Residential Construction Materials & Labor Calculator

[DW the Builder]

I am a builder and estimator in residential construction. Over time, I have created an elaborate calculator that is able to figure out how much siding and cornice labor and material is needed for a house. You put in quantities and labor and material comes out. Easy enough. My boss approached me and asked me to create a spreadsheet that shows how much material and labor is needed for each plan we offer and every option on every plan as well. And, be able to quickly calculate if siding and cornice on newly created plans are in budget.

I believe the problem lies in my calculator. I have a tab to enter square footage and quantities for an individual plan. How do I push multiple plans through my calculator and put out separate results without having multiple calculators? In other words, I enter square footage for Plan A, the material and labor list populate, but, if I link Plan B to the same calculator, the quantities are added and not separated from Plan A. I can post the sheets if allowed. This is my first time here.

Currently-

Tab 1- Enter Square Foot or Lineal Foot measurements
Tab 2- Calculator accepts Tab 1 info and converts to labor and material. Reports to Tab 3
Tab 3- Breakdown of labor and material by Plan

My first plan has multiple options that need to be reported separately and still use the calculator on Tab 2. How can this be done? I would appreciate some help and or guidance. Thank you for listening.

DW

 

[Veritan]

If you want a quick and dirty method, create another tab with all your plans and their summary data on it. Enter the data for your first plan and copy it to the summary sheet. Then enter the data for your second plan and copy it and so on. Once you have all your plans in, you can use a formula to determine if the siding and cornice are in budget, something like =IF(AND(Siding amount<=Siding budget,Cornice amount<=Cornice budget),"Meets budget","Exceeds budget"). If you want something to do that all formulaically or to use VBA, you'll probably need to provide more information about your sheets.