Within the Chief Estimator Software, the Estimate file is where you bid the project. Within this single file you can create a multilevel work breakdown structure (WBS) of your bid comprised of over 30 levels of Sections, Items and Activities. Users can estimate costs by entering single plug rates, general combined unit rates or by selecting resources or crews from the resource file. Any type of resource can also be entered into the estimate on the fly. Production rates can be estimated by entering production rates per unit of time, man-hour factors or entering durations. Users can work in different units of time or different units of measure. Estimates can also be created quickly by copying single lines or a range of lines from other estimates, prorating quantities and automatically updating resource rates. Contingencies, escalation and mark-ups can be spread evenly or unbalanced across the list of Bill of Quantity items. The Work Breakdown Structure can be exported to external scheduling systems and the schedule dates re-imported in order to create a cash flows and resource histograms.