower, indicating downtime, is positive and is

depicted in the interior of the bar.

Red If lower, indicating downtime, is positive and is

depicted in the interior of the bar.


The tasks whose duration is less than the difference between the start

and end dates are in the first start date and the difference is repre-

sented as intermediate clearance, which is called breaking tasks. This

case is the usual tasks where the successor double bond is shorter

than the predecessor, as can occur with plastering and painting.

Critical path

A task is critical if not total float or have slack time (gray) and his suc-

cessor is critical.

It is displayed by red links.

Amounts by stages depending on the dates ASAP-ALAP

They are based on the duration tasks in each stage, and can be seen

in the windows of the stages or in the Gantt chart.

Stages.PerASAP

Percentage of activity corresponding to the stage according to dates

“DateIPlan” and “DateFPlan”.

.OrPerASAP

Percentage of origin of the activity corresponding to the stage given

dates “DateIPlan” and “DateFPlan”.

.PerALAP

Percentage of activity corresponding to the stage according to the

dates “DateIUTotal” and “DateFUTotal”.

.OrPerALAP

Percentage of origin of the activity corresponding to the stage given

dates “DateIUTotal” and “DateFUTotal”.


.EstASAP | .TgtASAP | .TgtEstASAP

Estimate amounts, target and estimated total production, correspond-

ing to the percentage of the activity according to the earliest dates,

contained in “PerASAP”.

.EstALAP | .TgtALAP | .TgtEstALAP

Estimate amounts, target and estimated total production, correspond-

ing to the percentage of the activity according to the later date, given

in “PerALAP”.

Calculation of amounts

For fields relating to amounts are calculated, must be checked the

“Automatic price recalculation” option.

In terms of work items and activities, is calculated based on the per-

centages of each type.

A chapters level, are calculated as the sum of the amounts of lower

concepts.

Results of temporal planning

Reports of the group “04 Temporary Planning”:

Gantt chart

It’s recommended to generate the complete diagram and export it to

PDF with the “Paper size: Entire document” option, where you easily

manages the printing on printers of different sizes.

Precedences

Tasks of type summary, calculated, associated to the superior or

planned, with their precedencies.

Tasks and resources

Tasks of type summary, calculated, associated to the superior or

planned, with their resources.

Primavera and Project link

Presto has several connection options with these programs.

Import to Presto a Primavera project. Refer “Primavera” sec-

tion.

Assigning to the work items of an estimate the planning or the

certifications made on a Primavera planning, but do not match

either the structure or the encoding used. Refer to paragraph

“Integrating the planning and certification of Primavera”.


Export an estimate of Presto to Microsoft Project or Primavera.

Refer to “Primavera XML” section.

Primavera

“FILE: Import” option inserts into a Presto estimate one XER file gen-

erated by Primavera.

Content of XER file is added to the estimate, so in general, it is desira-

ble start from an estimate without content. If the XER file contains

specified information of several projects, you have to choose the ap-

propriate node to import.

The chapters and subchapters are taken from the WBS components

(WBS).

The activities become concepts of type “Work item” or “Activity”, ac-

cording to your choice.

The resources are associated to their work items, classified as “Man-

power” (manpower), “Equipment” (No manpower) and “Materials”

(Materials). Costs (Expenses) are assigned to “Others” nature.

The concepts code is formed with an identifier of the XER file that

guarantees the exact correspondence between the estimate and the

planning. Visible codes in Primavera are stored in “Code2”.

The type of activity is stored in the “Group” field and is identified by

colors:

Red: Begin milestones.

Green: end milestones.

Gray: Activities of type description.

Financial periods become stages. It’s assigned as approved stage

which corresponds to the “Data date” of “Primavera”.

If there is an advance by percentage, is stored in the “Rela-

tions.PerAdvance” with the content of “phys_complete_pct” Primavera

field.

It also reads the start date of the project, the price of manpower

hours and the working hours of the day.

After the importation, prices and times are recalculated, if activated

the automatic calculation of prices.

Import only cost activities

This option only imports activities with non-zero price.


Import as Activity type concepts

It let importing activities from Primavera as concepts of type “Work

item” or “Activity”.

Temporary planning

While importing planning, it overwrites the data for the selected op-

tion in each case:

If there are equal precedencies are deleted, and new are cre-

ated.

If there are dates of beginning, of end and durations, are up-

dated.

If the dates of begin and end options are marked, or target

dates, real dates begin and end are updated.

Options for importing planning:

Durations and precedence

It imports the original data, in order to modify and recalculate with

Presto. It is possible that differences due in “Primavera” is possible

using multiple calendars, and the use of other criteria.

Links “Begin - End” are not imported, but the double links “Begin-

Begin/End-End”.

Start and end dates

Start and end dates, early and late, provided by Primavera. Dates are

left locked so that they can be used without modifications. Primavera

does not provide the dates from today (“Data date”), so in an initiated

work the target dates should be used.

Target dates

Original estimates (target) of the start and end date provided by Pri-

mavera, which are maintained even if the project is started.

Primavera XML

With this option of “FILE: Export” a file is created in XML format, with

the structure of chapters and work items, resources, activities and

temporarily planning.

Before importing with Primavera the Presto generated files, check the

“Resource Initials” option is activated, which is in “Import: Template”,

“Resources” tab.


Microsoft Project

With this “FILE: Export” option a file in Project format is created, with

the structure of chapters and work items, resources classified in mate-

rials and manpower, durations, total hours of manpower resource

type, the precedence, the calculated dates of beginning and end of

the planning, and the executed percentage, taken from the certifica-

tion.


Presto in project management This chapter describes the processes that occur during the execution

from the point of view of the director of execution or the project

manager:

Tender offers for complete projects.

Certifications.

Track cost.

The earned value (EVM) for the construction manager described in

“Service request” from Presto website, under “Certifications”.

Tender bid for complete work

This system compares the received bids on a basis estimate, applying

to their measurements the different prices received for the work

items. No adjustment is made.

The general process described in “Presto at the stage of project: An

information system: Comparison of multiple prices”.

The entire process of comparing bids is:

Request offers to different bidders

There are several ways to ask for price to bidders:

Send a Presto project without prices and without decomposi-

tion.

From previous project, export to Excel, selecting the level of

“Chapters and work items”.

On paper, with the report “Estimates and take-off lines”, with-

out prices.

Receive the bids

Bidders fill prices and return the offer, which is incorporated to Presto

as the format received:

If it is a Presto project, by “FILE: Import: Offers”.

If is a bid in Excel by “FILE: Import: Excel”.

If it is on paper, you must perform the manual process of cre-

ating an entity of “Bidder” type, and type the prices in the lay-

out of bids comparison of the estimates window.

Compare the bids

You can review in the layout of comparing bids, or on paper.


The reports show the lowest bids in green, which facilitates their anal-

ysis, and are in the report group “05 Certifications”:

Compared offers in horizontal

Compared offers in vertical

These reports show the structure of the estimate and prices offered

by each of the suppliers, the paper orientation indicated on each.

Update the estimate prices with the successful tender

The bids prices can be copied and pasted into the price that is right

for its interpretation, either the estimate or the target.

The certification

Certification is the process by which quantifies and approves the

measurement of each work item in a given period for payment to the

contractor.

Are only certifiable items that are under a chapter.

The certification amount is calculated using the estimate unitary price

to the cumulative certified quantity, or to the sum of certified quanti-

ties in approved stages.

Stages or certifications

They are periods of time between the days marked as “Certification”

on the dates windows, and generally are months.

The stages allow accrued analysis of different types of information,

such as economic planning, execution and production.

The certified quantities can be entered:

1. No breakdown, writing the quantity certified from the origin

In the estimate windows, “Certification” layout, directly typing the

quantity in the work item.

Relations.QtyCert | AmntCert

Certified quantity of work item and amount, respectively. It can be

calculated from stages and take-off lines.

2. Breakdown by certifications, stages or months

In the estimate windows, type-certification layouts, which are those

activate the “Multiple fields” icon. To display certifications from a

specified number, select the number in the “Stage” dropdown list.


Stages.QtyCert | Cert

Certified quantity in the stage and amount, respectively. It can be cal-

culated from take-off lines

3. Breakdown by detail take-off lines

In estimate windows, subordinate window “Take-off lines”, “Estimate

and certification” layout.

For the rest of pricing structures similar resources are used.

TakeOff.StageCert

It is the field that represents the number of certification or stage.

To certify take-off lines must fill this field with the stage number in

which each certified. The drop-down list containing existing certifica-

tions in a logical order can be used.

To certify independent take-off lines of the estimate, you have to un-

check the “Est” fields of the window, to prevent new lines are included

in the estimate.

Not alter the data entered in previous certifications

To not modify the values of the take-off lines and the prior certifica-

tions to the current stage, there is a user option that greatly restricts

those changes.

Refer to “FILE: Working environment: General: Lock editing of ap-

proved certifications”.

Create dates and certifications

This “PROCESS” menu option lets you to create stages or certifica-

tions, and add to the diary the days between two dates, but does not

delete or alter existing certification dates.

The “Default” button takes as its starting day the last day of the

month following the last existing stage; if not certifications, making

the start date of the work. The number of months it takes the term of

the work. The above data are the properties of the work on time.

If you do not want to create certifications enter a “0” in “Day of certifi-

cation”.

The result is seen in the “Dates” window in the stages layout.

In order to stages match to the months, is assigned as certification

day the last day of each month. Still, two complementary results are

obtained, since the months are added by annuities that you see in the

“Diary” window, and certifications are for the total project.


To create isolated certifications or with other periods, you must first

create the dates, for which you can use the same option above, and

then check the end date of each stage as “Certification”.

Certification is also created to assign a take-off line to the next availa-

ble number.

Stages.Certification

The certifications are numbered consecutively and the take-off lines

are associated to the number, not the date.

Stages.Date | Diary.DateDMA

Date of certification or stage of the stages and dates windows, re-

spectively.

Changing certifications

In the “Dates” and “Diary” windows, you can delete the stages delet-

ing the rows, provided they have not associated data.

In the estimate windows, are eliminated by the choice “Clear stage”

on the head in one of multiple fields.

In both cases the later stages are automatically renumbered.

Not a certification day

For a date stops be of certification is assigned as “Not a certification

day”. The associated data to that stage and all subsequent move to

the next stage. Therefore, to remove a day certification with data,

must exist at least one free day of certification to the end, without

data.

Certification

If it’s assigned a date as “Certification” between two existing ones, the

associated data to the latest stages moves forward one stage and the

last certification remains without data.

Change the date of certification

Select first the new date as “Certification” and then convert the

other date “No certification”.

Remove certified quantities in stages

In “VIEW: Activities and certifications”, “Certifications: Certification”

layout, you can select the “QtyCert” column the certifications to re-

move:

All, selecting the entire column in the header.


A group of cells, by selecting a range of fields.

A certification number, filtering by content on the number of

certification to remove, and selecting the filtered column.

Removing the selected information by pressing [Delete].

Assigning the current certification

It can make a certification as current using the context menu:

Window Paragraph

Dates, “Stages:” layout On certification to be approved.

Estimate

Tree

Add a multi field of stages, on the header

of the certification to approve.

Stages, subordinate of the

estimate windows

On certification to be approved.

Current certification

It’s one of the most important data in project management, because

it returns the status of the project on a certain date or period. De-

pending on the type of open window, the field indicating the number,

date, quantity or certification amount is seen in a different colour.

Diary.State

The phases can be divided into various states of approval, which sig-

nificantly influence many calculations by Presto.

Stage or certifica-

tion

Value Meaning

Approved 0 Stages previous to current, all ap-

proved.

Current certification 3 Last stage approval or certification.

Pending 2 After the current stage, all unapproved.

The quantities and the amounts of different pricing structures are

available disaggregated by these states, and are in the fields of the

table “Relations” whose suffixes are “Ant” and “Act”, for example:

Relations.QtyCertAnt | AmntCertAnt

Certified quantity in the previous certifications to current.

Relations.QtyCertAct | AmntCertAct

Certified quantity in the current stage or certification.


Official certifications

In official work, to the total amount obtained for the project, which

already includes indirect costs, are applied the same percentages that

convert the PEM in the awarding estimate. To this total amount cu-

mulative (to source) is discounted the equivalent amount of the pre-

vious certification.

Price revision

The price revision is the correction of the amount of each certification

to take in account the prices increases from the award date. Presto

can apply the normative for public works or recommendations for

private work.

The prices revision coefficient can be calculated by an Excel sheet

supplied with the program, which can automatically read from the

open project the two dates of reference for calculating: the award of

the contract date and the current certification.

The sheet contains the polynomial formulas Spanish legislation and

official inflation indexes, materials and manpower published to date.

The sheet is open, so you can review, modify or supplement to adapt

it to any other form of calculation, rule or custom.

Stages: Repricing

This layout of “Dates” window shows the amounts required to submit

a certificate in public works.

To facilitate the application of the price revision, Presto also shows in

table header two data:

The date of the contract or award of the project.

20% of the estimate, which is not usually applied the revision.

The program always applies the introduced revision coefficient, and

must be included the unit in the stages where should not be applied.

The layout includes the following fields:

Diary.Cert

Amount of current certification referred to PEM, including direct and

indirect costs.

.OrCert

As above, but cumulative to origin.

.Accredited

Month credited amount, applying to the certification the percentages

of structure expenses and award coefficient.


.OrOfficial

As above, but cumulative to origin.

.Kt

Coefficient review entered by the user prices. It can be calculated with

the book Excel mentioned above, and may vary depending on the

type of work to be certified.

.Review

Amount of price revision, using the Kt.

.Num

A free field to add an additional amount.

.Cash

Net amount, sum of the above, without tax.

Results of certification

Reports of the group “05 Certifications”:

Certification with take-off lines

Typical certification model with multiple combinations to see whether

or not the take-off lines, texts, prices, current certification data, and a

summary for each chapter and work item.

Summary certification

Chapters include expenses, profit, low auction and taxes.

Quantities and amounts of a certification

Value of work items certified in one stage, month or certification.

Current and cumulative certification

List of certified work items, disaggregating the values corresponding

to the current or approved certification, previous to the current, and

total up the current.

Summary of current certification and cumulative

Chapters disaggregated by current or approved certification, prior to

the current, and the totals up the current.

Comparison of quantities up to the present stage

Compare different pricing structures and other combinations.

Table of new prices

Work items that do not have quantity in the initial estimate are con-

sidered, but are executed and collected, i.e., are certified.


Certification invoice

Invoice model that represents the current certification.

Liquidation of the certification

Settlement model used by many governments.

Valued relationship

Certification model used by many governments.

Cost tracking

In this section the economic control system is described from the

point of view of the works director or project manager, based solely

on the information contained in the estimate and certifications.

The project management has two goals:

Track changes arising throughout the project.

Estimate the actual progress and expected final cost.

When certification is globally introduced for the work item, by stages

or specific take-off lines, estimate independent, you only have infor-

mation of two values: the total estimate and the current certification.

The comparison between them is only significant if the project to be

executed is exactly what is described in the project.

The use of approval states in the take-off lines, allows for compari-

sons that add useful criteria for a more advanced tracking.

Check “Presto in the design stage: Take-off lines: Measurement by

statements of approval”.

Estimate by approval states

When take-off lines with approval statuses are used, the estimate

amounts disaggregated by each are obtained, and are in the “Esti-

mate by statuses” layout of the windows:

“Estimate”.

“Activities”.

Subordinated “Activities”.

[Concepts | Stages].Est

The price that contains the take-off lines of the initial estimate and

the approved changes, or current estimate.

.EstIni

Part of the price corresponding to the take-off lines of the initial esti-

mate.


.EstMod

Part of the price corresponding to take-off lines associated with ap-

proved changes in the estimate.

.EstPend

Part of the price of the concept that corresponds to the take-off lines

associated to changes of the estimate, pending of approval.

Relations.QtyEstIni | .QtyEstMod | .QtyEstPend

Quantity corresponding to the take-off lines allocated to each state.

.AmntEstIni | .AmntEstMod | .AmntEstPend

Amount that corresponds to the take-off lines allocated to each state.

.AmntEstPossible

The possible estimate, which is the current estimate plus the estimate

pending of approval.

Certification by approval states

To certify an existing take-off line in the initial estimate, just have to

associate it to the corresponding stage.

The quantities does not correspond to the initial estimate for

the project are introduced into new take-off lines, associated

to red (pendent) or green (approved ) status, depending on its

situation.

When the certified quantities correspond to the estimate, but

have not direct correspondence with their take-off lines, spe-

cific lines of certification are created with the “Est” field un-

checked, is order not to alter the estimate.

If a part of the estimate not to be executed, the change is in-

troduced by a line with a negative sign, in the green state.

You can unfold an estimate take-off line to certify one part and let the

another pending.

The disaggregated amounts represent the portion of that certification

corresponding to each approval status, and are seen in the “Certifica-

tion by statuses” layout contained in the main windows of estimates,

activities, and in “Stages” subordinate one.

[Concepts | Stages] .CertIni |.CertMod |.CertPend

Part of the price corresponding to the certified take-off lines for each

state.


Relations.QtyCertIni | .QtyCertMod | .QtyCertPend

Number of certified take-off lines for each state.

.AmntCertIni | .AmntCertMod | .AmntCertPend

Take-off lines amount certified for each state.

Comparisons between estimate and certification by approval states

The estimate comparison, the certification and the pending part in

each state of approval, gives a good tool to know the project state.

You can compare, for example:

Certification in black state, which corresponds to the original

project, with the initial estimate.

The approved certification, in status in black and green, with

the current estimate.

The full certification, with the possible estimate.

Each comparison provides a different information, depending on the

reference or baseline chosen.

Evolution of the estimate as the execution progress

As certifications is being approved, the estimate current value is also

saved, so that you can see its progress over the execution of the pro-

ject.

These values are in the estimate windows, in certification layouts and

in the stages windows, in “Est”, “EstIni”, “EstMod”, “EstPend” fields of

the “Stages” table.

Following the same criteria, the values for the target costs and other

estimates based on the target, in the “Tgt”, “TgtEst” and “TgtReal”

fields are also saved.

Other combinations of fields

The program calculates all combinations of prices and quantities dis-

aggregated by states.

The fields name contains the pricing structure and the state, in the

following combinations:

Value Prefix Structure Status Structure

Quantity Qty Ini · Mod · Pend [N]

Amount Amnt Ini · Mod · Pend [N]

Amount Amnt Est · Plan · Real · Cert · Tgt Ini · Mod · Pend

For amounts can be used both ways


The “N” indicates the index pricing structure, according to the table of the

economic model.

Fields are always of the “Relations” table, because the unit prices of

the items are identical for all states, for which the differences appear

only in the quantities and amounts.

Field Description

Relations.QtyIni [1] Concept take-off lines in the initial estimate.

Relations.QtyMod [3] Quantity executed the concept corresponding

to approved changes.

Relations.AmntEstIni

Relations.AmntIni [1]

Amount of the concept in the initial estimate.

Relations.AmntPlanMod

Relations.AmntMod [5]

Amount of planning that applies strictly to ap-

proved modified.

Relations.AmntEstPend

Relations.AmntPend [1]

Amount of changes of the estimate pending of

approval.

Relations.AmntRealPend

Relations.AmntPend [3]

Amount of the executed part of the project

pending of approval.

Results of monitoring cost

The breakdowns and comparisons by state are available:

In layouts of states of the estimate windows.

In the estimate windows, activities and stages subordinate

windows.

In the main window of activities.

Reports of the group “05 Certifications”:

Take-off lines by states

Chapters and work items with breakdown of take-offs by state ap-

proval.

Comparative summary of modified

Chapters with breakdown of amounts by approval states.



Presto for construction company This chapter describes the processes to be performed to monitor the

cost from the point of view of the construction company:

Procurement and subcontracts.

Control of production.

Invoicing and other documents of accounting and manage-

ment of one or more projects.

Analysis of costs and expenses.

The Earned Value Management for the construction company (EVM)

and the Economic Information System (EIS), as described in “Service

request” web of Presto, “Contracts and orders, billing and control”

section.

Procurement and subcontracting

Presto calculates the resources needed to carry out different process-

es:

Calculate the necessary equipment and operators.

Create contracts.

Analyse the performance from a financial point of view.

The procurement process can be automated considerably if a work is

prepared buying groups, and subsequently adapted to each supply in

the work groups are assigned.

The resource calculation previously requires to define how to execute

the project concepts, dividing them into two major sections:

Supplies

Those who will buy or outsource.

The concept nature icon is coloured orange background.

Are purchased or contracted, and their inferior concepts, if

any, are not taken into account for the purposes of execution.

Destination

Also called cost centers.

Those who are to be manufactured or will be receiving of allo-

cations.

The concept nature icon is green background colour.


It can be work items, chapters, or any other concept created

that you want to know its cost.

A destination can be part of another destination.

The root concept is always a destination.

It assigns to a concept the property of a supply / destination

The assignment is done via the context menu on the “Code”, “NatC”,

“Nat” or “ TypeCost” fields.

Concepts.TypeCost

.TypeCostX

Type cost TypeCostX By default Meaning

Supply 1 Basics Purchased or outsourced to third

parties.

Path 2 Chapters

(trades)

It runs on the work or other form by

grouping. Equivalent to the cost

center.

Contract 3 Chapters and

destinations

It groups suppliers to solicit bids to

the same type of supplier.

Undefined 0 Work items Concepts unclassified.

For example, the work items that are decomposed should uncheck as

supplies to obtain the number of operators simultaneously present in

the work or the amounts disaggregated by natures. Once calculated

the resources, you can return to the previous situation. Once calculat-

ed the resources, you can return to the previous situation.

Fills in procurement groups

Purchasing groups represent families of products that are outsourced

or purchased from the same suppliers. The assignment of purchasing

groups to the supplies permit grouping for the calculation of re-

sources and the creation of contracts.

Concepts.Group

Group or family purchase assigned to a concept.

Figure in windows:

Estimate, layout “Resources and purchasing groups”.

Concepts scheme “contracted supplies or orders”.


The group code may or may not correspond to an existing concept.

The suggest button shows the groups that are in the box buying

groups.

The concepts without purchasing group are assigned to the purchas-

ing group of the first superior who does. This way, you can assign

purchasing groups generic to the chapters and only need to assign

specific groups to the inferior concepts that are contracted separately.

For example, if the chapter of structures is assigned to a group and

the concrete plant to another, separately will be obtained the neces-

sary resources for the execution of the structure and for the supply of

ready-mixed concrete.

If you must purchase the same concept to more than one supplier

can:

Using the same concept and break down after the contract.

Duplicate the concept with other code and assign it of input

to two purchasing groups.

The group, family or lot of purchasing associated to each supply can

be assigned manually, or globally via this option of “PROCESS” menu,

which has several criteria to choose.

Project with contracts

It’s a Presto project and must be selected in “FILE: Working environ-

ment: Master references: Contracts”. The project can be prepared be-

fore computing resources and lets you:

Use the same classification of purchasing groups on all works.

Associate the appropriate purchasing group to each supply.

Attach each contract a predefined text.

Find the most suitable suppliers for each contract.

The box purchasing groups must contain concepts chapter type. As-

sociated supplies and suppliers, if any, should be as inferior concepts.

The search for the groups corresponding to each supply is provided

by two alternative systems.

On the supply code

The group of supply is the chapter that share more initials with the

supply code, looking in decreasing order of characters.

For example, for supply of code “P17AB01”, “P17AB01”, “P17AB0 “,

“P17AB”, “P17a”, “P17 “, “P1” and “P” are searched the chapters until it

finds one.


In this case, the purchasing groups table should only contain chapters

and suppliers.

By association of groups and supplies

In this case, the concepts of type chapter must have as inferiors the

supplies that apply, that must be work items or basic natures.

The supply code also is searched also by decreasing order of charac-

ters, so it is only necessary to include the supplies needed based on

the common initials. For example, if all the ceramics bricks begin with

“P10ML”, the purchasing groups need only the reference material

“P10ML”.

If the purchasing groups table must have supplies whose code matches

to any chapter, add an underscore “_” after the code of supply; the

program does not take into account in search.

Unlike the previous case, the group is not the same found concept,

but its parent of chapter type. This system is very flexible, because the

coding system of the groups and supplies can be completely inde-

pendent.

Initial

It assigns a code group consisting of the initials of each supply code.

Basic concepts

It classifies the supplies by basic natures. If the group is registered as

a concept, its description is displayed.

Calculate resources

This “PROCESS” menu option calculates the resources needed to exe-

cute the project. This calculation is necessary to generate the con-

tracts or for obtaining the number of operators and equipment.

Resources are all the project concepts, whether or not supplies, who

have not concept that is superior that be supply. Thus, the sum of

amounts of all resources match the total of the project.

Using a selection or masks, you can filter the concepts you want to

calculate the resources, from all the project to a chapter or set of work

items.

The four criteria of calculation can be executed separately and their

results are independent, so it can be obtained, consulted and used

four different sets of values.


Days, months and years

It calculates the daily necessary resources based on the data of the

Gantt chart, distributing the estimate and target quantities linearly on

the weekdays of each task.

Results by date

In the “Concepts” window, subordinate “Resources”.

In the “Diary” window, subordinate “Resources” with the layout relat-

ed to days or months. Values for months and years are the sum of

their days.

By stages

Necessary resources for each stage or certification period. The quanti-

ties are taken from the planned quantity in each stage, so there are

only values for the target.

Results by stages

In the “Concepts” window scheme “Labor and machinery phased”

there is a drop-down list to select multiple columns for resources in

phases.

In the “Dates “window, “Resources” subordinate, both with layouts

concerned to stages.

By activities

Required resources to execute each activity. The quantities are based

on the activities to the take-off lines are associated. They are calculat-

ed not disaggregated by dates, which are not dependent on the sta-

tus of activity on the Gantt chart.

Results by activities

In the “Activities” window, subordinate “Resources”.

Calculating equipment

This option deletes the existing values and populates the field in the

manpower and equipment concepts, dividing the total quantity of

required hours in the stage by its number of days and by the entered

value in the “Duration of the workday in hours” option.

Results

In the “Concepts” scheme “Labor and machinery phased” window,

choose “QtyEquipment” drop-down list multiple fields.


Breakdown by stages with different types of grouping

By stages, grouped by

It calculates the resources disaggregated by stages, based on eco-

nomic planning, gathering the resources by various criteria.

The results are seen in “VIEW: Resources by groups”, containing lay-

outs with different levels of breakdown and sorting criteria.

First superior of the target type

Resources and the amounts for each destination and phase are ob-

tained.

The concepts without top of type destination are assigned to the root

concept.

Purchasing group

It is the natural choice to generate contracts.

The concepts are grouped by the field content with the purchasing

group, with the conditions described in “Purchasing groups”.

If a concept depends on several higher concepts belonging to differ-

ent purchasing groups will be subdivided into the required groups.

Suppliers

Concepts.Supplier

Filling in this field concepts, enables resource pools alternative to pur-

chasing groups form.

Fields of the resources table

Resources.Code

Code of the activity concept.

.Date

Date on which used.

.Group

Group that is used.

.DescriptionGroup

Summary of the group.

.NatGroup

Nature of the group.

.Stage

Stage where is used.


.QtyStocks

Quantity of the concept purchased and not consumed at the date.

.QtyEquipments

Number of equipment.

.QtyPendCont

Quantity pending of hiring.

.ContPend

Amount due to contract.

Results of the calculation of resources

Directory “03 Financial planning”:

Analysis of resources by months

This Excel template displays a detailed load histogram of the neces-

sary resources, once the resource calculation performed.

Contracting and purchasing

A contract is a grouping of similar supplies, that are executed or

served by a same family of suppliers. Contracts are used to request

offers from suppliers, comparing the results, choose the most suitable

awarded and provide the basis for managing the execution of the

work.

The contracts have the same properties of concepts, and are always

characterized by cost centers or destinations. Its behaviour is similar

to other documents and supplies that in the case of contracts are

their inferiors’ concepts.

Contracts can be created:

Manually in the “Contracts” window, by entering the supplies

in the corresponding subordinated window, as well as text and

other needed associated files.

Manually marking chapters as “Contract” on its code or na-

ture in the estimates windows, provided they contain not cost

centres in their inferior concepts.

Automatically using the procedure described below.

Create contracts

This “PROCESS” menu option previously requires the calculation of

resources.


A contract for each group that appears in the “Resources by groups”

window, which may correspond to destinations, purchasing groups or

suppliers is generated. You can delete from this table the groups that

do not want to convert into contracts, select some groups or filter

them using a mask.

Allows you to create, for each group:

A single contract, with the quantity broken down by stages.

A separate contract for each stage.

A contract with the outstanding amount of hiring.

The contract code is formed with the purchasing group code and if

that code already exists, it add the prefix “_”, and existing previsionals

contracts for the same groups are eliminated, unless the option of

pending quantities is selected.

The description and the text of the contract are taken from the select-

ed purchasing group database, looking for equivalence between

codes.

Contracts are generated with the red state, so to calculate the con-

tracted quantities and amounts, you must to change the status to

“Black” or “Green”.

In the estimate structure of chapters, with the “CON_” code contain-

ing the contracts generated and facilitates its integration to the esti-

mate, a chapter is created.

Integration in the estimate

Contracts can be part or not of the structure of the estimate, if they

have superior concepts that link to the root concept.

If part of the structure, besides its own contract amounts, the same

economic values for other concepts are obtained.

If the contracts are part of the structure but do not want to join the es-

timate, you must set field as null (the quantity or the price).

Contracts can fully match to the estimate chapters. Thus, subcontract-

ed work items match the certifiable and obtained directly all amounts

necessary for economic monitoring.

Contracted quantity and price target

The quantity of each supply contract is the target quantity.


This quantity can be segmented into stages and if is introduced so

into “Supplies” subordinate window, “Quantities by stages” layout, or

when is automatically generated.

The contract target cost is obtained by applying to the total contract-

ed quantity the target unitary price for supplies.

Each stage contains the following fields:

Stages.QtyPlan

Quantity to contract in the stage, introduced directly or calculated

based on the take-off lines allocated to this planning stage.

.Plan

Amount corresponding to the last quantity, a price target.

.PlanEst

Contracted quantity, to the estimate price.

Request prices to suppliers

Associate suppliers

Each contract can be up to 16 providers, which are associated drag-

ging the supplier from the window of entities or by choice “Search

and associate suppliers”.

Their data is entered in the appropriate columns of the subordinate

window of supplies.

Remove bid

On the window header removed permanently supplies provider com-

parison. To remove a supplier temporarily, without losing the prices

offered, assign Color “Grey” in the window of entities.

Concepts.NumSup

This field contains the number of suppliers associated to the contract.

Find and associate supplier

It selects the appropriate suppliers for each contract by:

All suppliers of the project, in light yellow.

Purchasing groups’ suppliers corresponding to the contents of

“Group” field of the contract or to its inferior concepts, as de-

scribed in “Purchasing groups table”.

Suppliers can be filtered by ZIP code of the work.

The marked suppliers are associated to the contract by clicking “Ac-

cept”.


Request prices

Contracts can be sent to suppliers to request tenders:

In Presto or Excel format, with “FILE: Export: Price quote” op-

tion.

Through reports or Word templates.

Export price request

This option generates a Presto project or an Excel workbook for each

supplier that is associated to contracts without awarding.

If it is a project, will contain a chapter for each contract in which the

supplier is displayed, with the quantity to bid on each supply.

For an Excel workbook:

A sheet or tab is created for each contract in which the suppli-

er appears.

Each sheet has the contract code, its name and text, the gen-

eral data of the project and the constructor data.

It contains a concept for each supply, with the offered quantity

and an empty column for the price.

All fields are protected (not password), except the price.

In both cases, the name of the generated files is the project plus the

supplier code, separated by an admiration. In addition, an email is

created for each supplier whose “Email” field is defined, with the cor-

responding attachments files.

The supplier must complete the unit price that proposes, clear the

concepts does not offer and return the same file.

Import price request

Sent requests can be imported with “FILE: Import: Bid”.

This option automatically populates the price offered by the supplier

for each supply. The supplies that have been deleted from the project

or the Excel workbook are displayed with “NA” price.

In the message window possible incidents are indicated, as non-

existing contracts or supplies not enlisted in the contract.

Input the received data

Received bids are entered automatically as described in “Price quote”,

or manually in the fields associated to the supplier in the supplies

window. The supplier code is in the header field and the full name

appears on the track help.


Prices.Price

Price offered by the supplier to this supply and this contract.

A supplier can only bid at all times to the same unitary price for each

supply. However, the price is saved with the contract while awarding,

and the bid price may vary thereafter.

The “NA” (not available) value indicates a supply not offered; it can be

introduced with [Delete] key. The zero price means that the concept

has not cost and is included in another.

The amount is the bid price applied to the target quantity.

.Note

Specific comment for a supplier and a supply.

Award and use of contracts

Compare contracts

Comparing contracts can be performed directly in the contracts win-

dow, where the total amounts that can be compared with each other

and with the target amount of each contract.

You can also use the report “Comparative contract” or export the lay-

out to Excel.

Concepts.BaseAvg

Contract amount considering in each supply the average price offered

by suppliers.

.BaseMin

Theoretical minimum amount of the contract, taking in each supply

the shortest of the offered prices.

Compare the supplies of the contracts

They are seen in the subordinate contracts window called “Supplies”.

.SigmaCont

Normalized standard deviation (divided by the average price) of dif-

ferent bids of each supply.

.AvgCont

Average unit price of the supply bids.

Relations.AmntAvgCont

Supply amount to the average unit price.

Concepts.MinCont

Unit Price offered lower of the supply.


Relations.AmntMinCont

Amount of supply with the lowest offered price.

Award a contract to a supplier

The contract is awarded choosing the vendor code from those in the

offer, using the suggest button.

Also a contract is awarded with “Award” option on the header of any

column of the desired supplier, in the supplies subordinate window.

In awarding a contract to a supplier:

The offered price for each supply goes to “Price” field of the

relationship between supply and contract, being fixed, but lat-

er the supplier bid this same supply to another price.

The price is also copied to the “Cont” field of the concept that

contains the last price at which it was contracted. This field will

be replaced if it is subsequently awarded the same supply to

another price, by the same or another supplier.

Concepts.Supplier

In contracts, code of the chosen supplier in the contract award.

.Cont

This field contains the total contract amount to the prices offered by

the supplier of choice.

Relations.AmntCont

Amount of the contracted supply.

Update the target from the contracts supply prices

Skip contract price target

Choice of the “Contract” window, through which, once the supplier,

copy the price of supply in the “Concepts.Tgt” field, and the vendor

code in the “Concepts.Supplier” field awarded.

Creating documents of economic control from contracts

Transfer to order | Transfer to delivery order | Transfer to invoice

Since contracts can create orders, deliveries, invoices, provided that

the tenderer is not the type “Supplier (cumulative)”.

In the generated document, the “OriContract” field contains the con-

tract code of origin. If the contract quantity is not broken down by

stages, the new document has the contracted quantity less the or-

dered or delivered for each supply, as applicable.


Results of contracting and purchasing

If the contract is part of the estimate structure and are introduced

appropriate quantities and prices, the results for contracts are the

same as for any other concept are obtained, as estimated production,

earned value or the actual cost.

If the contract structure matches the estimate can compare revenues,

costs, certification and values of economic management.

From award contracts may make a financial planning. Refer to

“PROCESS: Create invoices”, section of contracts.

Estimate windows

In the subordinate window “Prices”, “In contracts” layout, you can

check the price for each concept offered by each supplier.

Reports of the group “07 Procurement”:

Some reports take into account the status of contracts. For example,

to print a firm contract is not enough to award the tender to a suppli-

er; further its status should be “Black” or “Green”.

Price quote

It prepares a letter to each supplier, with the requested quantities of

concepts to bid; only you have to fill prices.

Comparative contracts

It compares the offered lots by different suppliers, and shows in green

the cheapest bids, the amount of the ideal bid, the average and the

deviation from the expected estimate.

Firm contracts

It prepares a document with the main features of the successful ten-

der.

Contracts and supplies

Contract disaggregated by supplies.

Contracted and ordered concepts

Control of deviations of quantities: planned, contracted and order.

Work items from a supplier

It displays the items relating to each supplier.

Resources by groups

List of resources grouped by group, previously calculated with the

process options “Calculate resources”.


Firm orders

Documents of orders to suppliers.

Production

Production is the project actually executed, valued at estimate prices.

It represents the collection right, which may or may not coincide with

the certification, and is the basis for calculating the actual cost of the

cost centers.

The project actually executed is introduced in the same way as certifi-

cation, either as a lump sum of the work item, by stages or associat-

ing take-off lines. From this level of detail dependent the production

values that are obtained for tracking the project.

If the actual execution matches the certification, you can directly copy

data between fields of stages.

Copy certifications

This “PROCESS” menu option, copies the take-off lines, stages or

lump sums from the pricing structure chosen in “Origin” to the cho-

sen in “Destination”, eliminating previously the pre-existing infor-

mation.

It is a quick and easy way to get:

Production, as a result of copying certification.

The estimated certification as a result of copying the planning.

If the destination is planning, the lump sums are not copied.

Fields of production

Production can be obtained based on different quantities and at dif-

ferent levels of detail.

The critical areas for monitoring the project, as estimated production

and non-certified production are obtained approval disaggregated

states.

The indented indicate fields that are breakdowns of the above.

Fields Estimated production, based on the target

PlanEst Planned production until current stage.

TgtEst Estimated total production.

Broken down by states of approval.

TgtEstIni Estimated total production contained in the

initial estimate.


Fields Estimated production, based on the target

TgtEstMod Estimated total production of the amended

estimate.

TgtEstPend Estimated total production pending of approv-

al.

Fields Real production

RealEst Real production until the current stage.

Broken down by states of certification.

RealCertEst * Executed and certified (firm) production.

RealNoCertEst * Executed and non-certified (pending) produc-

tion.

Broken down by approval states or risk levels.

RealNoCertEstIni Production in process contained in the initial

estimate.

RealNoCertEstMod

Production in process corresponding to the

modified.

RealNoCertEstPend

Production in proceedings pending of approv-

al.

* Calculated solely from take-off lines matching

Expression Margin or profit

RealEst - Real Real, to date.

PlanEst - Plan Estimated, until date.

TgtEst - Tgt Estimation, until the end of the project.

All these fields are obtained for the work items and the higher con-

cepts as well as for activities, phases and calendar.

They may have the prefix:

Qty, referring to quantities.

Amnt, which refers to amounts.

Without code, which are also typically amounts.

The most commonly used values on the diagrams of each produc-

tion-related window. Others can be found by selecting the column to

the table and field.

For example, the production pending of approval and not certified, by

days, months or years, is:


Diary.RealNoCertEstPend

The amounts disaggregated by approval states provide very detailed

results, which can provide more information than the totals. For ex-

ample, the overall difference between production and certification:

RealEst - Cert

It does not let detect uncertified production if is offset by certification

that is not in the estimate.

The program also calculates the most significant percentages.

Field Meaning Chapters (trades) Other items

PerProdEst Production

over estimate.

(RealEst * 100) / Est (QtyReal * 100) /

QtyEst

PerProd Real advance

on overall pro-

duction.

(RealEst * 100) / TgtEst (QtyReal * 100) /

QtyTgt

You can get other percentages, deviations and comparisons using

user fields or reports.

Portfolio: estimate pending of execute

This predefined expression shows the work pending of execute re-

spect to the total target:

Relationes.AmntTgtEst - Relations.AmntRealEst

The pending work over the total possible estimate may be obtained

from the expression:

Relations.AmntEstPossible - Relations.AmntRealEst

Invoices

The economic control system has two targets, one administrative and

other analytical:

The monitoring of invoicing, typing various documents, ac-

cording to the desired level of control, such as orders, deliver-

ies, invoices and maturities.

The cost analysis, integrated with document management.

Presto suits many different control procedures; is advisable to know

the different possibilities well before its implementation.


Project settings: Calculations: Consider only documents in approved

stages

With this enabled option are not considered the purchases or the

allocations on deliveries or invoices after the current certification date.

Documents of the economic control

The invoicing process can be performed by orders, deliveries or in-

voices. The introduction of orders and deliveries is optional.

The common options to all three types of documents, which are in-

troduced into the windows “Orders”, “Deliveries” and “Invoices” are

described in this section.

The “Work assignments” window has a similar behaviour described in

“Analysis of costs and expenses”.

The documents are broken down into supplies and can take a text

and associated files. Invoices can also have maturities.

Documents state

Documents in red and grey status are considered pending of approval

and are not taken into account in the calculations, except for the bal-

ance and cash flow.

The document status is chosen and indicates with its own colour in

the “Document” and “Note” fields.

.State

Approval status of the document.

Required fields

To create a document you must enter at least the following:

.Document

The code combination of document and entity must be unique for

each year. If you are exporting the documents to an accounting pro-

gram, consider its specific conditions.

.Entity

Agent code that emits or receives the document. To the right appears

the “Description” field of the entity. Do not exists on work assign-

ments.

This entity can be modified while any of the document supplies be

associated to another document.

.Date

Greyed if not considered in the calculation.


Other common fields

.Info

Indicates whether the document has supplies, text or associated files,

as described in “Use Interface: Layout: Columns of information fields”.

.BaseOrd | .BaseDel | .BaseInv | .BaseDest

Sum of the amounts of supplies of a document that are associated

with documents of each of the other types.

It detects easily the status of order, delivery, invoicing and consump-

tion of supplies.

.Note

Brief summary of the document.

.DestinationDef

Document default destination.

.DefDescription

Summary of destination by default.

.OrContract

Contract of provenance of the document.

.Place

Location where the delivery of supply or service.

.Payment

Days to pay.

.Bond

Percentage of guarantee.

.UsrNum

Numeric value that the user associates to the document.

.Issued

Type of document. 0: Received from suppliers, 1: Issued to customers.

.AccSupplier

Account counterpart of the document.

.Work

When an integration of linked projects is done, figure the project of

origin of the invoice, provided that all the supplies are of a single pro-

ject.


Common options to documents

The following options are also available in the subordinate window of

supplies of each document.

Transfer to order | Transfer to invoice

Create a document of the type indicated from the source document.

It can be enabled on a document, a supply or a selection of them. If

it’s activated on several documents at once, a single document for

each supplier involved, with all the supplies.

You can also create documents:

Dragging a document from one type to the window of anoth-

er.

Writing a document code, which may or may not exist previ-

ously, in one of the fields of a supply document.

Merge

It consolidates all supplies of the concept of each one of the selected

documents, with the total quantity and the weighted average price.

Copy the previous document

It copies the supplies of the previous document of the same supplier.

It is especially useful for creating invoices to origin.

Supplies

The documents are broken down into supplies, with concepts orders,

delivered or invoiced.

In this section are described the common options to all types of doc-

uments, except those corresponding to the analysis of costs, such as

allocations to destinations and projects.

Although not specifically marked, it becomes in a supply all indefinite

concept that be in a contract, order, delivery or receipted invoice.

Supplies.Code

Supplies may be added:

Typing your code by copying and pasting or dragging the

concept from the windows of the budget and concepts.

With the suggest button, which shows the most likely supplies,

as already supplied by the same supplier and of the same na-

ture.

Typing new codes that are not in the estimate.


The description and the unit of measure are the same of the concept

in the estimate.

To rename a supply code, rename your code concept. This can be

done in any of the windows budget or concepts.

.Quantity

The suggest button shows useful values to fill the field, as the esti-

mate and target quantities, contracted, ordered, delivered and in-

voiced, for the document supplier and also the totals.

If the quantity is zero, the unit price is taken directly as amount; this

allows you to enter additional costs of a supply that do not involve an

increase in the quantity.

.Factor

Coefficient that affects the quantity of the supply.

.QtyNet

Net quantity, product of quantity and factor.

.PerDiscount

Discount rate affects the price of supply.

.Price

Unit price of supply. The default price is the contract price or the tar-

get, in this order.

The suggest button shows useful values to populate the field, as esti-

mate prices, target and real, last, minimum and maximum contracted.

Although the price is displayed with rounding established for con-

cepts of basic natures, if more decimal places are entered, is saved

and is operated without rounding.

.PrNet

Net price, resulting from applying the discount to the unit price.

.Amount

Product of the net price multiplied by the net amount.

.IVA

Percentage of tax applicable to the supply. Default applies the VAT

associated to customer or supplier.

.Note

Text for a specific supply.

.DateSched

Scheduled date of delivery of a supply.


.DateEnd

Completion expected date of delivery of the supply.

.DateProcurement

Purchase date of supply, which lets you assign different dates of the

document to which it belongs.

.ProcurementOK

It has value 1 when the purchase document is on firm and the pur-

chase date belongs to the approved certifications.

Relationship between documents

A same supply line can appear simultaneously in an order, in a deliv-

ery and in an invoice, and always will be of the same supplier. Thus,

the tracking is very easy, since each supply of a document, the other

documents those belong it, is directly checked.

.Order | .Delivery | .Invoice

These fields show the other documents contained in the supply. You

can also type a document code, existing or not, to add the supply.

If a code is changed, the supply changes to the new document.

If the code is cleared, the supply is removed from the document, but

if the full line of supply is removed in a document window does not

disappear from the other documents listed.

In addition, double-click these fields opens the corresponding win-

dow filtered for that document.

Split

Unfold a supply to facilitate deliveries, invoices or fractional alloca-

tions.

Examples

The following case has been made an order that it has been received

and has been completely invoiced:

Concept Quantity Order Delivery Invoice

Bricks 10.000 P-008 A005 08/2004

For that, the supply has to maintain the same quantity and the same

price in the three documents. If not, it should unfold as many times as

necessary:


Bricks 3.000 P-008 A005 07/2004



Bricks 5.000 P-008 A006

Bricks 2.000 P-008

In this example we have received two deliveries of a larger order and

are only invoiced one of the deliveries.

You can also create supplies in an order that are delivered and in-

voiced in other documents:


Bricks 10.000 008

Bricks 5.000 A005 08/2004

Bricks 5.000 A008 10/2004

It has been delivered and invoiced the entire order, as the total quan-

tities matches, but in two parts.

However, if a supply is separately on a delivery and an invoice, is con-

sidered to have been purchased in duplicate:


Bricks 10.000 A005

Bricks 10.000 08/2004

In this case, 20,000 units were purchased. The part is delivered un-

voiced and invoiced portion is undelivered.

Invoices

The invoice is the most comprehensive document for administrative

control and cost analysis.

Previsionals invoices are those with its “Red” status. This type of in-

voices is used for example before starting the execution to analyse

the financing by charges and previsionals payments.

Invoices.Entity

The invoice type depends on the type of the associated entity:

Entity Invoice Color Utilization

Any Received White All kinds of purchases and ex-

penses

Cumulative Received to

source

Orange Purchases to suppliers to origin


Promoter Issued Blue Collection of certifications

User Issued Blue Collects on sale of homes

The entity may change of type while only is associated to an invoice.

The invoices from customers, it is considered that the issuer is the

entity defined as “Builder” type.

When an invoice is created, the next values of the associated entity

are taken by default that are entered in the “Entities” window, “Invoic-

ing” layout:

Field (*) Use It affects

WithldngWarrDef Warranty withholding Invoices

WithldngTaxDef Withholding tax Invoices

PerVAT VAT rate Supplies of invoice

DayPayment1 First payday Maturities

DayPayment2 Second payday Maturities

MethodPayment Mode of maturity Maturities

(*) Fields of “concepts” table

.WithldngWarr

Retention rate that applies to the supplier as guarantee.

There are two ways to execute this withholding, as described in “Ma-

turities: Withholding”.

.WithldngTax

Percent retained to supplier against their taxes and to be paid to the

tax authority.

.AmntWithldngWarr |.AmntWithldngTax

Amounts of warranty withholding and tax.

Those the warranty are accumulated in the address book fields and

entities:

“WithldngWarr” for received invoices.

“WithlgCustomer” for invoices issued to customers.

The “WithldngWarr” field of the supplier accumulates only guarantees

unpaid.

.IVA

Fee of the value added tax or equivalent tax, calculated on the rates

applied to each supply.


.Amount

Invoice total amount, i.e., base plus VAT less tax.

The red colour indicates a mismatch between the invoice and maturi-

ties:

Withholding maturities do not match with the result of apply-

ing the percentages displayed for the invoice.

The sum of maturities does not match the total amount.

.Exp

It marks when exporting invoices to accounting programs. To re-

export, unmark previously.

e-Invoice XML

This “Export” menu option creates an XML file in electronic format

with the selected invoices to be digitally signed.

Suppliers with totalling invoices

The invoices to suppliers of this type is taken into account only the

last invoice from the supplier. Not accept orders or deliveries.

Each invoice must include the content of the previous.

Each certification stage can have only one invoice for each

supplier to origin.

Check “Presto for the construction company: Invoicing: Records of

economic control: Copy previous document”.

.BaseInvOr

This field contains the basis to origin of an invoice from a cumulative

supplier. It has grey background in all invoices, except in the most

recent of each supplier.

Maturities

Each invoice issued or received may be associated with an unlimited

number of receipts or payments, respectively.

The context menu over the maturities or invoices windows let creating

automatically the most common types of maturities, with the corre-

sponding breakdown to the invoicing of the associated entity. If the

maturities amount does not match its invoice, the “Amount” field of

the invoice is red.

The default maturity is that the payment method of the associate en-

tity.


The processes that create invoices automatically also create the default

maturities, so that previously defining the payment method of each

entity is obtained together with the invoices the project calendar of re-

ceipts and payments.

Maturities can also be entered manually, by selecting the term of ma-

turity from the context menu.

State of maturities

Maturities can be defined as paid or unpaid by colour or status with

the contextual menu on any field of maturity:

Paid: Black or Green.

Pending: Red or Grey.

These colors or states are in the “Note” field of the maturity.

Warranty withholding

It’s a non-paid maturity that serves as warranty for the performance

of a work or delivery of a material. In automatic maturities, the war-

ranty withholding is returned one year after the date of the received

invoice.

Withholding can be applied in the invoices window with one of the

following criteria:

Warranty withholding after VAT

Withholding is calculated on the base, and the VAT is paid in full on

the date that corresponds to your settlement.

Warranty withholding before VAT

Withholding is calculated on the base, but the payment of VAT is de-

ferred to a further maturity when withholding is returned.

The “WithldngWarr” field of the invoice appears in grey.

Fields in maturities

Maturities.Date

You can set the date for each supplier maturity to one or two specific

days of the month. Indicated in the “Entities” window, “Invoicing” lay-

out, in “DayPayment1” and “DayPayment2” fields:

In invoices received: entity defined as “Contractor”.

In issued invoices: entity associated to the invoice.


.Type

It indicates the source of the amount of maturity, and may be invoice

amounts, withholdings or taxes.

.Amount

Red colour indicates that this is a payment, and black one a collect.

.Note

The suggest button shows the most common payment instruments.

.Bank

Financial institution associated to the payment method.

.PerPayment

Percentage of the maturity respect to the invoice total amount.

.Cashflow

Difference between receipts and payments for the period.

.OrCashflow

Accumulated cash flow since the beginning of the work to date, with

its sign, which represents the state of treasury.

The IRR internal rate of return of this cash flow, is contained in “Pro-

ject settings: Miscellaneous” option.

Fields aggregated on invoices

Invoices.PaymentPaid

Sum of paid maturities (black or green).

.PaymentPend

Sum of maturities pending of payment (red or grey).

Results of the invoicing

The “CALCULATIONS: Documents” option totalling all amounts by

item, suppliers and dates from the invoice data.

The amounts can be seen in the windows for each element type and

are in the fields indicated in the following tables.

Field Amount in supplies, suppliers and dates

Contracts Contract

ContPend In contracts without assigned supplier

Orders In orders

Procurement In deliveries and invoices

Delivery or-

ders

In delivery documents


Field Amount in supplies, suppliers and dates

Invoices In invoices

InvCustomer In invoices to customers

Fields of amounts of documents

Field Calculated amounts in suppliers and dates

IVA Input VAT

VATCustomer Output tax

WithldngTax Tax withholding deducted by supplier

WithldngTaxCustomer Tax deducted to customer

WithldngWarr Warranty withholding practiced by the supplier

WithldngWarrCustomer Warranty withholding practiced to the customer

Fields of taxs, withholdings and warranties

Field Calculated amounts in suppliers and dates

Collection Collected maturities of customer invoices

CollectionPend Maturities pending of collect of invoices from customers

Payment Maturities payed to supplier

PaymentPend Maturities outstanding of payment by the supplier

Maturity amount fields

Field For each concept

QtyContracts

QtyOrders

QtyDeliveries

QtyInvoices

Concept total quantity in each document

QtyProcurements Total quantity in deliveries or invoices

Contracts

Orders

Delivery orders

Invoices

Concept total amount in each document

Procurement Total amount in deliveries and invoices

Other results

Reports of the group “08 Invoicing”

Deviations of supplies by suppliers

Differences between the supplies of the selected documents ordered

by supplier.

Used for example to detect if any supply has been ordered but not

delivered.


Deviations supply

Same as above, but ordered by delivery code

Deliveries by dates

Deliveries totalled by month and filtered by dates and suppliers.

Deliveries by suppliers

Deliveries totalled by suppliers and filtered by dates and suppliers.

Invoices of subcontractors with take-off lines

Received invoices, planned or pending of approval, whose supplies

are work items.

Invoices issued to customers

Issued invoices, planned or pending of approval, whose supplies are

work items, with or without take-off lines.

Invoices by suppliers

Invoices grouped by supplier, filtered and broken down by various

criteria.

Invoices and maturities

Invoices received or issued totalled by months and filtered by dates,

suppliers, or approval states.

Supplies by dates

It lets see the supplies between a certain date period, the previous

period and later.

Supplies totalized by suppliers

Supplies provided by each supplier in a period of dates.

Maturity for dates

Study of receipts and payments by date and statements of approval.

Centralized invoicing

To make the process of document management in a common way for

a group of projects is necessary to create a central project as de-

scribed in “Projects integration”, where the general process of query

and use, is described, and enlist the works linked.

The management or invoicing process is identical to that described

for independent projects, except that:

The supplies allocations, plus of a destination, can be associat-

ed to one of the linked projects.


The concepts properties are unique by project, so that there

cannot be discrepancies between the central project and the

linked ones.

The calculation of actual costs for concepts that are consumed

by target is not calculated in the central work.

The cost analysis is performed on each project, though it may require

information generated in the central project, as the real prices of sup-

plies.

Share of the Information between the central and the projects

All documents upgrade options consolidate orders and deliveries of

different works with the same document code, supplier and date, as

well as invoices, in this case, of the same year.

There are three ways to enter information into the central project and

on the linked projects, which determine the options to be used in

“Update documents” and “Export documents”, of the “PROCESSES”

menu.

1. Documents are introduced into the central project

No need to update information about the projects, unless you want

to integrate previously existing projects.

You can export the documents to each project for viewing, exporting

all “Delete existing documents” or “Only documents not previously

exported”.

2 . Documents are introduced into the projects

To incorporate the central use the “Update documents” option.

You can create new documents in the central project, for example, to

allocate common expenses, or alter the received documents. In this

case, to keep these changes, use the “Only new documents” option.

3. Allocations are performed in the projects

Although the documents are introduced in the central, in the project

is usually better to know the destination of each consumption.

To do this, the documents can be exchanged between the central

project and the individual projects by using the options “Read cost

center allocations only” and "Delete existing documents, keep cost

center allocations", without altering any other information of docu-

ments.


Update documents

This “PROCESS” menu option, updates the information in the central

project that refers exclusively to the documents of the linked projects.

Texts and associated files of awarded contracts and documents are

also imported.

Read cost center allocations only

It assigns to the supplies the destinations that have in the allocations

made in each linked project.

Delete existing documents

It import the documents of each linked project, erasing previously

those in the central project.

Only new documents

It imports documents of each project, without altering the existing

ones, even if they were changed in the projects.

Consult at the central the contracts of the linked projects

The general data of contracts awarded for each work, are in the win-

dows of estimate sub window “Pricing of a work” scheme “Contracts”.

Awarded contracts and their supplies are in the “Contracts” window.

To see the origin project of the contract, add to the layout the

“Code2” column.

The contracts codes must be unique for project

See in the central project, the documents of the linked projects

The general data of supplies and suppliers of each work, are in the

windows of estimate sub window “Pricing of a work”.

The documents, supplies, maturities and suppliers, managed and con-

sulted on specific main windows of this data, as if it were an isolated

project. The only difference is that documents and supplies include

the “Work” field, which has the code of the linked project to which it

belongs. In the documents, is filled if all their supplies belong only to

a single project.

Export documents

This “PROCESS” menu option, updates the documents of the linked

projects from the information in the central project.


Delete existing documents, keep cost center allocations

It deletes the documents of each linked project but it maintains their

allocations and work assignments.

Delete existing documents

It replaces all existing documents in each linked project by that corre-

spond to the central project.

Only documents not previously exported

Exports to each project not export documents.

Results of centralized invoicing

Given the wealth of information that can accumulate in this type of

management, reports filters by dates, suppliers, etc., to get more spe-

cific results and adjusted to reality.

Reports of the group “10 Multiobra”

Purchasing, projects and suppliers

List of purchased supplies, broken down by manpower and supplier.

Works and costs center

List of works with cost centres and allocations received.

Projects, suppliers and purchases

List of projects with suppliers involved, and the supplies purchased to

each.

Analysis of costs and expenses

The same data entered in Presto for invoicing let’s to analyse in detail

the actual costs of execution.

The cost calculation is based on two tasks:

Enlist the production of each cost center, as described in “Pro-

duction”.

The allocation of consumptions, or allocation of supplies to

their cost centers, described in this section.

The actual unit cost of each cost center is the total amount of the al-

locations it receives divided by its production.

In all cost analysis processes are considered only the supplies of ap-

proved stages, if the labelled option is enabled.


Destination

The concepts of which we want to know the real cost should be

marked as targets or cost centers.

Contracts and the root concept are always cost centres and can also

be work items, chapters or concepts created specifically for it.

The difficulty of making a proper cost allocation increases geometrical-

ly with the number of cost centers.

In addition to the manually defined, Presto assigns as destinations the

undefined concepts that receive allocations.

A cost center may be part of other cost centers. The only limitation of

a cost center is that it cannot be both a supply, i.e., be bought or con-

tracted.

Expense and cost

The use or consumption of a supply in the execution of a cost center

is identified by an allocation.

This allocation has two distinct stages:

The time of purchase corresponds to expense, which is an ac-

counting concept. Presto allocate the expense in the date of

the document and to the destination of supply that is in the

delivery or invoice.

The time of the actual use of the resource in the execution

corresponds to the cost, which is an analytical concept. Presto

allocates the cost on the date of actual use or consumption of

supply.

The gap between expense and cost is essential to know the project

status, as described in the SIE (Financial Information System).

Consumption calculation types

Each concept can be associated with a method of calculating of con-

sumption, which is described below.

Concepts.TypeConsumption

The type is normally associated in windows budget and the concepts:

0: Consumption by target.

1: Consumption by allocation.


Cost Allocation

In deliveries and invoices

When a supply of a delivery or invoice is consumed at once and at the

same destination, to generate the cost allocation only is needed en-

tering its consumption date.

Supplies.Destination

Cost center code where the supply that is used, that must already

exist. The suggest button shows possible destinations, ordered by its

probability.

The supplies destination which are calculated by target figure in grey,

not taken into account in cost allocations.

.DateInput

Date the supply is consumed or used. The dates that are not consid-

ered in the calculation are greyed.

.InputOK

It has value 1 if the supply is a valid destination and date of attribu-

tion belongs to the approved certifications.

If the consumer is being charged, the purchase must be firm.

If consumption by target, it must have a part of the work with desti-

nation and valid date.

.Work

Work associated with the supply. Check “Presto at the stage of pro-

ject: An information system: Integration works”.

In parts of work

The work assignment is a document without issuing entity, which al-

lows enlisting inputs of supplies to their various destinations.

Fields with a different behaviour of the other documents are as fol-

lows.

Supplies.Quantity

The suggest button shows the amount of production. Introducing a

percentage in the next field can be allocated proportional consump-

tions to this value.

.Price

Shown in grey the actual unit cost obtained for the supply, which is

used to obtain the amount.


The use of the actual price on the work assignment avoids the need

to evaluate each of the supplies consumed. In addition, it independ-

ents the actual cost of each cost center of the possible price differ-

ences in different deliveries of the same supplies.

To know the real cost of cost centres taking into account the specific

purchase price of each supply, refer the allocations of expenses.

Consumption by target

The resources whose consumption is relatively fixed per produced

unit, as the materials, can be associated to the type of calculation

“Consumption by target”.

The unitary consumption of the concepts which are calculated by tar-

get is taken from the yield listed in the target cost, avoiding making

of allocations. It requires that exists a breakdown of the work items.

Presto automatically generates the allocations corresponding to con-

sumptions by target in a work assignment. This work assignment can-

not be changed, since in each calculation is generated again.

Concepts.QtyTotTheor

The concept total theoretical consumption is what should have been

consumed in the production function so far,i.e. the sum of the prod-

ucts of target unitary consumption in each parent multiplied by the

quantity produced from it.

Adjustment for purchases

In the supplies calculated by target may be a mismatch between two

quantities:

The difference between total purchases less stock.

The theoretical consumption.

Concepts.CoefConsTheor

Suggest button calculates the ratio of the previous two quantities,

providing that the ratio can be optionally applied to the theoretical

consumption to prevent this imbalance.

If the coefficient is 0, it is considered that not purchases and thus not

consumption, so that the work assignment is not generated.

The coefficient is applied to calculate the theoretical and actual

amounts, but is not included in the theoretical quantities and neither

in the work assignments.


In consumptions by target, the stocks must be entered manually, if this

setting is desired.

If a concept of consumption by target simultaneously acts as certifia-

ble work item and as a component of others cost centers, the adjust-

ment coefficient only is obtained and is applied to the quantities cor-

responding to these last ones.

Calculation of unitary consumptions

Relations.QtyReal

Consumption of certifiable items is equal to its production, regardless

of the type assigned consumption, which only intervenes if the work

item also contained in the decomposition of another.

The unitary consumption of a concept by allocation in each of their

superiors is the sum of the allocated quantities thereto, divided by the

total consumption of the superior.

Concepts by target unit consumption in any of their superiors is the

indicated in its decomposition, optionally set with purchases.

.QtyInput

This field contains the total quantity of the allocations between one

concept and another, without dividing by production.

In the subcontracted work items, this quantity corresponds to the

subcontractor invoicing, provided it have defined the destination, so

you can compare the production with the invoicing.

Concepts.QtyTotReal

Sum of amounts consumed of the concept in the entire work.

.QtyStocks

This field is contained in two tables:

Concepts for total stocks of the concept.

Resources for or annotate concept stocks staged. It’s as multi-

ple field in the window concepts.

Are in the “concepts” window, in the scheme of adequate stocks de-

pending on the type of consumer you want to analyse.

Supplies consumed by allocation

Stocks are obtained as the difference between purchases and con-

sumption, and in the last approved certification.

They are seen at the “Stocks: Consumption by imputation” layout.


Supplies consumed by target

Stocks should be filled manually, if you want to apply the adjustment

by purchases.

They look in “Stocks: Consumption per target” layout.

Calculation of actual costs

When not actual data on prices or yields, because not purchases or

allocations, the real price of default is:

For supplies, is the contracted or target.

For work items without production, is obtained from their in-

feriors.

The estimated final cost matches with the target, at the beginning of

the work, and the actual final cost, to completion.

The actual costing calculation is performed whenever there is any doc-

ument or contract.

Actual cost of supplies

Concepts.Real

Relations.AmntReal

The real cost of supplies can have different origins:

Color How to calculate the real cost

Orange Weighted average price of purchases.

Grey If not purchase, is the price of the contract or target.

Red It comes from the import from another program.

In calculating the weighted average prices, if the quantity of a supply

is zero, the amount is added without increasing the quantity.

Real cost of the other concepts

The unitary actual cost of concepts that are not supplies is calculated

from the bottom to up based on the actual quantity and the actual

unitary price of their inferiors.

Color Type

Blue Destination or cost center.

Magenta Undefined.


Probable price

Concepts.TgtReal

Relations.AmntTgtReal

The likely price suggest the total cost more probable of any concept

at the end of the work.

The proper term for this value, according to the EVM Earned Value

method is “EAC” (Estimate At Completion), or estimated final cost.

In Presto different estimates are calculated as defined in the EVM, but

also provides a more accurate value in these fields.

For supplies, the price probably is the same as the real.

For cost centres with production, is the same as the real. When not

production is calculated from the components, using as yields those

of the target, corrected with the procurement adjustment coefficient

if it’s consumption by target concepts.

For certifiable work items, the probable quantity is the target one.

Notional amount

Relations.AmntTheorReal

It is calculated valuing the theoretical consumption of each concept,

corresponding to the current production, to the actual cost.

In the concepts calculated by target is equal to the actual amount, but

which are calculated by allocation, gives an idea of the deviation due

solely to yields.

Other fields relating to the calculation of actual costs

Field Meaning Table

QtyReal Unitary real consumption or production. Relations

QtyTotReal Consumed total quantity. Concepts

QtyTotTheor Theoretical total quantity depending on the

target and production.

Concepts

Real Unitary real cost. Concepts

dates

AmntReal Consumed amount of a concept in another. Relations

TotReal Consumed total amount. Concepts

dates

TgtReal Final unitary cost most likely of the concept. Concepts

AmntTgtReal Most likely final cost of the relation. Relations

Input Total charged to a concept in another in a

stage.

Stages


Field Meaning Table

QtyInput Total quantity allocated to a concept in anoth-

er.

Relations,

stages

Allocations of expenses

Field Meaning Table

Orders Allocations to the concept in orders. Concepts

phases

Delivery

orders

Allocations to the concept in deliveries. Concepts

phases

Invoices Allocations to the concept in invoices. Concepts

phases

Procurement Allocations to the concept in deliveries and

invoices.

Concepts

phases

Export invoices

“PLUGINS” menu option that generates a text file with the data of all

bills whose “Exp” is not marked, and mark the field. The data are

separated by tabs.

Exported only firm invoices.

Cumulative suppliers’ supplies are not exported.

The highlighted fields are exported only with the “Winconta”

option enabled.

Invoices considering the counterparts of the work, supplier, in-

voice or concept supplied are distributed.

The% VAT document appears only if all supplies of the bill are

the same; Figure 0 otherwise but the quota is filled.

Document Key Fields

Invoices G Invoice number|Supplier|Date|Type E: Issued / R: Received|Base|% VAT|% Tax Withhold-

ing|% Retention Warranty| Fee VAT Tax Installment Fee Guarantee Amount Currency

Type of retention money 0: After 1: Before|Work|Pending pay-

ment|Paid|Note|DestinationDef|AccSuppliers

Supplies J Code|Unit|Description|QtyNet|PrNet|Amount|Invoice|Supplier|Destination|Work|Allocation

date|% VAT|Note|Price%|Discount|AccSuppliers

Maturities V Date| Amount | State P: Paid / E: Pending | Type N: Regular / RG: Warranty withholding /

RF: withholding tax | Note | Invoice | Supplier


Document Key Fields

Suppliers S Code | Name | NIF | Address | Telephone | Title | Contact | Note | City | Province | Post-

alCode | Email | Fax | AccSuppliers

Variables D [Variable Name | Value | Description]

Results of the analysis of costs and expenses

Reports of the group “09 Cost Analysis”:

Allocations to cost centers

List of destinations and allocations received by each.

Allocations of consumptions

List of supplies consumed, with the destinations where are allocated.

Production by work items

For each stage or month, shows the planned quantities, certified and

produced in each work item, totalling the amounts by stages.

Production by chapters

Description of planning-certification-production to date.

Stocks valuation

List of concepts with the quantities not allocated or existing in the

stock, valued at the actual price.



Menus and options This chapter breaks down the location of the different menu options,

but usually are detailed and explained in the process where they are

used.

FILE

New

It creates a new project, which is a file with the extension

“.PrestoObra” or “.po10”, on the indicated path.

When creating a new project without template, may require some

revision of data as the summary, name and value of some taxes, cur-

rencies or any other characteristic value of the project.

Template

Templates are Presto projects that serve as model for new projects,

avoiding entering repetitive data each time it is created.

The new project is a copy of the chosen template, with all their data

and properties. In it, the user can delete and add the chapters that

require to adequate the project to the habitual project. You can also

add new or delete existing templates.

They are located in the templates directory, and are supplied several

with different classifications, typology of projects and in several lan-

guages.

Check “FILE: Working environment: Directories”.

Open

It opens a project, a report or a CAD file, according to the window

from which is executed. The projects can also be opened from “FILE:

Projects” and from “REFERENCES”.

If Presto runs by the first time, the “. PrestoObra “ extension is associ-

ated to the program, allowing open a project or import the file with

double-click in Windows Explorer. Depending on the Windows ver-

sion, so this association is made may be necessary to run the program

at least once as administrator.

They can be opened simultaneously up to five projects. Each, displays

in the window header the opening order between brackets.

Presto works can be opened:


Directly, to read and write by a single user.

Directly, read-only mode by multiple users.

If the project is located in an http server on the Internet, typ-

ing or pasting the link in the dialog box “Open”. Opened in

read-only mode.

Through Presto Server, to be edited by multiple users simulta-

neously. Refer to “Setup guide” specific options “Presto Serv-

er”.

You can also open a project dragging to an icon or Presto

window.

Projects on standard exchange format, of extension “.BC3”, can also

be imported with “FILE: Import: BC3”.

If the project is password protected, the program will ask beforehand.

Some projects with password can only be opened from a particular

Presto license.

Open as read-only file

This option of “Open” dialog box opens the projects that are to be

used only in read mode, to prevent inadvertent modification.

The projects in read-only are opened much faster.

In the header of the window appears the message “(read-only)” and

all columns have the yellow background.

A project is automatically opened in read-only mode:

When the project is open by another user in read-only mode.

If the file, directory or media does not have write permission.

The works that are in the list of recent works, the end of the “FILE”

menu, open in the same way that opened the previous time. To open

it in another way, do it from the dialog box.

Projects

It catalogues, manages and administers projects. Directories and hid-

den files are not shown. The context menu options act on:

The directories, in the left frame.

The selected projects in the right frame.

Operate with directories

Create | Delete | Rename | Update

It lets performing these operations with directories.


Working directories

It is an alternative of this window to equivalent options of “FILE:

Working environment: Directories”.

Presto Server directories

Options permissions and user access. Refer to “Setup guide” specific

options “Presto Server”.

Operate with projects

The “Projects” window displays the following types of projects.

Icon Extension Mode

PrestoObra Closed

PrestoObra Open in exclusive mode

PrestoObra Open in shared mode

The projects in read only appears with a yellow background.

Open | Close | Cut | Copy | Paste | Delete | Rename

Perform the operations with the works. Refer to “Setup guide” specific

options “Presto Server”.

Open as read-only

It opens a project that is to be used only in read-only mode, faster

than reading and writing.

Check integrity

It checks the relational integrity of tables, regenerates and recalcu-

lates the contents of field “Info”.

Read-only mode | Read-write mode

It assigns attributes of read or read and write access to a work. It

equals to the same operating system options.

Find in subfolders

It searches projects recursively in all subdirectories of the selected

directory. It’s automatically disabled to avoid long waiting times.

Close, save and print windows

Close

Close the book, report or the CAD file without closing the program. A

work is also closed when you close the last open window. Refer to

“Setup guide” specific options “Presto Server”.


Save

Saves changes made to the text. Refer to “Setup guide” specific op-

tions “Presto Server”.

When you open a file in write mode “.PrestoObra” is created in the

same directory a file with the “.PrestoRestore” extension, which will

add information to the changes that are introduced in the work. If the

work is closed correctly this file is deleted. In another case, to reopen

the work Presto recovered from this file information is lost.

To ensure the information security, when the project is saved, Presto

carries out the following process:

The work is copied to a temporary file “.PrestoSave”.

If the backup completes successfully, the project file is re-

named as “.PrestoBak” and “. PrestoSave” is renamed as

“.PrestoObra”.

If “.PrestoSave” file is not generated, “.PrestoObra” and

“.PrestoRestore” still exist, so Presto can recover lost infor-

mation.

To restore the previous state of a project change the file extension

“.PrestoBak” with “PrestoObra”.

Save as

In single-user mode, it saves the work under another name or directo-

ry.

Printer setup

It let’s selecting the printer, the size and orientation.

Preview

It prints the contents of the active window. The margins are indicated

in “Working environment: Margins”.

Touch screen

This option changes the display options and icons optimized for high

resolution devices.

Exit

Close the project and the program.

Import

BC3

See “Link with other programs: Exchange of estimates”.


Excel | Access

See “Link to Excel and Access”.

Allplan

Check “Presto at the stage of project: Integration to BIM”.

Bids | Prices

Check “Presto at the stage of project: An information system: Com-

parison of multiple prices”.

Take-off lines

Check “Presto in the design stage: Take-off lines: Importing take-off

lines”.

Price quote

Check “Presto for contractors: Purchasing and subcontractors: Re-

cruitment and purchasing”.

Primavera

Check “Presto in the planning stage: Primavera and Project Link “.

User profile

Refer to “FILE: Working environment”.

Schema layout

Refer to “Use Interface: Layout”.

Documents

It imports of another project all documents of the same type. It does

not import or modify existing documents with same code, entity and

date.

It imports also the suppliers and concepts that are in the imported

documents and that are not in the project previously.

Export

BC3

See “Link with other programs: Exchange of estimates”.

Excel | Access


Allplan catalogue

Check “Presto in the design stage: BIM Integration: Integration be-

tween Presto and Allplan”.


Microsoft Project

Primavera XML

Check “Presto in the planning stage: Primavera and Project Link “.

Price quote



ContaPlus

Logic Class

See “Link with other programs: Accounting: Logic Class and Conta-

Plus”.

e-Invoice XML

Check “Presto for contractors: Invoicing: Invoices”.

User profile

Refer to “FILE: Working environment”.

Default layouts


Working environment

It defines the status of the work habits of a user, common to all his

projects, part of the user profile.

The user profile contains the configuration of the working environ-

ment, including:

The status of all options “FILES: Working environment”.

Filters, expressions and user fields, which can be saved and ed-

ited in the “Expression builder”.

Other customizable properties that are maintained between

work sessions.

The activations of Presto modules.

Each user on the same computer has its own user profile that is

stored in the “PrestoNNN.PrestoPerfilXml” file, where NNN digits ver-

sion. The file is in XML format.

The file is automatically saved each time you exit of Presto, in the

configuration directory.

Seen in “FILE: Working environment: Directories: Configuration”, such

as:

C:\Users\MyUser\AppData\Roaming\Presto


This directory is usually hidden; to see the option must be enabled

from Windows Explorer to display hidden files and directories. You

can also locate using the command %APPDATA%

When Presto is installed as workstation or a user executes Presto

without a user profile, the program creates a default profile, with a

standard configuration.

User profile

To use or save the common uses and customs, you can import and

export the profile. A profile can be distributed to other users, greatly

reducing the implementation times.

To switch layouts configuration see “Use interface: Layouts: Customize

layouts”.

To restore the default user profile, delete the profile file of the config-

uration directory.

Loading sequence settings:

1. Initialization

When starting Presto, takes the default configuration, and performs a

sequential search of configuration files that can exist in different di-

rectories.

If you find these files in any of the steps, the process terminates, and

otherwise continue to the next step.

2. User files, in the configuration directory

(PrestoNNN.PrestoPerfilXml)

The first time you boot Presto does not exist, and is created with the

original values once Presto closes.

On next occasions it boots Presto, it looks for this file and if it exists,

load full profile.

3. Administrator file, in the application directory

(Presto.PrestoPerfilXml)

If it exists, load full profile.

4. Location file in the “Data” directory of each location

(Presto.PrestoPerfilXml)

If it exists, load the configuration of windows, defined expressions and

filters.


FILE: Export: User profile

It let’s saving manually the profile or any of theirs components, such

as user fields. So you can choose from several profiles, retrieve from

another computer or transfer components of the profile to another

computer.

FILE: Import: User profile

It replaces the active profile fully or partially by another. If importing,

expressions are detected with the same name, the new ones are re-

named. To fully charge the profile, close Presto and reopen it.

General

Automatic fit of columns width

Sets width of table columns to their contents. Equivalent to the icon

“Fit column width”.

Automatic price recalculation

This option activates the work mode in which most of the calculations

are performed on the fly, avoiding press constantly the calculation

option.

To recalculate the values, execute “CALCULATIONS: Calculate all” or

activate the option again.

To expedite the work on large construction sites, or in the calculation

of some fields of concepts, it is desirable to disable this option.

Fields of concepts that can slow down calculations, have grey back-

ground when this option is disabled, and are:

Fields Property

QtyTot * Quantities in each pricing structure

Tot* Total amounts in each pricing structure

QtyContracts

QtyOrders

QtyDeliveries

QtyInvoices

Total quantities for each type of document

NumInf

NumSup

Number of superiors

Number of inferiors

Tree level Hierarchy level

* Add the prefix of each price structure


Accept lowercase concept codes

If disabled, to introduce codes of concepts, institutions and docu-

ments in tables and dialogs the program converted to uppercase.

Masks are not altered.

Show data from header concept

It lets the information of subordinate windows of “Estimate” window,

as text or take-off, corresponds to:

The concept where the cursor is.

The concept of header.

The chosen concept is called active concept.

Use the “.po10” instead of “.PrestoObra”

Select one or another extension.

Block estimate alteration

It prevents alteration of data relating to the estimate, as the quantities

and prices. It also affects the changes in approbation states of the

take-off lines which involve the (red) pending state.

It affects all tools and processes related to the estimate, so it should

be taken into account in perform global operations.

Lock editing of approved certifications

It’s a help that prevents data in the take-off lines and assigned stages

to approved certifications are altered, including planning and real

execution. It is useful to prevent accidental modification of this type

of data, but does not prevent other changes affecting the overall re-

sult of the certification, such as modifying or deleting concepts prices.

It affects all program processes, which should be taken into account

when performing operations as operating, duplicating, importing,

updating, or any other user process that alters the mentioned data.

Use field names and variables in English

It adapts the interface to English. See “Language for the program”.

Location

It adapts files used in Presto with the selected location, among which

are the works of example, references, templates, reports and supple-

ments. It is independent of language for the program and work.

Interface language

Affects the fields, options and program menus.


Fields are available in some languages, using English as an interna-

tional language.

To print reports in a language, it exists the following alternatives:

Printing reports designed in a particular language, which is in-

cluded by default in the directory for each location. You can

also choose the reports directory in the “Working environ-

ment” or “Projects” window.

Print reports designed in multilanguage. In this case, the texts

for the language selected for the program are printed.

The numerical value of the language contained in the general variable

“_Language”.

To translate the program options to another language, refer to “FILE:

Translate interface”.

To translate the reports text strings into another language, refer to

“FILE: Translate report”.

The project language is independent of the used in the program, and

appears in “VIEW: Project settings: Miscellaneous”.

Google key for translation

See “Use Interface: Windows text: Translate texts”.

Appearance

It modifies some colors and text types used by the program.

Other features of appearance are modified by changing the display

properties of the operating system.

In Windows 8 is configured from the “Control panel: Appearance and

personalization: Screen”.

You can choose to change a percentage globally affecting all ele-

ments, or change some with the option:

Change only the text size

Property In Presto affects to

Title bars Title of the main windows.

Menus Menus and options, including the tracks.

Name of tabs.

Title of subordinate windows.

Layouts dropdown lists, multiple fields of stages,

stage numbers, etc.

Message boxes Emerging messages.

Icons Options showing the directory structure


Themes

It lets selecting various styles and colors for windows, except the pro-

gram itself, that use the defined layout and in the operating system

screen configuration.

Font

Font of the table windows.

Background or foreground colour

Colours assigned to each field type and value. If a field is empty, the

background takes the colour chosen for the text.

Directories

System directories

Configuration

Directory assigned by the operating system, independent for each

computer user.

User profile and license activation files are stored.

Temp

Directory assigned by the operating system, where intermediate files

are generated for internal use.

User directories

User

General directory for Presto documents not specified in other options.

It is used for example as a destination directory and origin of exports

and imports respectively.

You can also define in the “FILE: Projects” window.

Projects

Default directory for opening and saving projects.


During the installation process, the examples to this directory are

copied, which also projects include files in other formats to make dif-

ferent processes.

Reports and templates [User]

Default directory for the destination of reports generated automati-

cally. You can include in this directory the desired reports, and will

appear on “REPORTS” menu options.


Plugins [User]

Directory to include the plugins that the user wants, and appears in

the options of “PLUGINS” menu.

Directory of the components by geographical location

Export layout to Excel

Default directory where files are Excel. Consult the section on export

windows Presto in “Link with Excel and Access”.

Reference

Directory where are catalogues, charts and development aid estimate,

which can be used as references to copy data from them to other

estimates. They look at the “REFERENCES: References” menu.


Plugins

Directory where programs or plugins of “PLUGINS” menu are.

Reports and templates

Default directory where reports and templates are in the “REPORTS”

menu are.


Templates work and reports

Default directory where models of works and reports are.

When creating a new project, projects appears of this directory to

choose one of them as a model.

When creating a new report or an automatic one, a copy of which

appears with the name “Template” is created in that directory.

You can delete, add or modify any of these files to suit their common

uses.

Databases

Location of reference projects used by Presto options.

Work Utilization

Prices Database prices.

Used by wizards to update information generated

estimates and other program options.

Contracts Table of purchasing groups, with suppliers.


Formulas

The take-off lines formulas used are saved with each line; subsequent-

ly modified in this table does not affect them.

Margins

Margins used in printing reports.

Restrictions

There are several types of Presto use restrictions:

Customizing the interface, described in this section.

Restricting access to a project, as described in “Project set-

tings: Security”.

Restrictions affecting a user to all their works, as described in

“User restrictions”.

Access to works and users’ permissions. Refer to “Setup

guide”, the “Presto Server” specific options.

Customizing menus

You can reduce the number of program options visible to each user,

to simplify the use or limit their access to projects.

The list of “Active menus” lets you limit the menus and the program

visible options. You can remove any option from the main menu and

their submenus, besoin their access icons, plus access to the “Working

environment” and “Project settings” dialog boxes.

Only activate options from authorized modules

It lets deactivate the visibility of icons and options assigned to

modules not available or disabled.

If you delete the access to configuration options, previously set them

as you wish. Restricting the access to certain program options may

very well define the use by different users. For example, to prevent a

user from changing Presto modules he has access, remove the access

to “HELP: Activation” option.

So that the user cannot change his menus customization is necessary

that the system of restrictions is enabled.

Refer to “Appendix I. Technical Documentation: User Restrictions”.

Access to reports, wizards and add-ins

You can choose the wizards, reports and plugins that appear in their

respective menus, eliminating the corresponding files of their directo-

ries or even the complete options.


Note that the user can access the wizards, reports and plugins located

in his user directory. If you deactivate “REPORTS: Design report” op-

tion, the user will can use the reports, but not modify them. You can

protect a report to be used, but not modified, even if you have access

to the design option.

Access to layouts

If you do not want to go to a schema, remove all fields except one.

See “Use Interface layouts: Customize layouts”.

PrestoServer

Configuration options for multiuser environments.

Refer to the corresponding section in the “Setup Guide”.

Translate interface

You have several options that allow:

Translate menus and options Presto to other than the original

language.

Add translations to Presto.

You can perform automatic translation using the resources of Google.

If you do not have them or language is not supported by this service,

the translation can be done manually.

Generate RTF

It generates an RTF file that serves as the basis for the translation of

Presto to the selected language.

You can use Google Translate if you have the proper key.

See “Use Interface: Windows text: Translate texts”.

You can add a check column to the RTF file, which allows you to check

if the reverse translation matches the original.

Source language

It let choosing the language from which the translation is to be per-

formed.

Language name

If the destination language is “<New>“, should fill the cell to indicate

the language name that will be translated.

Include LNG file

It includes “MSG_LNG_FILE” column in the RTF file, whose contents

are the messages of the file specified language.


Convert RTF to LNG

From the translation in the RTF file, generates a valid file Presto LNG

language. This file must be copied into the subdirectory “Data” in the

installation directory.

Loading the LNG file in Presto

If the file does not contain a translation to a language of a particular

message, it will look for the translation between the languages in this

order:

Original language Alternative lan-

guage

Portuguese (BR) Portuguese

Portuguese Galician

Galician

Catalan

Euskara

Spanish

Deutsch

French

English

English Spanish

So, partial translations can be made, for example to translate only the

portion of estimates and take-off lines.

EDITION

Editing operations using the usual Windows conventions and are de-

scribed in detail in the chapter “Use interface”.

Undo | Special undo | Redo

See “Use Interface: Edit: Undo | Redo”.

Cut | Copy | Paste | Delete | Move

Refer to “Use Interface: Edit”.

Select all | Deselect all


Find | Replace


First element | Previous | Next | Last element

Refer to “Use Interface: Windows”.




Restore schema

Fit column width


Filter by expression | Filter by words | Cancel filters

Refer to “Use interface: Filter elements”.

VIEW

This menu gives access to most of the main windows.

Project settings

Common to all the work data in “Presto at the stage of project: An

information system: Data and general properties of the work.” And

other specific sections

Also seen in the “VIEW: Variables” window, “Common” layout.

Data

General fields belonging to the root concept of the work.

Miscellaneous

Fields not classified in others categories.

Currencies

Check “Presto in the design stage: Estimate: Currencies”.

Roundings

Number of decimal places to which values are rounded in calcula-

tions.

Calculation

Calculation options and percentages applied to the project.

Planning

Key dates of the work and other data involved in calculating dura-

tions. Check “Presto in the planning stage: Temporary Planning “.

Accounting

Data relating to indirect taxes and export to accounting programs,

described in “Exporting to accounting”.

Security

It lets protect the access to a project with a password.


Password Functioning

With The password is valid from the time the work is saved.

Sin Remove the password of the project, if any.

Change password for the project

It lets enter or change the password for the current work.

Protection

To protect a project that can only be opened by the user in a specific

license, type here this user protection, that you can read on “HELP:

Activation” of your program.

Read-only password for the previous protection

It allows the access to this content exclusively for the user specified

protection and read-only.

Tables

In this window are the tables and records containing the work.

You can delete an entire table by selecting it and pressing to remove.

The tables in grey cannot be deleted, because they have required

data in other tables. For example, you cannot delete documents while

supplies.

Tree

This window and the “Estimate” one are the usual working windows.

The process of creating the estimate described in “Presto at the stage

of project: Estimate”.

This window is hierarchical, so to the behaviour of the table windows

adds special features described in “Use interface: Windows: Hierar-

chical windows”.

Layouts

The drawings are in the approximate order of estimate development,

from design to execution of the work.

In general, there are two large groups of layouts:

Concerning to estimates and activities (stages icon off).

Relating to certifications and stages (stages icon enabled).

Some layouts do not belong to one and other, and show a different

structure, without stages icon, or without multiple fields.


Number of activity or stage

The drop-down list lets you choose the number of activity or initial

stage, depending on your chosen layout (estimate or certification,

respectively), which takes into account in the viewing of the multiple

fields.

Dynamic fields

Drop-down lists with fields for activities or stages, depending on the

type of chosen layout. They display information from the selected

activity number or stage.

A same multiple field has different content for the same number of

stage or activity, depending on the selected layout.

Example: Activity or stage number “1” field “Cert”.

Types

of layout

Data origin Column content

Estimate

“Activities” sub-

ordinated

Concept amount certified corre-

sponding for activity # 1.

Certification

Subordinated

“Stages”

Amount certified of the concept in

the certification or phase # 1.

When a user field is chosen as one of multiple fields, user field data

are obtained depending on the type of layout:

Estimate: From user columns defined in the “Activities” subor-

dinate window, “Estimate” layout.

Certification: From user defined columns in the subordinate

window “Stages”, “Certification” layout.

Layouts of estimations and activities

Summary

Concept code and description, with icons that indicate the types of

associated information.

Estimate

Minimum information necessary to draft the estimate.

Help for measurement

Useful information during the course of the take-off lines, as de-

scribed in “Take-off lines”

The category allows you to check the measurements, as shown

in the wizard “Categorizing”.


Calculated values of the work item can be used in the take-off

lines of other work items.

Headers of the take-off lines and assigned formulas.

Comparison of prices | Bids

The systems of comparison are described in:

“Project management: comparison of bids”.

“Presto at the stage of project: An information system: Comparison of

multiple prices”.

Other prices of estimate

Complementarians field to the basic data:

The date and the IPC, which will operate the price. The suggest

button shows alternatives to adjust the price.

Prices in other unit of measurement are described in “Budget:

Other fields of concepts”.

Estimate by basic elements

Amount of each concept broken down by natures. To see a break-

down of other pricing structures, add the desired columns.

Estimate by hours

It displays the most important values of resources of manpower and

equipment, according to the estimate.

Estimate by statuses

Estimate amount with full breakdown by approval states of the take-

off lines.

Estimate and target

Comparative study between the sales estimate and the cost estima-

tion.

The application of cost overrun general percentages make differences

between groups of amounts, described in paragraphs “Estimate” and

“Economic planning”.

Layouts of certifications and stages

Planning

Breakdown by stages or certifications of the cost target.

Resources and procurement groups

Concepts of type supply with the necessary data to make purchases

and contracting or controlling their deviations.


Certification

Actual and cumulative certification data, compared to the estimate.

If you do not wish certify with take-off lines, certification can be en-

tered in this window:

Directly at each stage, in multiple fields to the right as

“QtyCert” or “PerCertEst”, of the “Stages” table.

Globally for the work item, entering the “QtyCert” quantity or

the certified percentage “PerCertEst” of the “Relations” table.

Globally for the chapter, with its percentage “PerCertEst” of

the “Relations” table. This percentage is passed on all their

work items that have not take-off lines or quantities in certifi-

cation stages.

Certification by statuses

It displays the certified part of each state of the estimate.

Each certification status contains the part of the certification corre-

sponding to each state of the estimate, so full certification is the sum

of the states.

You can add to the layout the predefined default user “Per-

CertEstPossible” that indicate the certified percentage over the possi-

ble estimate.

EVM Earned Value PM

Data used to determine the progress and expected final status of the

work from the information normally know the address of the work.

See “Technical Questions” on the website of Presto, under “Certifica-

tions”.

Incomes and expenditures

Amounts provided for certification and planning respectively. May be

seen globally or by month.

Production

Data used to determine the production.

All are valued at estimate price, so you can directly compare.

If exists some part not certified without production, it’s possible ob-

tain as the difference between certification and certified production.

Cost control

Data required for knowing actual costs and deviations.


For only the deviation in cost, the actual cost of each concept should

be compared with the estimated cost of the part executed so far

(“earned value”), i. . “RealTgt” and “Real”. Data for the concepts show

the unit cost and relations are the total cost, but the deviation is the

same.

The amount allocated shows the sum of allocations of the concept in

their destinations, calculated basis on supply prices, and is an alterna-

tive to the actual cost, based on the weighted average price.

EVM Earned Value

Data used to determine the progress and expected final status of the

work from the information normally known construction company.

See “Technical Questions” on the website of Presto, “Recruitment and

Ordering, invoicing and control” section.

SIE Production and Cost

It lets economic monitoring of the project for months, showing the

amounts of the most relevant data to deduct gaps between the certi-

fication and production, and between expense and cost.

See “Technical Questions” on the website of Presto, “Recruitment and

Ordering, invoicing and control” section.

Projects integration

Allows you to manage estimates and works seamlessly. Check “Presto

at the stage of project: An information system: Integration works.”

Subordinate windows

Text

Main text of the concept, which is printed in the estimate. You can

associate other text files from the thumbnail window.

Activities

Quantities and amounts broken down by activities. Check “VIEW: Ac-

tivities and certifications”.

Stages

Quantities and amounts of different pricing structures, disaggregated

certifications. Check ‘Show: Activities and certifications “.


Take-off lines associated to the relationship between the concept and

its superior. Refer to “VIEW: Take-off lines”.


Thumbnails

Files associated with the concept. Check “Presto at the stage of pro-

ject: An information system: Additional Project Files”.

Children

List of inferior concepts.

Keywords

List of keywords or parameters associated to the concept, with the

operation described in “VIEW: Keywords”.

Diary

Prices of a work

Concepts that have prices in a linked project or in an entity pricing.

Check “Presto at the stage of project: An information system: Integra-

tion of works: In the center of the linked data works “and “VIEW: Pric-

es”.

Prices

Prices concept works on the linked entities or pricing. See “Presto at

the stage of project: An information system: Integration of works: In

the center of the linked data works” and “SEE: Prices”.

Estimate

The layouts, the subordinate windows and the use are equal to “Tree”

window, excluding about hierarchical windows.

Active concept

Link to tree window

The icon is located in the upper left of the window. Helps the active

concept in this window automatically adapts to the chosen in the

“Tree” window, which can be open simultaneously. Refer to “FILE:

Working environment: General: For details of the concept of header”.

Parametrics

Generate concepts derived from parametric. In all other concepts,

showing its text and its lower concepts.

Automatically opens when you double click on the windows of the

estimate over a parametric concept.

To insert in the estimate the concept derived from the marked com-

bination use “Copy” icon and use “Paste” in the place of destination.


Subordinate windows

Children

Decomposition of the derived concept from a parametric.

Text

Active concept text or concept derived from a parametric.

Code lines

Parametric concept generation rules, in price tables not compiled.

Concepts

List type concepts price of the work. The windows “Activities”, “Institu-

tions” and “Management Systems” show other concepts.

Layouts

All: Budget

Basic data of the concept.

All: Other prices

It displays almost the same fields as the “Other estimate prices” layout

from “Tree” or “Estimate” window.

All: Extended data

Displays the category and the number of concepts upper / lower.

Work items: Measurements

Most useful values of the work items for estimating.

Materials and other: Budget

Concepts of type material and others, with its category and total

quantity.

Manpower: Budget

Concepts of manpower with their total quantity.

Equipment: Budget

Concepts of equipment with its total quantity.

Work item: Budget and objective

Work items, with the comparison between estimate and target.

Concepts for hire

Concepts that can be hired, according to their estimated quantity, as

the target.


Labor and machinery in phases

Concepts of manpower and equipment that have total quantities in

the estimate or in the target and therefore can be used in the plan-

ning and resources adjust. See “Resources” subordinate window.

Supplies contract orders

Concepts of type supply with the necessary data to make purchases

and contracting or controlling their deviations.

Supplies

Concepts of type supply with the data obtained during the execution

of the project.

Supplies of materials

Supplies of material type with the total quantities necessary to track

the project.

Supplies to purchase

Purchased supplies with the amounts required to monitor during the

execution of the project.

Stocks: Consumption by imputation

Concepts of type supply consumed by imputation, with stocks calcu-

lated by the program.

Stocks: Consumption per target

Concepts of type supply consumed by target, with stocks typed by

user.

You can also change the coefficient of theoretical consumption and

lack score detect whether a production concept.

Destination

Concepts of type target with theirs real prices and quantities.

Concepts off estimate

Concepts that are not part of the decomposition of other concept.

Subordinate windows

Text

Main text of the concept. See “Use Interface: Windows text”.

Thumbnails

Files associated to the concept. Check “VIEW: Files”.

Resources

Quantity in what is necessary each resource of the project, for days,


calculated with “For days, months and years” option of “PROCESSES:

Calculate resources”.

For easy reference, it also shows the intermediate dates, but the re-

source does not need them.

Keywords

Keywords or parameters associated to the concept, with the operation

described in “VIEW: Keywords”.

Parents

Concepts that within its decomposition have the active concept.

It lets easily check the performance and amount in their superiors.

If concepts are added in this subordinate window, the active concept

is included in the breakdown of each added concept with the indicat-

ed quantity.

Children

Inferiors concepts to the active one.

Supplies

Apparitions of the concept as supply in the various documents. It is

especially useful in filtering schemes for supplies. Check ‘Show: Sup-

plies “.

Allocations

Appearances of the concept as destination of allocations, manuals or

created during the calculation for the concepts consumed by target.

It is especially useful in the layout that filters the destinations. Check

“VIEW: Supplies”.

Prices

Prices of a concept in the pricing entities or in the linked works. Check

“VIEW: Prices”.

Diary

Activities

List of concepts of “Activity” nature mainly used in take-off lines.

To view data by month or stages that correspond to the fields chosen

in multiple fields, you must add the activities to the decomposition of

a chapter, and to avoid duplication of the amounts, the amounts

thereof shall be annulated.


Layouts

Summary

Code, number and description of the activity, with icons that indicate

the types of associated information.

Estimate

Estimate obtained from the activities of the take-off lines.

Other prices of estimate

Estimate supplementary columns, which allow to obtain other

amounts or ratios based on the values entered in the “UnitAltFactor”

field.

Estimate by basic elements

Amount of the estimate of the activities broken down by nature.

Estimate and target

Comparative study between the sales estimate and the cost estima-

tion by activities.

Planning

Breakdown by stages or certifications of target cost of each activity.

Certifications by basic elements

Amount certificated of activities broken down by natures.

Certification

Certified amount of activities broken down by certifications.



Amount of estimate and certification of activities, broken down by

approval states of the take-off lines.

Incomes and expenditures

Comparison between planned and certified amount of activities. May

be seen globally or by certifications.

Production

Amount of the total, planned and planned production of the activities,

valued at estimate price.

Cost control

Actual amount of activities broken down by certifications.


Subordinate windows

Work items

Work items that contains take-off lines of each activity, with their es-

timate quantities and amounts.

The shown work items derived directly from the stages table, so it is

not necessary to recalculate the activities.

The program calculates the approximate duration of the work items

associated to more than one activity, in proportion to their relative

quantity. Due to rounding, the sum in days may be not match to the

total length.

Resources

Necessary quantity of each resource for each activity. It is calculated

in “PROCESS: Calculate resources”, with “By activities” option

Entities

Concepts that correspond to building agents, suppliers and pricing

entities.

The general operation, fields and subordinate windows are identical

to those described for the “concepts” window.

Layouts

All

All entities, with their identifying information.

Data agents

Suppliers and other agents of the building, with their identifying in-

formation.

Invoicing

Details of payment method, tax percentages and deductions, contra

accounts and accounting of expenses.

Suppliers (amounts)

Suppliers’ economic data.

Promoters (amounts)

Economic details of the type customer entities.

Price assignment entities

Entities of bidder type and price, allowing you to assign prices to con-

cepts as described in “Presto at the stage of project: An information

system: Comparison of multiple prices”.


The grey entities are not added to the compared layouts.

Diary

Hierarchical window with a calendar that shows information of the

project that can be associated with dates:

Amounts of the scheduled prices structures (planning, certifi-

cation and execution), calculated with “CALCULATIONS: Take-

off lines”.

Project financial details, which are calculated with

“CALCULATIONS: Documents”.

Necessary resources by dates, which are calculated with

“PROCESS: Calculate resources”.

Concepts and files associated to a date.

Nature of the elements of the diary:

N Type NatC Use

1 XXI

Sum of all years.

2 Year

Sum of every month.

3 month

Sum of all days.

4 Day

Day does not correspond to a stage of

certification.

5 Certification

Day of one stage of approved certifica-

tion.

5 Certification

Day of the last stage of approved certifica-

tion.

5 Certification

Day of one stage without approved certi-

fication.

The “N” field indicates the numerical value of the “Diary.Type” field.

Icons of the field “Info” are described in “Use Interface: Layout: Col-

umns of information fields”.

When there is information associated to a date, appears also associ-

ated or totalized at higher levels, as the month and year.

Double -click on an amount that comes from documents, opens the

corresponding window, filtered by that date.


Holiday

The holidays are not taken into account in the temporarily planning.

The background of the icon is red.

Labor day

Day as laborable, with grey background.

Certification

Day corresponding to a stage or certification.

Not a certification day

Day does not correspond to a certification stage.

Current certification

The values of the later stages do not intervene in the calculations.

Layouts

They are similar to those of the “Dates” window, except that in “Diary”

are not shown the layouts related to periods or stages.

Planning

Useful layout for creating the economic planning by manual annota-

tion of percentage or weight of expense in each certification, or by

using any of the alternatives proposed by the suggest button in the

“WeightPlan” field.

Check “Presto in the planning stage: Economic planning: Fill economic

planning”.

Planning by approval states

Planning and production provided by states of approval.

Planning and certification

Costs and revenues forecast, and certification.

Breakdown by natures

Anticipated costs and revenues by natures.


Tracking certifications by the direction of the project:

Amounts of certifications disaggregated by the estimate ap-

proval states.

Planned quantity in each period, valued at estimate price for

comparison.


Production

Amounts of production and certification, to estimate price.

EVM Earned Value

Project tracking in cost and time, from the point of view of the con-

struction company.

See “Technical Questions” on the website of Presto the “Recruitment

and ordering, invoicing and control” section.

Documents

Administrative track by document types.

Invoices

Control of invoicing, with deductions, taxes, payments and collections.

Receipts and payments

Receipts and payments by state, with the balance of the period and

cash flow.

Subordinate windows

The diary information is exclusively associated to days. When placed

in months or years or in the root concept, the program shows the set

of information associated with every day covering that period.

The text is excepted, which is unique and may be associated with any

date.

Text

Text associated to the date.

Thumbnails

Associated files to date or period. If files are dragged over this win-

dow will be remain associated to estimate in its file date, not to the

current date or the day.

Maturities

Maturities of the date or period.

Concepts by date

Concepts whose “Date” field matches the chosen period.

In this window you can choose layouts to see:

Concepts of type price.

Concepts of management systems.

Records for monitoring management systems.


Resources

Displays the required amounts of each concept to execute the work

within the period specified in the selected schema (phases or dates).

Are calculated with “PROCESS: Calculate resources”, “For days, months

and years.”

Concepts

Concepts that are of economic information by certifications, by

months, years, and in general, that have information for periods of

the diary.

In this window you can choose layouts to see:

Certification

Production

Supplies

Destination

Suppliers (amounts)

Promoters (amounts)

These layouts show the type of information mentioned in similar, with

the difference that here are associated concepts with periods.

Dates

Calendar as a list, similar to the “Diary” window. You can filter by any

field, allowing you to see only natural days, months, certifications or

years.

Layouts

Layouts with the name equal to the “Diary” window has the same

content, except that it also shows the accumulated fields to origin.

Stages: Planning

Useful layout for creating the economic planning by manual annota-

tion of percentage or weight of expense in each certification, or by

using any of the alternatives proposed by the suggest button in the

“WeightPlan” field.

Check “Presto in the planning stage: Economic planning: Fill economic

planning”.

Stages: Planning by approval states

Planning and production provided by states of approval.

Stages: Planning and certification

Costs and revenues forecast, and certification.


Stages: Breakdown by natures

Anticipated costs and revenues by natures.

Stages: Certifications by approved states

Certification by states and provided certification.

Stages: Repricing

Amounts required to submit a certification according to regulations.

Check ‘Presto in project management: Certification: Official certifica-

tions”.

Stages: Production

Production and certification amounts, all valued at estimate price.

Stages: EVM Earned Value

Project tracking in cost and time, from the point of view of the con-

struction company.



Month: Documents

Administrative track by document types.

Month: Invoices

Control of invoicing, with deductions, taxes, payments and collections.

Month: Receipts and payments

Receipts and payments by state, with the balance of the period and

cash flow.

Days

Every day of the diary.

Months

All months of the calendar. It let setting the rate of inflation.

Subordinate windows

Are the same as the “Diary” window, except the following:

Work items

It displays the work items with information associated to a stage, so in

the dates window, you must have activated any of the stage layouts. If

you want to display the columns for the amounts of any of the finan-

cial documents, must be included manually, until getting the desired

columns layout.


Gantt chart

The time schedule described in “Presto in the planning stage: Tempo-

rary Planning”. The following schemes can be combined with filter

options tasks:

Summary

Basic information about the task.

Durations

Data for calculating durations by time and cost.

Display planned dates

Total duration and estimated dates resulting from the calculation.

View clearances

Dates and clearances resulting from the calculation.

Natural dates

Estimated dates calculated as correlates working days, and amounts.

Display real dates

Real dates and executed percentage.

State type tasks

Dates for each of the states.

Tasks listing

This window displays the tasks in a list, filtered and sorted by different

criteria, without relation to the structure of the estimate.

The behaviour is almost identical to “Gantt Chart” and their layouts:

Summary type tasks

Estimated dates and duration of the tasks of summary type.

Summary type tasks (real dates)

Estimated dates and actual dates of the tasks of summary type.

Calculated dates

Quantities and durations of the planned tasks.

Calculated dates (clearances)

Dates and clearances of the planned tasks.

Dates calculated (resources)

Estimated dates calculated as correlates working days, and amounts.

Calculated dates (real dates)

Real dates and percentage of execution.


Critical tasks

Critical path tasks, without clearances.

Dates from superior

Estimated dates of tasks of type floating.

Economic planning

Tasks located on the dates of your economic planning.

State type tasks

Dates for approval statuses for each task.

Planned

All schedulable tasks currently included in the Gantt chart.

Unplanned

Schedulable tasks not currently included in the Gantt chart.

All

All schedulable tasks.

Resources by groups

Displays the resources previously calculated by “PROCESS: Calculate

resources”, marking one of the options “On stage, grouped by”, and

its content is the basis for building contracts.

Scheduled by stages are obtained and in the multiple fields to the

right quantities or amounts are shown, depending on the layout is.

The fields in this table cannot be edited, but you can delete entire

lines.

Layouts

All

Resources disaggregated by groups with their total quantities.

Quantities

Resources disaggregated groups, with the planned quantity in stages.

Amounts

Resources disaggregated by groups, with the amounts in stages.

Groups

Groups resulting from the calculation of resources, with the amount

planned for each stage and group.

Pending contracts

Groups resulting from the calculation of resources and whose con-

tracted quantity is less than the total quantity of the target. The uni-


tary and total price in the estimate and target, and amounts planned

by stages are displayed. The default option of contracts creation is

based on the contents of this table.

Contracts

This window and their subordinate windows allow you to enter the

contracts and their supplies, in order to ask bids to the suppliers,

compare it and choose the contractor.



Each layout of the supplies subordinate window corresponds to lay-

out of the same name in the main window.

You can drag supplies from the subordinate window of a contract to

another, for example, to split or consolidate contracts.

Layouts

All

All contracts.

Without suppliers

Contract without associated suppliers.

Not awarded

It lets associate suppliers, request pricing, compare and awarding

contracts.

Awarded

Contracts with awarded supplier, with their amounts of planning and

contract.

Cost control

Amounts of planning, award, certification and execution of contracts.

Orders

The orders are purchase orders sent to suppliers.

The general explanation of the process of cost control and the docu-

ments contained in “Presto for the construction company Turnover:

Records of economic control”.

Delivery orders

Documents accompanying to supplies when received at the work.


The general explanation of the process of cost control and the docu-

ments contained in “Presto for the construction company Turnover:

Records of economic control”.

It is considered that a supply has been purchased if is in a delivery

document or in an invoice.

Works assignment

Documents that help to write allocations of concepts in destinations

and do not represent purchases.

Internally, work assignments are documents of delivery without sup-

plier and its code appears in the “Delivery” field.

The general explanation of the process of cost control is contained in

“Analysis of costs and expenses”.

Work assignments while calculating the costs, in concepts of con-

sumption by target, are automatically generated.

Invoices

The general explanation given in “Presto for the construction compa-

ny Turnover: Records of economic control”.

Subordinated window

Are the same for all documents, except the following:

Maturities

Dates, amounts and method of payment agreed for an invoice.

Supplies

Supply concept relationship types that appear in documents of eco-

nomic management. The complaints which are parts of work (not

supplier deliveries), but not including supplies contracts.

Grayed non-editable fields that are not taken into account, as the fate

of supplies consumption by purpose or other documents supplies

parts work.

Double click on the field in a document, opens the corresponding

window filtered by that document.

In this window you can delete complete supplies, as well as create,

delete or rename the documents directly associated with each supply

that be editable, with the same effect as if working in the specific

window. If the last of the documents which include the supply is de-

leted, it disappears completely.


The context menu allows unfolding supplies, or change the type of

consumption.

Layouts

All

Supplies that are in orders, deliveries or invoices.

Orders

Supplies that are in orders.

Procurement

Supplies that are in deliveries or approved invoices.

Supplies in pending documents

Supplies that are in deliveries and unapproved invoices or orders.

Supplies in issued invoices

Supplies that are in customer invoices.

Valid inputs to cost centers

Valid allocations of supplies.

Supplies not used

Supplies not consumed.

Maturities

All Maturities of the work. Double click on the “Invoice” field opens

the filtered invoices for that document. Check ‘Presto for contractors:

Invoicing”.

Variables

It contains a variety of internal data of the work. Not the root concept

nor in “: An information system: Presto at the stage of project data

and general properties of the work” are included.

Layouts

Correspond to the different types of variables.

Common to all projects

General variables used internally by the program.

Reports and templates

Variables of the used reports and templates, with the latest answers.

Wizards

Variables of wizards used with the latest answers.


Revit

Parameters generated by the “Cost-It” complement, with the proper-

ties assigned in the model.

User

It allows user to define custom variables for each project.

All

All variables.

Uses of the variable

This subordinate window displays the Presto reports, templates and

wizards in which the active variable are used.

Variable inspector

This icon generates the list of components, through all the reports,

templates and wizards that are accessible in their corresponding di-

rectories, more user-specific ones.

Files

List with all files associated to the project.

Check “Presto at the stage of project: An information system: Addi-

tional project files”.

Layouts

All

Each file appears only once.

Graphic files

Files of type graphic. Each file appears only once.

Not associated

Files that have been without associating to concepts or documents.

Associated to concepts (all)

Each file appears as many times as is associated with concepts.

Associated to concepts (spec texts)

Text file type associated concepts. Each file appears as many times as

is associated with a concept.

Associated to contracts | orders | deliveries and work assignments |

invoices

Type text files associated with each type of document. Each file ap-

pears as so often is associated to the document.


Window subordinate “Thumbnails”.

Displays thumbnails of the associated files.

Gallery

It is accessed by double-clicking an associated file in the “Thumbnail”

window or the “Files” window.

If the file is text, their behaviour is right for text windows.

When a graph contains the following actions are available:

Action Result

Double click with the mouse

wheel.

In drawings, zoom by extension.

In pictures, zoom by extension and

1:1 size, alternately.

Mouse wheel. Increases and decreases the zoom.

Click and drag. Zoom by window.

Drag with the mouse wheel. Displacement.

Keywords

Key words or concepts associated with the work, you can write or

copy of price tables.

Also function as parameters or additional properties to the concept,

allowing associate more structured information or from other files

and formats.

Using terms like support for searches

They can be used for:

Filter and sort criteria available in this window.

Include in the search filter for words.

Use of terms to add properties to the concepts

The user can associate a keyword to a concept, contract or entity, and

assign any value to each of them, which is linked to the concept and

specific keyword.

This powerful and flexible use allows to add an unlimited number of

properties not available in the tables.

Using expressions in columns user can display the values listed, or

even operate with other values of concepts, considering that the val-

ues are alphanumeric data.

In the Expression builder are two Presto functions specialized in key-

words management:


keywordvalue: Gets the value for each concept and term.

keywordtype: Indicates whether the value is calculated or user-

written.

Using terms like BIM model parameters

The integration between BIM and Presto models allows associating a

wide variety of properties or parameters to the concepts, using them

as keywords. Parameters can be associated to concepts using [F7]

Suggest, as it shows existing parameters and variables, created for

example by the user or from Revit.

Refer to “Variables” window, especially as regards the “Revit” layout

(“Presto at the stage of project: An information system: Data and gen-

eral project settings”).

Fields terms

Keywords.Code

Concept code associated to a descriptor.

.Keyword

Descriptor associated with a concept.

.Value

Alphanumeric information associated with each concept and keyword.

You can score securities to be converted later into numbers. This case

is to be used as the point similarly decimal expressions Presto.

.Element

Subtype of family or identifier of the take-off line, which allows to

know which element belongs each parameter or keyword.

.Type

0: Inserted by user. 1: Generated by Presto.

Relations

List with all relationships between higher and lower concepts. Provide

inquiry and global operations over fields of relations.

By eliminating a concept in windows that show relationships, such as

this one and estimates, just go away your relationship with superior

concept. The concept of the work disappears only if it is removed

from the last relationship, unless listed as supply or cost center into a

document.


Layouts

Chapters and work items

Relations that support measurement and certification.

Take-off lines between two work items

Relationships between two work items.

Concepts and QMASS

Relationships where the lower concept is QMASS type.

Contracts

Relations between contracts and supplies.

Activities and certifications

This window shows all the set of activities and certifications or stages

of the whole work, and their layouts refer to specific of the subordi-

nate windows that are described below in the activities and certifica-

tion or stages, except the following:

Activities (chapters)

Certifications (chapters)

It shows the data of stages table by activity and certification respec-

tively, and serve to eliminate calculated value that cannot be removed

otherwise.

Activities (subordinate of estimates)

This window displays the quantities and amounts of active concept,

broken down by activity.

Only the activities that have content for active concept and cannot

modify the results, are shown.

Layouts

Estimate

Summary data of activities, including internal number associated to it.


Quantities and amounts of activities, broken down by estimate ap-

proval states.

Certification

Quantities and amounts certified in each activity.


Quantities and amounts certified of the activities, broken down by

estimate approval states.


Production

Amounts of estimated total production, planned, actual, certification,

certified and non-certified production of the activity, all valued at es-

timate price.

Stages (subordinate of estimates)

This window displays the quantities and the amounts of active con-

cept, broken down by stages of certification.

For easier viewing and data entry, in these layouts defined certifica-

tion all stages lines are presented, even without content.

If you directly enter quantities, associations of take-off lines to that

stage are lost. These lump sums never be broken down by activities or

approval statuses.

Layouts

Evolution of estimate and target

Historical values of the estimate and target calculated for each ap-

proved certification. This way you can see the evolution of the esti-

mate along the execution.

Fields are calculated if there is any content for the approved certifica-

tion. The blue ones correspond to the certifications before than ap-

proved, and the magenta to approved ones.

Planning by approval states

Breakdown of planning by certifications and states of approval.

Planning and certification

Breakdown by certifications of the planning, estimated production

and certification.

Certification

Quantities and amounts of each certification.


Data for each certification, which correspond to the various approval

states of estimate.

Certifications by quantities

Comparison between the quantities of planning, certification and ac-

tual execution of each certification and cumulative to origin.

Production

Planning, production, certified and non-certified production, all val-

ued at estimate price.


Cost control

Quantities and amounts of the corresponding certificates to the plan-

ning, the actual execution and the allocations to cost centers.

EVM Earned Value

Earned value data disaggregated by the hierarchical structure of the

project.




This window shows the take-off lines associated with the relationship

between the concept and its superior. The general process described

in “Presto in the design stage: Measurements”.

This information is seen in two types of windows, with the following

features:

Main window menu “VIEW”

It contains all take-off lines of the estimate, in order to facilitate verifi-

cation and global operations.

Go to work unit

This option provides access to the work item to which the take-off

line belongs, because it sets as active in the estimate windows.

Subordinated window of the “Estimate” window

It contains the take-off lines of the active work item.

Shared layouts by the two types of window

Estimate

Lines belonging to any state of the estimate, except the annulated,

with the basic fields of take-off lines.

Estimate: Identification fields

Estimate lines with fields coming especially from BIM models.

Economic planning

Take-off lines associated to a planning stage.

Estimate and planning

Take-off lines belonging to the estimate or are associated to a plan-

ning stage.


Estimate and certification

Take-off lines belonging to the estimate or are associated to a certifi-

cation stage.

Certification

Take-off lines associated to a certification stage.

Certification: Identification fields

Take-off lines associated to a certification stage, with fields coming

especially from BIM models.

Production

Take-off lines associated to a stage of certification or execution.

All

All take-off lines.

All: Identification fields

All take-off lines with subtotals for all stages, especially with the fields

of BIM models.

Exclusive layouts of “Take-off lines” main window

Approved and pending

Filter the take-off lines whose status is indicated by the layout.

Take-off lines references

References between work items set to “Same measurement” option.

Drawings DWG | Allplan | Revit

The content of each of these layouts is set to the information con-

tained in the program where come, filtered by the content of the

“TakeOffLines.Origin” field.

Temporary measures

Check “Presto in the design stage: Take-off lines: Importing take-off

lines”.

Layouts

New work items

Take-off lines of the reference pertaining to work items that will be

added to the project.


Variations on estimate

Variations on planning

Variations on certification

Measurements where be difference in estimating, planning and certi-

fication, respectively between reference and project.

Take-off lines to transfer

Take-off lines that are to be transferred to the work.

Take-off lines to remove

Measurements that are not listed in the reference but in the work.

May represent a reference extract, or may have been deliberately re-

moved. The user must decide what action to take based on the prose-

cuted goal. If not removed, while transferring the take-off lines will be

eliminated in the work.

All

All lines of temporal measurement.

Prices

“Prices” main window shows the complete list of alternative prices

and other data associated to a concept, which is stored in the “Prices”

table.

The use is described in:

Prices for references and bidders that are described in “Presto

at the stage of project: An information system: Comparison of

multiple prices”.

Supplier Prices for contracts described in “Presto for contrac-

tors: Purchasing and subcontractors: Recruitment and shop-

ping.”

Amounts in other estimates and connected works in “Presto at

the stage of project: An information system: Integration of

works: Works linked”.

The “Prices” subordinate window, shows this information for all enti-

ties of the active concept.

Subordinated window “Prices of a work” shows information of all con-

cepts associated to an entity or linked project.

On the track header you can check if a field of the window is the only

value of “concepts” table or multiple value with the same name of the

table “Prices”.


Layouts

Prices

Relations between entities of type price and concepts.

Offers

Relations between vendors and concepts.

Prices in work type entities

Relationships between projects and concepts of type price and

QMASS.

Data in work type entities

Relationships between projects and entities, such as suppliers and

agents of the building.

Suppliers

Relations between providers who have contracts and concepts.

All

All relationships between entities and concepts.

Prices (subordinate)

Layouts in estimates windows

In price assignment entities

List of entities of type bidder or price, and the values associated with

each of them to the concept.

In contracts

List of suppliers that have offered the concept in contracts.

Concepts schemes window

Prices in other projects

Concept quantities and prices relating to the estimate in the different

linked projects.

Documents in other projects

Concept amount in the various documents of economic management

in the linked projects.

Prices of a work

This subordinate window is in the estimate windows and in the enti-

ties. It’s especially designed for use in a central of integration of pro-


jects, as shown for each linked project the data indicated in the sever-

al layouts of the window.

Layouts

All

All concepts.

Quantities and prices

Concepts with their total quantities, prices and amounts.

Contracts

Global data of contracts awarded in the project.

In documents

Quantities and amounts of the concepts in the documents of eco-

nomic management.

Entities and suppliers

Amounts resulting from economic management.

QMASS

List of operations and controls of the management systems.

Check description

It compares the description of the central project concepts with those

of the linked projects, displaying those are different.

Messages

Text window with messages, notifications (blue) and errors (red) is-

sued.

If an option generates repetitive messages, are output only the first.

REFERENCE

This menu provides quick access to the user’s projects or other help

references for drafting the estimate.

Estimates, price tables and catalogues on the Internet

The content is updated through Internet, and the user has not control

over its content.

Estimates defined in the user’s working environment

This group includes Presto files:

“Working environment: Directories: Projects”.

“Working environment: Directories: Reference”.

“Working environment: Database prices”.


Directories accessible by Presto Server.

The menu content is updated each time the execution of Presto starts,

and is limited to 512 entries.

TOOLS

Operations that affect the estimate as a whole, including all pricing

structures. Each is described where used.

CAD

Check “Presto in the design stage: Take-off lines: Take-off lines of

CAD drawings”.

Replace concepts

Concept update

Check “Presto in the design stage: estimate: estimate Organization “.

Regenerate parametric

Check “Presto at the stage of project: Estimate: Parametric concepts”.

Operate with prices

Adjust price

Check “Presto in the design stage: Estimate: Pricing and quantities”.

Reduce levels

Restructure breakdown

Check “Presto in the design stage: estimate: estimate Organization “.

Restructure take-off lines

Check “Presto in the design stage: Take-off lines: Take-off Lines”.

Working with Text

Translate text

Refer to “Use Interface: Windows of text”.

Operate with graphics

Operate files

Refer to “Complementary files to the project.”

Cross-check two projects

Check “Estimate: Analysis and checks”.

Parametric

See “Technical Questions” on the website of Presto, section “Esti-

mates: Working with price tables” concerning the development of

parametric concepts.


PROCCESS

Operations affecting concrete prices structures, such as those of the

target, and are described in the process where they are used.

Generate target

Update target decomposition

Restructure target decomposition

Consolidate work items

Break down work items by activity

Break down work items by decomposition

Check “Presto in the planning stage: Economic Planning”.

Create dates and certifications

Check “Presto in project management: Certification”.

Fill economic planning

Check “Presto in the planning stage: Economic Planning”.

Copy certifications

Check “Presto for contractors: Production”.

Fill agenda items

Some functionalities related to the diary and concepts need doing

this action.

Fills in procurement groups

Calculate resources

Check “Presto for contractors company: Purchasing and subcontrac-

tors”.

Create contracts



Create invoices

Check “Presto in the planning stage: Financial Planning “and” Presto

for contractors: Invoicing: Invoices”.

Link work

Update information

Update documents


Export documents

Check “Presto at the stage of project: An information system: Integra-

tion of works” and “Presto for contractors: Centralized invoicing”.

PLUGINS

They are independent programs of Presto that perform specific tasks

in the projects.

Appear in this menu .EXE and .VBS files contained in the directory

indicated in “FILE: Working environment: Directories: Plugins,” and

executables that are in the directory specific user.

To avoid unwanted interference, previously close any open projects

with other versions of Presto.

Develop plugins

Plugins can read and modify any data of the work. Users who want to

write a plugin must know some programming language capable of

interacting with the automation server available in Presto, such as

VBScript.

The server has many features for facilitate the reading and editing of

these projects, such as its creation and opening, positioning in tables,

reading and insertion of records and fields, and so on.

To access the automation server is needed:

Have run Presto at least once on the computer that you are

going to program.

Start the application by creating an object of the “PrestoAppli-

cation” class.

In www.presto.es, section "Service request", examples and documen-

tation for these functions.

CALCULATIONS


Recalculates all results dependent changes in the take-off lines. Check

“Presto in the design stage: Take-off lines“.

Prices

Recalculates all results dependent changes in prices and quantities.

Check “Presto in the design stage: estimate: Pricing and quantities “.


Planning

Recalculates all results dependent changes in the bar chart. Check

“Presto in the planning stage: Temporary Planning “.

Documents

Recalculates all results dependent changes in the content of the doc-

uments. Check “Presto for the construction company: Invoicing: Rec-

ords of economic control”.

Real costs

It recalculates all results that depend on allocations of costs and ex-

penses.

Check “Presto for contractors: Analysis of costs and expenses”.

Calculate all

Recalculate all results.

REPORTS

This chapter describes options that allow:

Generate results on screen or printed using predefined or cus-

tom reports.

Generate documents from Word and Excel templates.

Export reports to other formats such as PDF, RTF and TXT.

Create new reports or modify existing ones.

Reports are files with the “.PrestoReport” extension. Each file contains

a thumbnail of the first page, which is visible from Windows Explorer

whenever Presto is installed on that computer. If you change the re-

port layout thumbnail is generated again from the active project.

Choose reports

The “REPORTS” menu in the main window displays and allows Presto

print reports and templates that are in the directory reports and tem-

plates, and user-specific directory.

The directory can be changed in “FILE: Working environment: Directo-

ries”.

The menu content is updated each time the execution of Presto starts,

and is limited to 512 entries.

Print report or template

The dialog box lets display the report, export it or print it directly. It

allows you to choose reports and templates located in any directory,


showing the thumbnail if the appropriate option in the dialog box is

selected.

Preview

It shows the report final aspect. The header options lets tour the re-

port on different scales and execute the printing, complete or by pag-

es.

If a report exceeds the width of a page, more pages are generated,

except that the remaining area is less than the width of the right mar-

gin.

Debug

Displays the name of each control rather than its result, which facili-

tates the design or modification of reports.

Each section displays with a characteristic background colour, except

the section has its own colour, making it easy to detect their limits,

even if they have printable content. The colors of nested sections,

such as “Element”, are shown in different shades of the same basic

tone.

Templates of Excel and Word documents

The structure of the templates described in “Service request” web of

Presto, “Connecting with Word and Excel” section.

Word template

It is used as a basis to generate a Word document with project data.

The desired expressions must appear in a Word template, with the

resources and the usual syntax of Presto.

When you execute the option a new Word document is created, you

can freely change.

To expedite the process, and depending on the version of Word used,

it may be appropriate:

Disable spell checking.

Do not use the Windows clipboard while the template is gen-

erated.

Save the template in “Print Layout”.

Turn off the Word “Use smart cut and paste” if in the generat-

ed document appears words without space between them.


Excel template

It is used as a basis to generate an Excel workbook with a predefined

structure, whose cells are filled with project information, similar to

Word templates.

If a plugin named “Presto” in the template, it runs after export.

automatic reporting

Specific instructions for the design are in “Design Report” of the manu-

al.

Design report

This option or icon gives access to the Report Layout window. When

run from a window table automatically creates a report containing the

visible columns and applied filters, except the filter words. In the hier-

archical mode, takes into account the levels chosen in the dropdown

list.

If there is an active sub window, the report also prints the elements

thereof relating to each of the principal.

The result is a report similar to that displayed in the windows of Pres-

to content.

Automate customizing reports

They can reuse the properties of a report used as a base, because new

reports automatically applies them many of their properties.

The baseline report should be in the template directory, and its name

should be “Template”.

The properties of each section are copied to the following positions:

Section Goes to the same section of the report

Prologue Before

Start Before

Header Before

Master page Overlayed to the content

Foot Behind

Final Behind

Epilogue Behind


Export

Sets file characteristics resulting from the export of the report. The

“FILE: Export” option is available in the window to design reports, and

has the same functionality.

Format

PDF

The “Entire document” paper size generates a single page with the

necessary dimensions to enter the entire report, only one header and

one foot. It’s especially suitable for printing large documents, such as

the Gantt chart. If you choose the “User” size you can directly set the

width and height.

RTF

In this format, which allows you recovering with Word the result of

the report, different styles are assigned to each section, allowing you

to easily modify the generated document. Rectangles are not export-

ed.

Paper sizes are the same as the PDF format.

TXT

It generates a plain text without format for importing in other pro-

grams. The reports must have an ordered structure of fields, without

overlaps.

Specific options allow this format:

Fill in spaces in blank to create the distance between the fields.

If the previous option is enabled, you can also set the number

of lines on each page and the number of characters or col-

umns of each line. If too many characters to the right will

overlap to the start of each line.

If it’s not activated the previous option, you can choose a

fields separator. If you need fixed length fields, format each

field as desired.

If there is a selected separator of fields, not page breaks are

generated.

Export the header and footer on every page of the report, only

once or none.

The file can be added to the end of the file of the same name.


WINDOW

The different combinations of windows allow convenient access to the

most common ways to use the program.

Save sets of tabs

Redefine a combination of windows taking as the current model.

Set [1..5]

Each set is a combination of windows that is useful for some of the

most common processes of the program.

Retrieve original tabs

Reassigns the original combinations of Presto.

HELP

Presto manual, activation status of Presto Modules, and other aids to

the user.

Activation

“HELP” menu option showing the code and authorization system de-

tected by Presto.

The list of modules, has a “Use” column that allows deactivate availa-

ble modules, thus being free for other network users.

In order Presto works, you must have successfully activated the mod-

ules for the purchased license.

The information regarding the installation and activation process is

available in the “Installation Guide” of www.presto.es.

Activate

It makes the process of activating of the modules through an Internet

connection.

If this connection is not available or is restricted, see “Activation file”

described in the “Setup guide”.

Internet / Motherboard

Choose this option if you have a license for any of these authorization

systems.

Internet activation

This authorization system is activated in each session by checking the

server of Presto, which is renewed periodically. It can be used on any

computer, but not simultaneously.


The license is stored in the file “Presto.LicInternet”.

Activation by motherboard

This authorization system is linked to the computer’s motherboard.

No virtual machines are supported. Only the Internet connection is

required during the initial authorization.

The license is stored in the file “Presto.LicMotherboard”.

Physical device

Connect the device to the appropriate port of your computer and

continue with the activation process. If necessary, will be installed the

control software of this device.

The license is saved in “Presto.LicUsb”.

Connect to the network license server (PrestoNetActivation)

This option is used to activate an individual license or a workstation,

accessing a system of licenses for multiple licenses.

Get the IP address and port number where the configuration file lo-

cated “PrestoNetActivation.cfg “, where the license is stored.

Control user access

If you have a user control system, e-mail and password for each re-

quest. If the identification is positive, are activated automatically as-

signed to the user modules.

The whole process of creating users and passwords as well as the in-

dividual allocation of modules is done through the customer area in

www.presto.es

Activation files directories

Program Directory Example

Presto Configura-

tion

\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\Presto

PrestoNetActivation

PrestoServer

Presto setup \Program Files\Presto 2015

Other options

Presto Manual

Access to this manual.

Notes to current version

Clarifications on the latest version.


FAQ database

Access a database with queries and suggestions of Presto.

Send inquiry to Presto

Send a query to the system data that may affect the operation of

Presto, and responded to the registered user.

www.presto.es

It provides access to the website of Presto.

User licenses

It displays information of the protection.

License agreement

It displays the license agreement.

About Presto

Software version and corporate information.



Tutorial of estimates For the development of this tutorial, the program settings should be

the default at installation. When in doubt, delete the user’s profile:

Presto150.PrestoPerfilXml

The directory where is displayed is in “FILE: Working environment:

Directories: Configuration”.

The “FILE: Working environment: Generals: Show data from header

concept” option is disabled, so the active concept is always the concept

where the cursor is in the middle of the table.

1 Creation of concepts

Let’s make an estimate, with take-off lines and certifications.

Create a new project

We will create a new project called COURSE:

1 Select “FILE: New”.

2 Check the directory in which to save the project and change it if

you wish by clicking “Path”.

3 Type COURSE in the “Name” box, choose <None> in “Template”,

and accept. Note that in the title of the main window is the project

name.

4 Open “VIEW: Project settings” window and in the “Data” option,

enter the following values:

Summary Casa en Humanes

PostalCode 28970

City HUMANES DE MADRID

Create the structure of chapters and work items

To move to the field on the right, you can use the [Enter] key on the

numeric keypad or the [Tab] key. To go directly to the next line use

the [Enter] key of the alphanumeric keypad.

Let’s create some chapters and a work item.

In the “Estimate” window:

1 Enter 01 in the “Code” field or press [F7].


2 Go to “Description” field and write EARTHMOVING.

3 Go to the bottom line and enter 03 in the “Code” field.

4 Write FOUNDATIONS in the “Description” field.

5 Repeat to create chapters “04: | STRUCTURES” and “05 | CLOSING”.

6 Double-click on any field in the first chapter to get into its decom-

position. The chapter goes to the head. Add the work item:

Code Summary QtyEst Unit Est

E02EM030 Trenching 48,08 m3 13,00

The work item amount is calculated as the product of the quantity by

the price and has a yellow background, indicating that it is a non-

editable field.

Create subchapters

Access to the context menu with the right mouse button.

The chapter “04 | STRUCTURES” will be divided into two subsections,

concrete and steel:

1 Ascend to the chapter with a double click on the header (grey

band), double-click on this chapter and add the following:


04 Structures

04H CONCRETE 1

04A STEEL 1

2 The icon of the “NatC” field indicates that these concepts were

created with nature “Work item”. On this field of “04H” concept

choose the nature “Chapter” and do the same for “04A”.

Breaking down the work item

We will create the inferiors of “E02EM030 | Excavation in trenches”.

1 Place that work item on the header by double clicking on it.

2 Complete the work item with the following information:


E02EM030 Trenching m3

O01OA070 Mason 0,125 h 12,00

M05EN030 Hydraulic excavator 0,250 h 42,00


3 Up one level with double click on the header and note that the

price of the work item is magenta, indicating that it is the result of

a calculation.

Add a text

We will complete the description of this work item by adding a text.

1 Click the “Text” icon in the toolbar of the “Estimate” window.

2 In the “Text” window type:

Trenching, on firm ground, by mechanical means, without charge

or transport to landfill.

3 Select the text you just added, click the “Text colour” icon from the

toolbar of the text window, and select a different colour.

Duplicate a concept

We will double the previous work item to create a similar without

writing all over again.

1 Choose “Duplicate” over the “Code” field of the concept

“E02EM030”.

2 Change the proposed code by E02PM030.

3 In the new work item, change the contents of the field “Descrip-

tion” by:

Digging wells

4 In the “Text” window, replace “trenches” by “wells”.

5 Close the “Text” window.

Changing prices and quantities

The concept “O01OA070 | Bricklayer” is contained in the decomposi-

tion of the two work items.

Write 13.09 in his “Est” field and see how it changes the amount of

both.

To reflect the differences between trenching and well, change the

performances and the take-off of the new work item.

Code Summary QtyEst Unit

E02PM030 Digging wells 6,93 m3

O01OA070 Mason 0,130 h

M05EN030 Hydraulic excavator 0,260 h


Each concept figure once in each project and the changes of data that

define it, as price, description or unit, affecting the entire project.

However, the concept quantity in the breakdown of another is a

property of the relationship between them, and the same concept can

be part of many relationships with other parents, each with a different

quantity.

Concepts of percentage type

The decomposition of an item may contain concepts that represent a

percentage of the other concepts, representing auxiliary means or oth-

erwise.

We will add a percentage to the “E02PM030” work item.

1 Add after the work item decomposition a concept with code

%AUX03. Note that “QtyEst” contains the price of the work item

divided by 100, in magenta.

2 In the “Summary” field type aids and in “Unit” type %.

3 To increase 3% of price, type in “Est”, 3.

The percentage concepts act only on the decomposed located above.

Once defined a concept of percentage, you can use it in other de-

compositions, with the same percentage.

Indirect costs

If the work CURSO is subject to the Law on Public Sector, we can di-

rectly incorporate the indirect costs allowed.

1 In “VIEW: Project settings” select the “Calculate” option.

2 Type 5 in “Percentage of indirect costs of estimate “and click “Ac-

cept”.

Notice the “AmntEst” field of both work items reflects the change.

Open a reference

A reference is any other Presto project that is open while working on a

project.

Open a prices database.

1 Select “FILE: Projects”.

2 Click on “Reference\ESP” directory, located in Presto setup directo-

ry, and see the project it contains.


3 About the project “Extracto del cuadro de precios Centro” select

“Open as read only”.

Copy a concept from a price table

A concept is selected by pressing the numbered box on the left.

1 In the reference, double-click on:

Code Summary

E Decomposed prices

E02 Improvement of land

E02A Cleaning and clearing

2 Select the concept “E02AM010 | Land clearing and cleaning ma-

chine” and copy it to “EDITING: Copy”.

3 Go to “Estimate” window of the COURSE project and place in the

header section “01 | EARTHMOVING”.

4 Move to a blank line and insert the concept with “EDITING: Paste”.

5 Write 61.52 as the estimated quantity for this work item.

The copied work item has the price in magenta colour, as it is calcu-

lated, and can be modified without affecting the original concept of

the reference.

Copy more concepts from prices table

Repeat the above process by taking the necessary work items of the

prices table and dropping in the work COURSE until it has the follow-

ing contents:


Copy concepts of another project

You can copy work items from any other project, or even whole chap-

ters:

1 Open the project “CursoControl” in the directory “Tutorial\ESP”.

2 Copy the chapter “SANITATION”

3 Insert it into the COURSE project.

4 Close the references.

Sort concepts

To drag a concept, select it, click the left mouse button on any point of

the line and release the button at the desired target line.

Let’s change the order of work items in the chapter “01”.

1 In the “Estimate” window place in the header section.

2 Select the work item “E02AM010 | Land clearing and cleaning ma-

chine”.

3 Drag the line to the first position.

Repeat the process to sort the list of chapters.


Auxiliary prices

We will create an auxiliary price, inserting a decomposition to the

concept “A02A080 | Cement Mortar 1/6 m-40”, which is the only work

item of “05 | CLOSING” chapter.

1 Place the auxiliary in the header.

2 Complete the following data, and note while typing concepts code

of existing concepts in the project, its content is automatically

populated.


A02A080 Cement mortar 1/6 m-40 m3

O01OA070 Mason 1,700 h 13,09

P01CC020 Cement 0,250 t 95,20

P01AA020 River sand 1,100 m3 15,70

P01DW050 Water 0,255 m3 0,71

M03HH020 Concrete mixer 0,400 h 2,00

3 Ascend by double clicking on the header and check the auxiliary

price now is a calculated price. The auxiliary code is the grey back-

ground to differentiate it from the undecomposed concepts.

Displacements in the project

Learn to navigate by the work until you understand its structure and

gain confidence with the different ways to navigate into Presto.

1 Use “EDITION: Next” and “EDITION: Previous” to see the break-

down of all work items in the chapter “01”.

2 Click on the concept to the left on the path set on the head of the

“Estimate” window to access to the root concept.

Access to the “VIEW: Tree” window and browse by the project, using

the tools to start levels.

2 Take-off lines

Justify the quantities of the work items.

Create take-off lines

You can use [F9] to copy the upper field and [F7] to retrieve the values

of the top fields in the same column.


We will create the work items take-off lines of chapter “01 |

EARTHMOVING”.

1 Click over “Take-off lines” icon in the icons toolbar of the “Esti-

mate” window.

2 Set as active concept “E02AM010 | Land Clearing and cleaning ma-

chine”.

3 In “Take-off lines” subordinate window, display “Activity” list and

select “Act0010”.

4 Enter the following lines, using the aids referred to in the previous

note:

Activity Comment N Length Width Height

Act0010 North zone 1 3,00 3,50

Act0010 Floor 1 8,00 3,00

Act0010 Path 1 3,00 2,00

Act0010 Irregular area 1 7,02

Act0010 Garden area 1 2,00 7,00

Assigning of activities

The activities serve to organize the take-off lines of one or more work

items in groups.

1 Set as active concept “E02EM030 | Excavation in trenches”.

2 Extend the “Activity” list and select “+2” to create the “Act0020”

activity.

3 Enter the take-off lines that are in the following image associated

with this activity. Write directly the “Comment” field as the last ac-

tivity of choice is automatically associated.

4 When you get to the take-off lines associated to another activity,

repeat from step 2.

5 Repeat the process for the following work items, reusing existing

activities.



We want to know the quantities and amounts correspondent for vari-

ous activities.

1 Note that in each work item appears automatic subtotals ever

change the activity assigned to their lines.

2 Access to the window “VIEW: Activities” and renown the activities

as follows:

Code Summary

Act0010 Previous operations

Act0020 Explanation

Act0030 Trenches and pits

3 Activate “CALCULATIONS: Calculate all” and observe the amount of

each activity, including the assigned lines in all work items.


Checks the work items that make each activity opening the “Work

items” subordinated window.

3 Completion estimate

Refine the results.

Note a different price from calculated

We will introduce a price that does not reflect to the result of decom-

position.

1 Choose “Block” in the “Est” field of “E02AM010” work item. Its

colour changes to red indicating that it is not the result of its de-

composition.

2 Type 1 in its field “Est”.

3 Scroll down to see the breakdown and check what remains.

To retrieve the calculated price must choose “Unlock” on the price

of the work item. Do not do it yet.

Undo changes

You can undo everything done at any time of the making of the pro-

ject.

1 Choose “EDITION: Undo “twice consecutively.

2 Note that the price of the previous work item returns to be calcu-

lated.

Make a backup

We will make a backup of the current state of the project.

1 Press “FILE:Save” and “FILE: Close”.

2 Select “FILE: Projects” and locate the current project.

3 Choose “Copy” over the project.

4 Choose “Paste” and get the new project “Copia_Curso”.

5 To rename, choose “Rename” in the project and type

CURSO01Seg .

6 Maintain in the original work, choosing “Open” on COURSE pro-

ject.

Setting the estimate to an amount

We will reduce the amount of the estimate in an overall percentage.


1 Choose “TOOLS: Adjust price”.

2 Enter 95 in the “%” box. The new amount appears in “Adjust esti-

mate price to ... “.

3 Check the boxes of quantity of manpower and equipment and the

box price of materials. Uncheck any other box.

4 Click “Accept”.

The estimate is set at indicated percentage, by changing the values in

the set, so that they remain valid the decompositions

Window “concepts”

Let’s see the list of arches used in the estimate.

1 Open the “CHECK: Concepts” scheme “Materials and others: Budg-

et”. All concepts of the work with these natures appear.

2 Write P03B* in the mask box and press [Enter]. It appears only the

concepts whose code begins with these initials.

3 To redisplay all concepts enter the * character.

Add agents of the building

Layouts are chosen from the dropdown list to the left of the top of

each table window.

We will introduce the details of developer, designer, project manager

and builder.

1 Open the “VIEW: Entities”, “Data agents” layout.

2 Add the following agents:

Code Nat Summary Title

ENT0001 Promoter José Cenzano The property

ENT0002 Proyectist Laura Lita The architect

ENT0003 Builder Enrique Cimiento, S.A. The contractor

ENT0004 Work director José Manuel García The building en-

gineer

3 Select the nature of each entity using the context menu on its field

“Nat”.

4 Close the “Entities” window.


4 Printing and connection with other programs

We consider the estimate COURSE finished, so we proceed to print it

on paper, or export to PDF, RTF, BC3 or Excel format.

Before printing recalculate the work through the “CALCULATIONS:

Calculate all” option.

The reports to use are in the “REPORTS: 01 Estimates and take-off

lines” menu, and also find Excel and Word templates, which are iden-

tified by their icons.

You can modify the print margins in “FILE: Working environment:

Margins”.

Print measurements and estimate

1 At the site above, choose the report “Estimate and take-off lines”. It

appears a box with some questions.

2 Answer “D” to the question refers to the encoding type. Note that

concepts codes are correlative.

3 Click “Preview”. The report is displayed.

4 Press “>“ to see the following pages.

To modify the answers press “Return” button.

Print the summary of the estimate

Repeat the above procedure with the “Summary of estimate”.

To include the percentage of overhead and industrial benefit, like a

project of public procurement:

1 In “VIEW: Project settings” select the “Calculate” option.

2 Enter 6 as % of industrial profit, and 13 % as overhead.

3 Return to preview the report.

To change the % VAT go to “VIEW: Project settings”, “Accounting”

option and change the value of “Percentage of VAT on construction

works”.

You can preview or print the other reports of “REPORTS: 01 Estimates

and Take-off lines” menu.

Customizing reports: insert a logo in the header

To show a logo in the header of every page:

1 Go to “REPORTS: Design report”.

2 Press “FILE: Open”.


3 Select the “Summary of estimate” report on the reports subdirecto-

ry “01 Estimates and take-off lines”, and press the “Open” button.

4 Extend 2 or 3 cm the “Header” section scrolling down the bottom

edge.

5 Select all the controls in this section. To do this, position the cursor

on the left ruler up to the first control, and when its shape changes,

click with the left mouse of button and drag down to cover all con-

trols. While releasing the button, it will be all selectioned.

6 Move them down to free up site by clicking the “Down arrow” key

repeatedly.

7 With “TOOLS: Image” create a square in the upper left corner of

the section, and double-click to open their properties.

8 Type 4 in the “Width” property and 2 in the “Height”.

9 Press the suggest button in the “File” property and select “Logo-

tipo para informes.PNG” in the subdirectory “Tutorial\ENG”.

10 Check the result with “FILE: Preview”.

11 Select “FILE:Save as” and save the report with the name “Summary

of estimate with logo” in the same directory as the original, and

close the reports design window.

Export reports to PDF or RTF formats

You can export reports to RTF format to open them with a text editor

such as Word, and customize the document with the editor tools. To

export:

1 Instead of pressing the “Preview” option, click “Export”.

2 In the “Export” dialog box there are several properties. In “Format “

there is a drop down list where you can choose from available.

3 The remaining properties are setup paper size, print pages, loca-

tion of the file to export, and so on.

Export/Import Excel format

To export to Excel the estimate:

1 Select “FILE:Export: Excel”.

2 In “Levels” choose “Chapters and work items”.

3 In “Structure” select “Estimate”.

4 Check “Export text” and “Export take-off lines” if you wish to export

the long text and take-off lines respectively.


5 Press the “OK” button. It will appear an Excel workbook with the

Presto project estimate. Save it as Book1.xls.

To import with Presto an Excel file:

You can import the Excel files which were exported with the previous

option.

You can edit in Excel summary, price, quantity or take-off lines.

1 Close the open projects and create a new project whose name is

CopiaCursoExcel.

2 Choose “FILE: Import: Excel”, and double-click in the file Book1.xls

exported previously.

Save and close the project with “FILE: Save” and “FILE: Close” respec-

tively.

Export/Import format BC3

To export the project CURSO to this format:

1 Reopen COURSE project.

2 Select “FILE: Export: BC3 “ and save the file in the directory pro-

posed.

To import a project or a database prices in BC3 format:

1 Close the open projects and create a new project whose name is

CopiaCursoBC3.

2 Choose “FILE: Import: BC3”.

3 Select the Curso.BC3 file exported previously. Press the “Accept”

button.

Close the project saving changes.

5 Certifications

We will introduce some certifications in the COURSE project.

Certifications are correlative numbers, which correspond to the dates

assigned as certification day in the “Dates” window. The removal or

insertion of days of certification does not remove their contents, but

that moves between ones dates and the others.

Management dates

We will create a schedule of certifications and remove a date, as an

example of the procedure.


Create a calendar of certifications

1 In the “Estimate” window, select the layout of columns and filters

“Certification”.

2 Active “PROCESS: Create dates and certifications”, introducing the

following responses:

Initial day: actual date

Day of certification: 31

Number of months: 12

In the months that have not 31 days, the latest possible date is creat-

ed.

Delete a certification date

We will remove one of the dates of certification created.

1 In the “VIEW: Dates” window, choose “No certification” on the

first date of certification.

Indicate the current certification

1 Choose “Current certification” on any field in the third certifica-

tion. Note that the fields that identify change its colour.

2 With the same system, choose as current the first certification, to

continue the tutorial.

Certification by certification lines

Create the first certification reusing estimate lines

We will certify the work item “E02EM030” of the chapter “01” from its

estimate take-off lines.

1 In the “Estimate” window, place the work item as active concept.

2 In the “Take-off lines” window select “Estimate and certification”

layout.

3 In “StageCert” field of the first take-off line select the value “1” to

indicate that it was made during the first certification.

4 Repeat this process for all take-off lines of explanation, selecting

the lines and displaying the list of stages once.

Stick with the first certification with different lines to the estimate

Then, we will certify the work item “E02AM010” of the chapter “01”

through lines of independent take-off lines of the estimate.

1 In the “Estimate” window, place the work item as active concept.

2 In the “Take-off lines” window select the layout “Certification”.


3 Enter the following take-off lines and select the value “1” in the

“StageCert” field of all:

Activity Comment N Length Width Height

Previous operations North zone 1 2,50 3,60

Previous operations Floor 1 7,50 2,90

Previous operations Path 1 3,00 1,75

Previous operations Irregular area 1 7,02

Previous operations Garden area 1 2,00 6,00

Print certification

1 Use “CALCULATIONS: Calculate all” to ensure that all amounts are

updated.

2 Select “REPORTS: 05 Certifications: Certification with take-off lines”

report. Answer the questions and click “Preview”.

3 After checking the results, select “Print”.

Create the second certification

Let’s start the second certification of the work item “E02EM030”.

1 Certify as before all take-off lines corresponding to footings, indi-

cating “2” in their field “StageCert”.

2 In the “Dates” window, specify now that the current certification is

the second.

Certify vby stages

We will certify typing the total quantity certified in the month.

1 Place the work item “E02PM030” as the active concept.

2 Open the “Stages” subordinate window, “Certification” layout.

3 Enter 2.50 in the “QtyCert” for initial certification, 1.50 in the sec-

ond and 2.90 in the third.

4 Recalculate the project and observe the results in the “Dates” win-

dow.

Summary certification

We will print the summary with a low bid of 5%:

1 Open “VIEW: Project settings”, option “Calculate”.

2 Enter 0.95 in the low auction and accept.

To print the description:

3 Choose the report “05 Certification: Summary of certification”.

Cost tutorial 249

Cost tutorial This tutorial is a guide to estimate the project cost before bidding,

purchasing management and calculation of their actual costs. In reali-

ty, each user wants to control different aspects and, therefore, should

establish their own rules and procedures.

This tutorial assumes you are familiar with Presto Estimates.

The windows used in this tutorial are generally open from the “VIEW”

menu or their equivalents icons.

Before analysing the results or printing reports, calculate the project

with “CALCULATIONS: Calculate all” option.

Open the “CursoControl” project, found in the “Tutorial\ESP” directo-

ry.

1 Estimate of estimated cost

We will complete the data relative to the dates of the project.

1 Go to “Project settings: Times” window.

2 Fill in the start date with the first working day in April this year and

the date of the end of work any day in November and close the

window.

3 Choose “PROCESS: Create dates and certifications”, type 8 in

“Number of months” and click “Accept”.

4 Open the “Dates” window, “Stages: Planning and certification” lay-

out.

5 Choose “No certification” on the first two certifications.

6 Select as current certification the first, using “Current Certifica-

tion” on that date, and close the window.

7 Open the “Entities” window, “Data agents” layout.

8 Observe the existing agents and close the window.

Create a estimate of costs (target)

As the estimate is already calculated, we are going to create a propor-

tional target to the same.

1 Open the “Estimate” window, “Estimate and target” layout.

2 Choose “PROCESS: Generate target”.


3 Verify that is chosen as a concept that will regenerate the root

concept of the project, CONTROL, and select “Generate target”.

4 Write 70 as a percentage in the four natures, and click “Accept”.

Note that the estimate quantities are copied unchanged to the target

and that the prices of the single components have the appropriate

value.

Different decomposition in estimate and target

The composition of “E03ALA010 | Arqueta walk downspout” work

item of the estimate is not adequate, because we outsource the man-

power providing us the material.

Annul the indicated amounts of target and add the last line, so that

the decomposed matches the following:

Observe the new price-target of the work item.

Reports of economic planning (target)

Preview the following reports under paragraph “01 Estimates and

Take-off lines”, selecting “4” value in response to the question “Price:

1 Est | 3 Real | 4 Tgt”

“Decomposition list by chapters”.

“Estimate and take-off lines”.

Also use the report “Estimate and target” in “03 Financial planning”.

Accrue the target (planning)

We want to prevue the rhythm at which costs will produce of the pro-

ject. We will use an approximate time distribution, bell-as a Gaussian

Cost tutorial 251

curve. We are going to fill in the “WeightPlan” field, with the weight

that each certification will have on the total amount of the project.

1 Open the “VIEW: Dates”, “Stages: Planning” layout.

2 Select “WeightPlan” column by clicking in its header.

3 Press the suggest button on any of the selected fields, and choose

the value of the “Gaussian distribution” option.

4 In “PROCESS: Fill economic planning” check “Applying planning

weights from each certification” and accept.

5 In “Tree” window, access to “Planning” layout and select the level

of work items in the dropdown list top to the left.

6 In multiple fields should contain “QtyPlan” and “Plan” fields, and

“1” in “Stage” dropdown.

Check the monthly distribution of the estimated cost of each chapter

and work item. Note that the target is the sum of all the planned

stages. When the project is in progress, is called planning to the sum

until the current certification or approved stage.

Reports of economic planning (planning)

Preview the reports in “03 Economic Planning”:

“Chapters and work items with stages”.

“Quantities or amounts by months”.

“Planning of revenues and costs”.

2 Purchases

Preparation of contracts.

Project with contracts

It automates the grouping of supplies in contracts and associate them

default suppliers. We will add a group for manpower to be subcon-

tracted.

1 Open the project “Base de datos de proveedores” of the directory

“Reference\ESP”.

2 Observe its structure; each chapter corresponds to one of the lots

or purchasing families on which will be subdivided the project.

3 Create the new chapter “S | SUBCONTRACTED MANPOWER”.


Associate suppliers to purchasing groups

We will create two suppliers of manpower and associate to the previ-

ous chapter.

1 In the “Entities” window, “Data agents” layout, add:

Code Summary Email City PostalCode

40000031 Sumano [email protected] Villaviciosa 28670

40000032 Álvaro Bautista Madrid 28001

2 In the “Estimate” window, insert the two suppliers as inferiors con-

cepts of the chapter created in the previous section.

3 Save your changes and close the purchasing groups.

Choosing the concepts to purchase

The concepts that are going to be bought or subcontracted directly

must be marked as supplies.

1 In the “Estimate” window, choose “Supply” on the code of the

first work item of the first chapter.

2 Notice how the icon indicating the type of concept remains in or-

ange.

3 Check as supply equally the remaining work items of the first, third

and fourth chapters, and the concepts of decomposition of the

work items of the second and fifth ones.

Associate the purchasing group to each concept

To make the process of sorting and searching of suppliers, each sup-

ply must be associated with a purchasing group.

1 Open the “Concepts” scheme “Concepts for hire” window.

2 Choose “PROCESS: Fills in procurement groups”.

3 Check “Table of contracts”, and with the “Suggest” button on the

right, select the “Database suppliers” box, and click accept.

4 Observe that has filled the “Group” field of the different concepts.

5 To change the group of the concept “P01LT020 | Perforated brick”,

press the suggest button on its “Group” field and select “[E07]

WALLS AND DIVISIONS”.

6 Repeat the process with the concept “P01LV105 | Brick face view”.

7 Assign the “O01” value to “Group” field of all concepts of man-

power type, that are not in the database of suppliers.

mailto:[email protected]

Cost tutorial 253

8 Replace “E02A”, “E02E”, “E02P” and “E02T” groups by “E02”, in or-

der to the four concepts later appear in a single contract.

9 Similarly, replace the groups ”E04C” and ”E04S” to “E04”.

Calculate the necessary resources to execute the project

This process is the basis for contract creation.

1 Choose “PROCESS: Calculate resources”.

2 Remove all but the options marked “For stages, grouped by” and

“Purchasing group”, and accept.

3 You can see the resources created in the “VIEW: Resources by

groups” window.

Create contracts

Let’s create contracts that group the supplies needed to perform the

project.

1 Open the “Contracts” window.

2 Choose “PROCESS: Create contracts”, uncheck “A contract by

stage” and accept.

3 In the “Date” column of generated contracts type that they were

created two months before the start of the work.

4 Add “MANPOWER” as a description of the contract “O01”, that is

not of the suppliers’ database.

Contracts appears in red status, indicating that they are not satisfied,

and therefore cannot perform some calculations and do not appear in

some reports.

Change the status of nonconforming contracts selecting “Black”.

Add suppliers to bid a contract

We will indicate the suppliers who we ask prices.

1 Choose “Search and associate suppliers” on any field of contract

“E07 | WALLS AND DIVISIONS”.

2 The first suppliers, with more intense background, come from the

suppliers’ database and the others are from the project itself.

Check and uncheck the “Contracts” box to see the difference.

3 In the “Act” column, select the suppliers “40000003 | Insulation

Castilla”, “40000004 | Cecasa Ceramics” and “A82698762 |

TECHNICAL CERAMICS Henares, SA”, and accept.


4 Notice in “Supplies” subject window the new columns that appear

to the added suppliers.

5 Repeat all steps associating suppliers to the listed contracts.

Contract Supplier Summary

E02 40000005 Desmontes Aguilera

40000006 Excavaciones del Monte

E04 40001101 Architectural concrete

40000011 Valcinsa

B80480304 ACERALIA PERFILES MADRID, S.L.

E05H 40001101 Architectural concrete

40000011 Valcinsa

A28403772 HORMIGONES DEL JARAMA, S.A.

Remove offers of a contract

We will remove a supplier of a contract.

1 Place in the “Supplies” subordinate window of the contract “E07 |

WALLS AND DIVISIONS”.

2 Choose “Eliminate bid” at the head of the column “Price”, sup-

plier “A82698762”.

3 Note that the columns have disappeared from this offer.

Modify supplies

Let’s modify the quantity to be contracted from a supply.

1 Go over the contract “O01 | MANPOWER”.

2 In “QtyTgt” field, enter 14.09 for supply “O01OA030 | First officer”

and 9.64 for “O01OA060 | Specialized pawn”.

Add clauses to a contract

We will complete the contract specifications with a text.

1 Place in the contract “S | SUBCONTRACTED MANPOWER”.

2 Open the subordinate window “Text” and type:

If the subcontractor fails to comply with the deadlines a penalty of 0.5

% of the initial estimate for each day of delay will be applied.

Request prices to bidders

We will prepare the requests for prices to be sent to different bidders.

1 Select “FILE: Export: Price quote”.

Cost tutorial 255

2 In format, choose “Presto project” and accept.

3 In the directory labelled as “Destination” will have generated as

many Presto projects as suppliers involved in the contracts. If a

supplier is involved in more than one, your project will have a

chapter for each contract.

If the supplier email figure in its field “Email” also generate an email

with each bid, which must be closing or saving one by one.

Importing received prices from suppliers in Presto format

The company Valcinsa has sent their prices for both contracts in

which it participates.

We will proceed to import.

1 Select “FILE:Import: Price quote”.

2 Double click on the project “Supplier offer! 40000011”, located in

the “Tutorial” directory.

3 Note that contracts “E04 “ and “E05H” have incorporated the prices

offered by that supplier.

Input prices offered by suppliers manually

We assume that the remaining suppliers have submitted their bids by

other means.

1 Change in the contract “E07” and indicate the prices submitted by

each bidder for each supply.

Summary

Price

40000003

Price

40000004

Face brick 92,00 85,00

Perforated brick 35,00 40,00

2 Repeat this operation on contracts “E02”, “E04” and “E05H” with

the following prices, respectively.

Summary

Price

40000005

Price

40000006

Transport to landfill 8,26 7,53

Excavating machine wells 10,97 10,00

Excavating machine emptying 10,55 9,62

Clearing and land clearing 0,38 0,35


Summary

Price

40000011

Price

40001101

Price

B80480304

Pitching limestone 4,43 4,77 5,03

Reinforced concrete slab 11,32 12,19 11,60

Reinforced concrete footings 92,70 99,83 92,37

Concrete cleaning 61,86 66,62 67,11

Summary

Price

40000011

Price

40001101

Price

A28403772

Forged inclined deck 19,67 22,78 22,71

Reinforced concrete slabs on

grade

222,21 257,29 240,57

Forged double beam 30,62 35,45 34,80

Reinforced concrete bands 340,09 393,79 368,70

Reinforced concrete in beams 392,37 454,32 421,78

Reinforced concrete pillar 162,59 188,27 177,93

Remember to calculate all to update the results.

Award the contract to a supplier

To complete the hiring process is necessary to decide its contractor.

1 In the “Supplier” field of the “Contracts” window click “Suggest”

button of the contract “E07” to see your suppliers.

2 Select the supplier “40000004” and accept.

3 Repeat the above steps assigning to the supplier “40000006” the

contract “E02” and to the supplier “40000011” the contracts “E04”

and “E05H”.

Prepare the order

1 Choose “Transfer to order” over “E07” contract. “P0001”,

“P0002”, “P0003” and “P0004” orders are created for their supplier,

with the supplies to the offered price. An order is generated for

each stage in which supplies are needed.

2 Open the “Orders” window and delete the orders “P0002”, “P0003”

and “P0004”, which so far are not going to perform.

3 Press the suggest button on “Date” to indicate that the order is

placed on 12 March.

Cost tutorial 257

Reports of contracting and purchasing

Preview the reports in “07 Procurement” section:

“Comparative contracts”.

“Contracts signed”.

“Concepts contracted and orders”.

“Firm orders”.

3 Invoices

Documents of economic management.

Record an invoice and their supplies

We receive “00342” invoice for “40000006 | Mount Excavations” sup-

plier and dated March 22. We will note including the detail:

1 Open the “Invoices” window and enter the main elements of the

invoice:

Document Entity Summary Date

00342 40000006 Excavaciones del Monte 22/03

2 In the “Suppliers” window, type the detail of the invoice:

Code Summary Quantity Unit Price IVA

E02AM010 Clearing and land clearing 61,52 m2 0,35 18

E02EM030 Excavating machine emptying 48,08 m3 9,62 18

E02PM030 Excavating machine wells 6,93 m3 10,00 18

E02TT040 Transport to landfill 143,00 m3 7,53 18

The VAT fee of the invoice is calculated depending on each supply.

Warranty withholding

Complete the invoice indicating your warranty withholding, writing

“5” in its field “WithldngWarr”.

The withholding amount is subtracted from the value of the “BaseInv”

field.

Add maturities

The invoice “Amount” field is red, indicating its amount does not

match the maturities sum. Let’s create a maturity.

Choose “Maturity 60” on any field of the invoice.


Open the subordinate window “Maturities”. Make sure that you cre-

ate:

Amount to be paid 60 days after the date of invoice.

Warranty withholding with date 1 year later the invoice date.

VAT fee dated 20/04.

Mark maturity as paid

Note that the red colour is due (unpaid).

Choose “Black” on the “Note” field of “Maturity 60” (paid).

Complete the example

We proceed to type more invoices for completing the example.

1 Enter the same manner the following invoices.


G2456 40000011 Valcinsa 19/04

G4758 40000011 Valcinsa 28/04

00074 40000004 Cecasa Cerámicas 11/05

M0027 46000001 Own manpower 12/05

X00345 40000304 Hardware Fermax 14/05

2 In the same order, enter each supplies.

Code Summary Quantity Unit Price

E04CM040 Concrete cleaning 1,24 m2 61,86

E04CA060 Reinforced concrete footings 5,99 m3 92,70

E04SA020 Reinforced concrete slab 108,00 m3 11,32

E04SE020 Pitching limestone 108,00 m3 4,43


E05HSA010 Reinforced concrete pillar 5,44 m3 162,59

E05HVA030 Reinforced concrete in beams 16,74 m3 392,37

E05HVA075 Reinforced concrete bands 7,20 m3 340,09

E05HFA060 Forged double beam 240,00 m2 30,62

E05HLA070 Reinforced concrete slabs on

grade

0,90 m3 222,21

E05HFS160 Forged inclined deck 124,23 m2 19,67


Cost tutorial 259

P01LT020 Perforated brick 0,20 mud 40,00

P01LV105 Face brick 10,00 mud 85,00


O01OB050 Official brick maker 200,00 h. 10,47

O01OB060 Assistant brick maker 100,00 h. 9,82


PX003 Tree level 2,00 unit 17,00

PX002 Acrylic silicone pot 12,00 unit 4,00

PX001 Steel nails 20,00 kg 11,50

Note in this last invoice that can be invoiced not previously existing

concepts in the estimate.

3 Create the maturities of each invoice with contextual menu and the

type indicated in the table.

Document Entity Summary Type of maturity

G2456 40000011 Valcinsa Maturity 30

G4758 40000011 Valcinsa Maturity 30

00074 40000004 Cecasa Cerámicas Maturity 60

M0027 46000001 Own manpower Maturity in cash

X00345 40000304 Hardware Fermax Maturity in cash

Invoices issued to customers

We will issue to the customer the invoice corresponding to the first

certification.

1 Look in the “Entities” window, “Agents data” layout there is the

concept “43000015 | Promotions ESUCAP” and its type is “Devel-

oper”.

2 Access the “Invoices” window, “Customers” layout.

3 As we have seen above, create “0045” invoice for “43000015 | Pro-

motions ESUCAP” developer, dated “30/4”.

4 Enter the following supply:

Code Summary Price

CERT1 Certification nº 1 2.000,00


5 Complete the example with the following invoices:


0065 43000015 Promociones ESUCAP 31/05

0074 43000015 Promociones ESUCAP 30/06

6 And the following supplies, respectively.

Code Summary Price



7 Enter maturities in cash at all.

Pro forma invoices

We will introduce a previsional invoice.

1 Type the following invoice:


PRO5 43000015 Promociones ESUCAP 31/07

2 With the following supply:

Code Summary Price


3 Choose “Red” on the “Document” field of the invoice, indicating

that it is a pro forma invoice.

Remember to recalculate the project.

Record the payment of a maturities group

The window “VIEW: Maturities” shows all the projects maturities.

We will indicate that the above maturity to July 1 have been paid.

1 Open the “VIEW: Maturities” window and check that it is sorted by

date.

2 Select all maturities with before the July 1 date.

3 Choose “Black” on the “Note” field of any of the selected lines.

4 Press “CALCULATIONS: Calculate all”.

Cost tutorial 261

Analyse amounts by dates

In the “Diary” window, “Invoicing” layout, you can see the invoicing in

each date and making annotations.

1 In the”Description” field of the March 12 type:

First firm orders

2 Click on the “Text” icon in the toolbar and type:

Received contracts from various suppliers. They accept the

requirements. We spent the first orders.

Analyse the accounts state of the suppliers

In the “Entities” window, “Suppliers (amounts)” and “Promoters

(amounts)” layouts show the economic information from suppliers or

customers, and the invoiced amount, retained, paid, unpaid and VAT.

By clicking on the “Supplies” icon, in the icon bar of the window, you

can see the detailed list of supplies.

Analyse the purchases of a concept

The “Concepts” scheme “Supplies” window shows the concepts that

supply type in the work.

By clicking on the “Supplies” icon in the window icons bar, you can

see the detailed list of concept supplies.

Studying the project supplies

The window “VIEW: Supplies” shows the items that are in any docu-

ment, where you can sort and filter by different criteria.

It also allows you to change some data without opening the corre-

sponding document.

Reports of invoices and maturities

Preview reports of “08 Invoicing” section:

“Invoices and maturities”.

“Invoices by suppliers”.

“Maturities by dates”.

4 Orders and deliveries

Presto has documents of order type and of delivery type or delivery

note. Its use is optional, and its operation is similar to the invoice

document type, except the part concerning to maturities.


Ordering

We will create an order manually, independent of the contracts.

1 Open the “Orders” window and close all others.

2 In the first empty line, type “PX0103” in the “Document” field.

3 Press the suggest button on “Entity” and choose “40000001”.

4 Then enter its “Date” issue is “24/02”.

5 In “Supplies” press the suggest button over “Code” of each supply,

select successively:

Code Unit Summary Quantity Price

A02A080 m3 Cement mortar 10,00 44,80

P01HA020 m3 Concrete HA-25/P/40/I 0,14 51,01

6 Display the order you just prepared with “REPORTS: 07 Contract:

Firm orders”.

Note the complete delivery of an order

Concrete Horminasa delivery a week later all supplies of the order

accompanied by a delivery note:

1 Choose “Go to delivery” over the order “PX0103”.

2 Type “EX0103” as code of the delivery.

3 Open the “Deliveries” window and watch the delivery was created.

4 Change the date of delivery so that it is “05/03”.

5 Notice in the “Order” field of the “Supplies” its provenance.

Complete the example

Several days after we send “40000001 | Concrete Horminasa” a new

order in which we ask the rest of the material we need.

1 Type the order “PX0104” for the previous entity, dated “08/03”.

2 Enter the following supplies.

Code Summary Quantity Uni

t

Price

A02A080 Cement mortar 5,17 m3 44,80

P01AA020 River sand 2,73 m3 10,99

P01HM020 Mass concrete HM-20/P/40/I 0,16 m3 49,01

P01MC010 Cement mortar M-100 0,11 m3 37,10

P01MC040 Cement mortar M-40 0,22 m3 32,90

Cost tutorial 263

Note the partial delivery of an order

“Concrete Horminasa” sends two days after a truck with sand. To rec-

ord the receipt of this material:

1 Choose “Transfer to delivery order” on the supply “P01AA020 |

River sand” on the order “PX0104”.

2 Type “EX0104” as code of the delivery.

3 Open the “Deliveries” window and change its date to “10/03”.

Results

Open the “Diary” window, “Documents” layout and check the

amounts by date.

Open the “Entities” window, “Suppliers amounts” layout, and

check the amounts ordered and delivered.

Delivery reports

Preview reports of “08 Invoicing” section:

“Deliveries by date”.

“Deliveries by suppliers”.

5 Calculation of actual costs

The cost calculation is from the supplies listed in cost documents (de-

liveries and / or invoices), the designated destinations and the pro-

duction of the work items.

Designation of destinations

The first step before proceeding to study of actual cost of the project

is to determine which units will be produced (destinations or cost

centers) with purchased supplies. We will mark the first chapter as a

destination:

1 Open the “Estimate” window and close all other open windows.

2 Choose “Destination” on the code of the concept “01 |

EARTHMOVING”. Notice that nature “NatC” changes its colour.

3 Repeat the previous step for all the chapters and work items of the

chapters “02 | SANITATION” and “05 | ENCLOSURE”.

Consumption of subcontracted work items

We have outsourced some work items that we will allocate its chapter.

1 Open the invoice 00342, supplier “40000006 | Mount Excavations.”


2 Press the suggest button of the field “Destination” of its supply

“E02AM010 | Land clearing and cleaning”.

3 Select the destination “01 | EARTHMOVING” and type “03/04” as

the date of allocation.

4 In the “Estimate” window, “Cost control” layout, open the decom-

position of chapter 01.

5 Choose “CALCULATIONS: Real costs” and note the quantity and

amount allocated in the “QtyInput” and “AmntInput” fields respec-

tively.

6 Assign to the supplies of the invoices “00342”, “G2456” and

“G4758” the destinations and allocation dates as follow, respective-

ly:

Code Summary Path Summary DateA

mnt

E02AM010 Clearing and land clear-

ing

01 LANDS MOVING 03/04

E02EM030 Excavating machine

emptying

01 LANDS MOVING 05/04

E02PM030 Excavating machine wells 01 LANDS MOVING 05/04

E02TT040 Transport to landfill 01 LANDS MOVING 08/04


mnt

E04CM040 Concrete cleaning 03 FOUNDATIONS 21/04

E04CA060 Reinforced concrete

footings

03 FOUNDATIONS 21/04

E04SA020 Reinforced concrete slab 03 FOUNDATIONS 22/04

E04SE020 Pitching limestone 03 FOUNDATIONS 25/04


mnt

E05HSA010 Reinforced concrete pil-

lar

04 Structures 28/04

E05HVA030 Reinforced concrete in

beams

04 Structures 29/04

E05HVA075 Reinforced concrete

bands

Cost tutorial 265

E05HFA060 Forged double beam 04 Structures 19/05

E05HLA070 Reinforced concrete

slabs on grade

04 Structures 19/05

E05HFS160 Forged inclined deck 04 Structures 24/05

7 Recalculate and observe the amounts allocated to each chapter.

Cost calculation until the current certification

1 In “VIEW: Project settings: Calculations”, check “Consider only doc-

uments in approved stages” option, so it does not take in account

the supplies allocations with later date to the current certification.

2 Note that the work items allocated to chapter “04 | STRUCTURES”

during the month of May have not been accounted.

3 Open the “Dates” window, “Stages: Planning and certification” lay-

out.

4 Choose the second certification as “Current certification” and note

that they are already counted.

Allocate one part of a supply

The supply “E05HVA075 | Reinforced concrete bands”, that have

bought in the G4758 invoice has not yet been allocated, and we want

to reflect that is placed 1 m3 at the end of April and the other on May

10.

1 Open the invoice G4758 of “40000011 | Valcinsa” supplier.

2 Choose “Unfold” over “E05HVA075” supply.

3 Enter “6.20” as the quantity to unfold. A new supply appears with a

quantity of 6.20 m3 and the previous will be reduced its quantity in

the same amount.

4 Select “04 | STRUCTURES” as a destination for both supplies and

indicate that the old with a quantity of 1 m3 has been placed on

“30/04” and the new with the rest on “10/05”.

Recalculate and verify that there is not difference between supply

consumed at one time and this, which is consumed in several.

Consumption of basics concepts

The mechanism that will continue for the allocation of basic concepts

is the same as that followed for the allocation of outsourced work

items.


1 Open the invoice M0027 of supplier “46000001 | Own manpower”.

2 Assign to your supplies the destination “E07LSB040 | Factory perfo-

rated brick” and the date of allocation “30/05”.

3 In the “Estimate” window, “Cost control” layout, open the break-

down of the previous work item, in “05 | CLOSING” chapter.

Recalculate and observe the amount of imputed supplies.

Analyse the allocations of a destination

In the “Concepts” scheme “Destination” window are all concepts of

target type.

Click the “Allocations” icon in the icon bar of the window to see the

supplies allocated to each destination.

Enter the production of certifiable work items

We assume that output equals the certification.

1 Choose “PROCESS: Copy certifications”.

2 Select “Certification” as “Origin”, “Execution” as “Destination” and

accept in order to the “QtyReal” field of the work items is same as

“QtyCert”. In “Masked” type *, and accept.

3 Type 115.00 in the “QtyReal” field of the “E07LSB040 | Factory of

perforated brick” work item, which is not certified.

Recalculate and note that the unitary actual yield of the officer and

assistant appears, considering purchases each and the produced

quantity of the work item.

Cost control reports

Preview the following reports under paragraph “01 Estimates and

Take-off lines”, selecting the value “3” in response to the question

“Price: 1 Est | 3 Real | 4 Tgt”

“Decomposition list by chapters”.

“Estimate and take-off lines”.

Preview reports in “09 Cost analysis”:

Allocations to cost centers. Check variants of this report, show-

ing the aggregated supply and filter by date imputation.

“Valuation of stocks”.

Design report 267

Design report This section contains the instructions to customize existing reports or

create new ones.

Common options with Presto explained in the chapters to Presto.

Contents of reports

Reports can incorporate any estimate information:

Elements of either table.

General data, which are in “Project settings”.

Any other value of the “Variables” window.

A report is a set of instructions for selection, organization and format

of the information to be printed of the estimate, structured in con-

trols.

The controls are rectangles and can contain a fixed text, an estimate

field, a calculated value, images or lines. Controls are grouped into

sections.

A section is a horizontal band that contains controls with information

usually obtained from a Presto same table. The “Header” section, for

example, indicates the contents of the top of each page of the report,

while the “Element” sections fill the central zone of the page.

The information in each section is linked to the previous section by

establishing a relationship between them.

Link tables

To design a report you have to choose the table that contains the

desired information and associate that table to a section. Using a sin-

gle table simple reports are obtained, such as lists of materials or

supplies.

To make reports with related data between two tables, as the list of

concepts and the files associated with each, you must open each table

in successive “Element” sections. The table of one section must share

some information with the table of the following.

The program prints each element of the table selected in one section

and then all elements of the table of the next section whose key satis-

fies the mask input to choose this table. Thus, the element for each

section acts as header or title of the elements of the next section.

In the example of the concepts and their associated files the sections

are:


Section Table Key Mask

Element 1 Concepts Concepts.Code

Element 2 Attach-

mentCon-

cept

AttachmentConcept.Code Con-

cepts.Code

Presto starts printing an element of section 1; then print all the ele-

ments of section 2 related with the element of the section 1, until

completion of all elements in each of the sections.

A table can also be chained itself; for example, the relations table can

be opened successive times to print nested hierarquical layouts.

Properties

The properties of the report, sections and controls are in “Design Re-

port: VER: Properties”.

The expressions are written according to the rules that are in “Expres-

sion builder”.

Paste

It inserts in the point of the report where the cursor is located the

clipboard content, which may be the controls of the same or another

report:

If some control was selected before pasting, it does not elimi-

nate or replace it.

If in the destination report is selected a section, paste it all the

controls. Otherwise, each control paste in its original section.

In the absence of this, it paste in the last section that it pasted

something.

If in any property of a control there is a non-existing variable in the

target report, remains in blank and a message appears.

File

Save protected copy

It saves the active report so that it can be used normally, but without

seeing or changing its design. A protected report cannot be unpro-

tected, so you should save a copy of the original report.

Design report 269

Translate report

It makes a similar process to described in “Translate text”, translating

the literals that be in the expressions of:

The property “Source” of the text boxes.

The “Question” column in the “Settings” window.

The multi-language reports using the “tr()” function are translated

leaving the literal corresponding to the destination language.

Text strings that contain numbers are not translated.

It has its own dictionary in RTF format allowing you to customize the

translation using terms that the user wants.

After the translation, the user decides if saves the report.

VER

List of controls

It lists all the controls of the report, or only selected, with the section

to which they belong and the contents of the “Source” field. Under

each control appear all that depend on it, with “Section” field empty.

You can activate one or more controls by double clicking on the list,

which facilitates the location of the selected element.

Field list

Table with all Presto fields and the table to which they belong. You

can drag a field from this list to the report, creating a control that

appears with the adequate width to its content.

Decrease zoom 25%

Decreases the display size of the report.

Zoom 100%

It displays the design of the report at its natural size.

Increase zoom 25%

Increase the display size of the report.

Properties

If define the characteristics of the report, sections or controls. It also

opened by double-clicking on the element. If selected various con-

trols, it can be changed all at once their common properties.


Colours

The colors can be chosen in the dialog box or by entering the RGB

colour, which are the red, green and blue components of a colour

additive system. Each index ranges from 0 to 255 and the number is

calculated by the expression:

R + (G x 256) + (B x 256 x 256)

Report properties

To see them, you click outside the report area.

Width

Width of the printed area of the report in cm. You can also move the

right edge of the report.

Grid X and Y

Number of vertical and horizontal grid divisions, measuring 1 x 1 cm.

Orientation

This orientation automatically changes the orientation of the printer

to print the report.

Columns

You can choose more than one column for reports to be printed in

large formats or oblong. The report design should have proper width

to resulting width of each column.

Repeat header and foot

In reporting more than one column, the header and footer can be

printed once per page or repeated for each column.

Common properties of sections

Height

Height in cm of the section. You can also move its lower edge.

Background style

The contents of the master page is printed below each section. If you

would not be printed in a specific section, do its bottom visible, even

white.

Keep together

It applies to sections “Element”, “Search “, “Separator”, “Separator

end”, “End element” and “Final”.

Design report 271

Option behaviour when the end of the page

No What cannot be, goes to the next page.

The section If the section does not fit on the page, it passes

complete to the next.

With inferior ones Only “Element” section. If the element and their

inferiors not fit on the page, turn the whole to the

next page.

Jump before | Jump after

Applies to “Start”, “Separator “, “Element”, “Separator end”, “End ele-

ment” and “Final”.

It specify a condition to generate a page break before or after print-

ing the section.

Browse not

All sections except “Master page” and “Search”.

It links to the section the contents of the “Search” section of the indi-

cated number.

Adjustment

It adjusts the contents of the section to the upper or lower limit of the

page. It affects all sections except master page header and footer.

Properties of the “Element” section

Condition

If it’s matched, it jumps to the “Element” section listed in the “Element

No.” property, leaving unprinted the lower intermediate, if any.

Element nº

Section “Element” which is skipped if the annotated expression is ful-

filled in “Condition”.

Table

Table of the Presto project that is opened with the section.

Key

Key of the table for which the elements are arranged in the section

field.

Mask

It applies to the key field to filter the elements that are printed. If al-

phanumeric must be quoted and supports wildcards “*” and “?”.


Selection

It let’s filtering the elements to be printed by a Presto expression.

Element end

It is printed at the end of the section that closes to print totals or

summaries.

Separator | Separator end

It groups the elements of the section by the first characters of the key,

creating a “Separator” section and a “Separator End” one, before and

after the group.

Separator characters

Number of characters of the key by which the elements are grouped

when there are separators. You can use the following special cases:

Value Type Groups by

1 Date Days

-1 Date Months

-2 Date Years

-3 Concept Nature

Order by

Sort criteria, which may be a field in the table, a text box or an expres-

sion. The sort by default is by the key field and is not needed to rec-

ord. Sorting by other criteria may result in slower execution of the

report.

Common properties of controls

The controls move one grid unit at each press of the cursor.

Name

The name of the new controls is formed by the control type and a

number. It can be changed later; must begin with a letter and can also

use numbers and characters “$” and “_”.

You cannot use the reserved names, as the fields of work, function

names and language structures.

Visible

It let’s calculating auxiliary variables, which generate a required value

in the report, but not wish to print. The non-visible controls occupy

space on the printed report, unless the condition below is not met.

Design report 273

Condition

If the condition is not met, control is not printed or occupies space.

“Text box” control properties

Autoextensible

If the text to include does not fit in the rectangle box and the “Yes”

answer is selected, width control is maintained, but the number of

lines is increased as needed.

Origin

Presto expression indicating what to print in control.

Numerical results are printed with all decimal places, without thou-

sands separators. This result can be formatted using a format to this

same field with the ‘%’ function, as described in the “Expression build-

er”, or with the criteria of the “Format” field.

Font

Choose type and font size available on the computer.

Number format

Decimal positions

Number of decimal places with which the variable is printed.

Sign +

It adds the “+” character when the value of the variable is positive.

Thousands separator

It prints the thousands separator, according to the operating system

regional.

Words

It converts a number to its string expression in words in the language

displayed in “VIEW: Project settings: Miscellaneous” or in Roman nu-

merals.

Gender

Male or female gender of the value in letter of the variable.

Caps

It displays the value in uppercase letter of the variable.

Alphanumerical format

The alphanumeric expressions are printed within the text box:

The maximum allowable width in all predefined variables, ex-

cept in the texts.


The width corresponding to the real text in the texts.

The corresponding width to the assigned value for user-

defined variables.

Delete white space

It removes whitespace characters by the end of the text.

Caps | Mins

It prints this variable in uppercase, lowercase, or as is.

Words

Automatic hyphenation of words.

RTF format

It prints the text as formatted, unchanged, except it takes in account

the state of the hyphenation option.

Date format

A date type variable is internally the number of Julian days or correla-

tive since January 1, 1980. The date format option allows you to con-

vert this number to a date as you want to print it.

Text

It lets you choose a standard format of date in a list.

If another format is desired, we can write a string expression, where

the characters shown in the following table have special meaning:

Format Description

D, M, Y Day, month or year, figures, omitting zeros by the left.

DD, MM, YY Day, month or year, in numbers with two digits.

DDD, MMM,

YYY

Day, month or year, in letter.

MMMM If the language is Catalan, month in letters and preceded

by “d ‘“ when necessary.

Mn Month in letter, with n initial characters.

Dr, Mr, Yr Day, month or year in roman numerals.

Ym Year in numbers and a thousand separator.

The characters not included in the table are printed unchanged.

For example, the expression:

MMM DD Y

Generates printing:

05 de March of 2003

Design report 275

Alternatively you can use the formatting function of dates:

%(format)f’(numeric expression of date)

The term “format” functions as the aforementioned “Text” box. For

example:

´%(D de MMM de Y)f´(today)

Results:

March 5, 2003

Adjustments

Justifying

The “General” justification aligns the numbers on the right and type

variables and alphanumeric date to the left.

The justification “None” respects the indented applied to text.

Fill in

Character that will fill the gap between the control box and its con-

tents, if it does not fully occupied.

Calculation

It lets setting variables to perform a calculation on the expression of

the “Source” property of the text box.

Operation

It calculates the sum, average, maximum or minimum of the control

listed in the “Source” property of the control. It’s used habitually in

“End element” or “Final” sections.

Element nº

Number of element that will perform the operation.

When printing

When selected the “Source” option, only do the specified operation if

the element that applies has been really printed. It may happen that

the element has been travelled by the report, but not printed yet, be-

cause it does not fit on the page. Thus the correct result of the opera-

tion in special sections, such as footer, is obtained.

Select “No” option for the transaction as soon as the element is

crossed by the report, whether or not printed.

Reset End element

It resets the value of the variable when you run the “End element”

indicated.


Reset End separator

It resets the variable value when you execute the indicated “Separator

End”.

Reset page break

It resets the value of the variable when a page break occurs.

Browse not

Section “Search” on which will perform the operation.

Condition

The calculation is performed only on the concepts that meet this con-

dition.

“Line” control properties

Inclination

The different possibilities, " | ", "- ", "/ " and "\ ", forcing the orienta-

tion of the line.

Page break

It inserts a page break along the line, with different options. You can

include a condition in the corresponding property.

Control Properties “Rectangle”

Background style

You can choose a visible or invisible background.

“Graphic” control properties

Origin

Provenance of the chart.

Options Description

File Image file in any graphics supported format.

Thumbnail Thumbnail of the associated file.

Image Graphical representation of the associated file.

First image First attached file of type image.

First drawing First associated file of vectorial type.

Field Represented by a graph, as natures.

Design report 277

File

Origin = File

Filename with the graph. The graph is stored in the report, so it is not

necessary to retain the original file.

Origin = Field

Presto Name field represented by the graph.

Self adjusting size

If enabled, the control size increases to the size of the graph, moving

the controls or following sections, if necessary. It is useful for reports

with images or drawings associated to the project concepts.

“Gantt” control properties

It takes into account various conditions of display of the Gantt chart

in that moment in Presto. The following properties, except “Header”,

are common to the entire report.

Header

Display the time scale of the diagram.

Start date

Date, in the format supported by Presto, from which diagram printing

starts.

mm / time unit

Mm of width assigned to each column of the unit of time.

Helps to adjust the position of the controls

Ruler

Horizontal and vertical rulers in the report design. It allows multiple

selections of elements.

Grid

It displays a grid on the report layout that helps to align the controls.

Report properties “X Grid” and “Y Grid” indicates the number of sub-

divisions per unit grid.

EDIT: Snap to Grid

It sets to grid subdivisions the operations on controls and sections

that affect their position or size, even if the grid is not visible.


Parameters (questions)

List of user-definable questions that are presented to preview, print or

export the report.

Property Description

Variable Variable that takes the value of the response, with the same

rules as the names of controls.

The type of the variable depends on the content of “Answer”.

Question Text of question to ask.

It may be included questions in the program different lan-

guages, and each must be separated by “;” and in the follow-

ing order:

Spanish;Catalan;English;French; <Internal> ; Portuguese;

German; <Internal>;Italian;Polish

Length Maximum number of characters in the response.

Mys Automatic change to caps of the response.

Answer Default value, which also affects the type of the variable.

The alphanumeric responses must be quoted; if you want an

alphanumeric variable with not default value, enter ““.

If you want a drop down list of alphanumeric responses, en-

ter the options separated by “;”.

If there is a text box called “Help”, its contents are displayed when you

run the report, along with the questions, and in the project language.

Go up the parameter | Go down the parameter

Alter the order of the questions.

TOOLS

Allows selection of a control to create or add content to the layout of

the report. The coordinates of each control can be seen at the bottom

of the window.

Select

Select one or more controls.

Textbox

It creates a control to print a field variable, expression or fixed text.

Line

It creates a control that prints a line.

Design report 279

Rectangle

It creates a control that prints a rectangle.

Image

It creates a control for printing images or associated drawings, or a

separate graphic file.

Gantt

It creates a control to print a bar or a header in a Gantt chart.

Format controls

Turn into subtotal

To create an automatic subtotal create a text box in a suitable section,

such as “End element”, “Separator end”, “Epilogue” and “Final”. Then,

select “Format: convert to subtotal”.

Presto displays a list with the numeric controls of the sections that

may be totalized, as “Element” and “Browse”. Select the text box you

want to totalize and change the result, as desired.

Copy control format

It converts the chosen control formatting properties in those of the

defect.

Paste format to the control

It applies the default properties of the selected controls.

Align

It aligns the selected controls.

Adjust size

By choosing “Adjust to content”, if the control is a text box, set the

height to font size; if a graph from a file, set its size.

Bring to front

It locates the selected controls ahead of other overlapping ones.

Bring to back

It locates the selected controls behind the overlapping others.


SECTION

Insert

It insert an “Element” or “Searching” section in front of the chosen

section.

Master page

It prints a common background or watermark on all pages of the re-

port, except in the “Prologue” and “Epilogue” sections; the content of

the other sections is printed on it.

Prologue

It’s printed at the beginning of the report and then a page break is

inserted.

Header

Its contents are printed at the top of each page, except in the pages

of the sections “Prologue” and “Epilogue”.

Start

It prints exclusively on the top of the first page of the report.

Element

You can print a record in a table of Presto. For example, a “Con-

cepts.Code” control, without any conditions, prints a line for each

item of the table, with your code.

The chained of “Element” sections let printing the information from

successive nested hierarchies of concepts. After each top-level ele-

ment all lower elements are printed, and so on. You can view an ex-

ample: “Annex I. Technical documentation: Tables”.

You can also concatenate “Element” sections associated to other ta-

bles, to print the concepts and their take-off lines, suppliers and their

supplies, invoices and their maturities, etc.

Each “element” section it’s possible add sections “End element”, “Sep-

arator” and “End separator”.

See “Properties of the Element section” to see the various ways to

select and sort the elements.

Final

It prints once at the end of the report, to incorporate end comments,

totals or signatures.

Design report 281

Foot

Is printed at the bottom of each page, except in the “Prologue” and

“Epilogue” sections.

Epilogue

It is printed at the end of the report on a separate page after the “Fi-

nal” section.

Browse

It’s associated to a Presto table and links to another section of the

report. It prints once for each record in the selected table and works

similarly to the “Element” section.

It serves to nest data more flexibility than in the “Element” sections.

For example, to print invoices with theirs supplies can be used two

“Element” sections; but if you want to print on each invoice the ma-

turities after the supplies, an “Element” section is not helpful, as it

seeks the maturities of supplies, that do not exist. To do this, add a

“Browse” section with the maturities data instead of the third section

“Element”.

A “Browse” section is linked to a section of any kind, except to anoth-

er “Browse” section, selecting the number in the “Browse Number”

dropdown list of the properties of the section that is linked. The gen-

erated lines by the “Browse” section is printed after each element in

the section that is linked.

“Browse” section has the properties “Table”, “Key”, “Mask”, “Selection”

and “Adjustment”, which works as the “Element” section, and “Ele-

ment number”, indicating the desired record of the table; if null,

through all the records.

You can open as many “Searching” sections as desired, but can only

link one per section.

The operations on “Searching” sections automatically restarted its

value each time is linked to the “Search” section.



Expression builder The expressions are used to create user fields, reports, filters and rules

from the values of existing fields.

The expressions are written using C language conventions, ex-

cept where indicated otherwise.

The decimal separator is always the point.

The left window shows all the fields, sorted by tables with operators

and functions, with examples of its use.

General variables

Variables in the working environment of the user.

Functions

Double-clicking on the name of a function is inserted into the edit

box. Then the formal parameters must be replaced by real ones.

By selecting “Functions: Numerics” and “abs” is written:

abs(num)

Select the contents of brackets and choosing a field, eg “Con-

cepts.Est”, you get:

abs (Concepts.Est)

Operators

To language C standards operators are added some, as the operator

"*?", that lets you quickly if an expression checks a mask, and the ex-

ponentiation, "^".

Filters

It lets select predefined filters.

To enable multiple simultaneous filters should be concatenated using

“&&” (logical “and”) or “ | | “ (logical “or”).

Fields and expressions

It allows use user columns and other predefined expressions, that are

saved with the “Save as” option.

Project fields

The list of Presto tables with all fields.

You can also see on Presto Reports, “VIEW: Field list” option. The

“Type” column indicates the values supported as answer.


Type Variable Comment

A Alphanumeric The number indicates the maximum number of

characters.

N Numeric Any numerical value.

F Date Format “DD/MM/YYYY”

B Boolean 0: No 1: Yes

C Character One character.

The fields in these tables are identified in expressions using the table

name and field name, separated by point.

Concepts.Description

Fields of work accessible “VIEW: Project settings: Data”, belong to the

root concept and used by the expression:

Concepts [Nat == 0] .field

The fields of work that are accessible in “VIEW: Variables” are used

with the prefix “Work”.

These fields can also be identified with the functions “work()” and

“workd()” for alphanumeric and numeric data respectively, which also

allow refer to the general user-created variables.

Example Example Result

Work.Period workd(“Period”) 11

Work.Tax work(“Tax”) IVA

Fields reports

Report variables

Specific properties of the report, such as the number of the page be-

ing printed. It start with an underscore.

Parameters (questions)

Variables that ask the user before running the report.

Text boxes

It lets using the value of other text boxes in the report.

Fields of the table

When opened from a section of a report, only are displayed the most

appropriate fields to the selected information.


Linked variables

You may refer to a field of an item in a table without specifically open,

whenever a field element of the original table is key in the other.

This syntax is used:

Table1[ Key1==Table2.Key2].Variable

For example, “CodSup” table “Relationships” key matches the key

“code” of “concepts” table. Therefore, for the above summary of the

present concept can be used the expression:

Concepts [Code == Relations.CodSup ] .Abstract

Manual formatting of fields

To display a field as shown in Presto, the prefix “%” is used.

The result becomes alphanumeric, can therefore not be used as a

numerical expression in other calculated fields.

Other formats

It may apply to other formats with “%” function, applied to an expres-

sion in parentheses, as follows:

'%[Flags][Width[.decimals]]n’(expresion)

Flags Meaning

z Fill with zeros by the left.

m Thousands separator.

+ Positive sign, if any (the negative is always printed)

b Blank for null values, instead of “0”.

Width refers to the total number of characters.

Example Result

'% 10n ‘(1234.567) 1234,567

'% 10.2n ‘(1234.567) 1234,57

'% z10n ‘(1234.567) 001234,567

'% m10n ‘(1234.567) 1.234,567

'% + 10n ‘(1234.567) +1234,567

'% 10n ‘(0) 0

'%b10n’(0)

The result is alphanumeric



Link to Excel and Access The import format described in “Service request” web of Presto,

“Connecting with other programs: Word and Excel connection” sec-

tion.

Excel

Import

Import an Excel workbook, you must have the same structure and

format as the result of the “FILE: Export: Excel”.

Export

Generates a spreadsheet in Excel format:

With data from one or two pricing structures.

With different levels of decomposition.

With take-off lines and texts.

The resulting sheet can be modified and import back to Presto, while

its structure is respected.

Features:

Calculated fields contain formulas and highlighted in yellow.

Locked published in red and the value is exported, not the

formula.

Prices in other currencies are converted into the currency of

the work.

The column values of measurements obtained in specific col-

umns, to allow generation of comparative and to facilitate im-

port.

The result of the take-off lines formulas exported as a number,

but the formula is exported as text.

Decomposition concepts cancelled or blocked price, or lines

corresponding to amounts cancelled in any of the pricing

structures to export measurement is not exported.

The tabs are replaced by spaces.

Presto advanced resources, including indirect costs, lengthy texts, or

not supported by Excel as tables within text cells are not supported.


Export Presto windows to Excel


Exports lines or ranges selected from a window table to an Excel

workbook.

The book can have a pre-designed, so that the cells to export are in-

serted into selected calculation sheet, starting at the top left corner

and replacing the existing content.

If there are expressions in the remaining cells, updated automatically,

also as graphics.

If the worksheet contains a macro called “Presto”, will run after export.

The leaves to export tables are installed by default in the directory

defined in the environment. This directory is divided into others,

which correspond to the names of windows Presto. When you export

a window, shows the spreadsheets that exist in the directory that has

the same name as that of the window.

Generate Excel books from templates

The templates are in the “Reports” menu, and can be customized as

indicated in “Templates Excel and Word documents.”

The format of the templates described in “Service request” web of

Presto, “Connecting with other programs: Word and Excel Connec-

tion” section.

Access

Import

It imports the information of a work in Access format.

The imported information must appear in tables and fields with the

same names as the corresponding elements of Presto, as are exported

with “FILE: Export: Access”. Tables and unrecognized by Presto fields

are ignored.

Records of unique key tables as “concepts”, substitute the equivalent

records of the work of Presto, they already exist. All of the remaining

tables are added.

After importing, “FILE: Projects: Check integrity” option is executed.

Export

Create an Access database with all the information of the work and its

very structure of tables and columns. It contains computed columns,

which are normally grey.


The exported database can be modified with Access, being responsi-

ble for conforming to their coherence and relational integrity. If it is

imported back to Presto, the original work is obtained, with the

changes.

The “Description” field of design of Access table contains help tracks

of each Presto field.



Appendix I. Technical documentation This section contains the information that is not essential for the rou-

tine use of Presto, but can provide relevant technical details for ad-

vanced users, such as:

Directories and files.

User restrictions.

Directories and files

Presto is installed in the chosen directory by the user, and is the “In-

stallation directory” on the manual sections.

User and temporary directories defined in the operating system are

used.

Win32/64. Program directory

It contains the needed files to run Presto and the auxiliary directories.

File Content

.EXE Executable programs

.DLL Books of the program

Presto.DBE Restrictions

.CFG Configuration files

.LOG File usage auditing

Directory It has

wcca40soft Spelling checker files in Catalan.

Location-specific complementary directories

Directory Name It has

Projects Project Projects and files in various formats for use in

imports, images and drawings.

Reports and

templates

Report Reports, Word and Excel templates.

Reference Reference Price tables, purchasing groups database.

Export layout

to Excel

Excel Subdirectories spreadsheets to export to Excel

Presto windows.


Directory Name It has

Templates

work and re-

ports

Template Subdirectories with projects /Presto reports

that are the basis for creating new projects /

reports.

Tutorial Tutorial Works for tutorials.

Wizards Wizard Estimated costs, predimensionadores, QMASS,

etc.

Plugins Plugin Programs or executable files.

Help Help Help CHM. files

Data Data .LNG files from different program languages,

postal codes of various locations, etc.

Check “FILE: Working environment: Directories”.

User restrictions

A secure system requires an administrator and a previous security in

the network itself, as well as preparing the individual user settings and

the maintenance needed to adapt the restrictions to the changes re-

quired with the time.

The Presto system constraints affect all network users and is activated

by the “Activated restrictions” option from the dropdown list of “FILE:

Working environment: Restrictions” option. If options appear disabled

is because there are not enough permissions. The administrator must

have write permission to the Presto setup directory, where a file “Pres-

to.DBE” is created. Therefore, to maintain the security, any user except

the administrator, must have write permission in that directory.

The administrator can set the user profile he wants, and copy the

“Presto.PrestoPerfilXml” file in the program directory.

To be operational the system, you must select “Activated restrictions”

and enter a password.

In workstations

“Use restrictions on this computer” option is activated computer by

computer. This prevents the user from modifying and customizing

menus layouts contained in his work profile. The profile can be im-

ported from files preconfigured profiles or use defined by the admin-

istrator.


This option can be check at any time; however, it’s not possible un-

check if is enabled the Presto restrictions system, except that the cor-

rect password be entered.