Overhead Checklists

This article covers the Overhead Checklist — what it is, how to open it, how to add items, and how it relates to project overhead on your bid.

What the Overhead Checklist is

Project overhead is the cost of running a job beyond direct field labor and materials — mobilization, jobsite insurance, permit fees, temporary facilities, project management, and the like. The Overhead Checklist gives you a structured place to build those costs up from individual line items, each with a quantity and a unit cost, and see them add to a running Total Overhead.

It's a worksheet for arriving at a defensible overhead number, line by line, instead of guessing at a single percentage.

Opening the Overhead Checklist

The checklist is in the Bid Tools panel on the Bid tab. Open the Bid Tools panel from the wrench icon on the bid sheet toolbar, then click the OH tab to open the Overhead Checklist editor.

Adding overhead items

When the checklist is empty, you'll see a prompt to add items like mobilization, insurance, or permit fees.

1. Click the + button at the top of the Overhead Checklist section. A new row appears.
2. Click the description field and name the line — for example, "Project Mobilization" or "General Liability Insurance."
3. Enter the Qty (the number of units — months for a monthly cost, or 1 for a lump sum).
4. Enter the Unit cost. The row total (Qty × Unit Cost) appears on the right.

Changes save automatically. Common items to include: mobilization, demobilization, permit fees, temporary facilities, jobsite insurance, safety equipment, survey layout, and project management.

Editing and deleting

All three fields on each row — description, Qty, and Unit — are editable inline; click a field, type, and click away to save. The row total and the Total Overhead at the bottom update immediately. To delete a row, click its trash icon; an Undo option appears briefly.

The Total Overhead

At the bottom of the checklist, Total Overhead sums every row (Qty × Unit Cost). This is the overhead figure the checklist builds toward.

How the checklist relates to your bid

Project overhead on your bid is set in the Markup Summary panel as a Project Overhead %. The Overhead Checklist is a way to arrive at that number with confidence: build up your real project overhead costs as line items, read the Total Overhead, and use it to inform the project overhead you apply on the bid.