Firm Settings, Letterhead and the Unit-Cost Library

Firm settings hold everything that is the firm's rather than the job's. Set them once; every report reads them.

Report defaults

The evaluation period (years), inflation rate and reporting threshold pre-fill each new job's intake. E2018-24's default threshold is $3,000; a different value is disclosed in the report as a deviation.

Letterhead

Firm address, phone and licence line print on the cover letter's letterhead, the cover page and the signature block. Upload a logo (PNG with transparency works best, under 2 MB) and it prints on the cover and the letterhead; choose an accent colour for headings and rules if your brand has one.

Boilerplate overrides

Four text blocks can replace or extend the standard language: the reliance paragraph (section 9), additional limiting conditions (one per line, appended to what the draft states), the qualifications statement (section 8), and the cover letter's closing paragraph. Leave a block blank to use the standard text.

The unit-cost library

Every cost line in every report is quantity times one of these unit costs, and the report prints which one and where it came from. A new firm starts with a placeholder library calibrated to published assessments, marked as placeholder; the cost methodology in every report says so until the rows you use are replaced.

Each row has a key, a description, a unit, low, mid and high figures, and a source string. The mid figure is what the engine uses; the source string is what the report cites ("2026 bids, CT", "contractor quote March 2026", "firm cost file 2026"). Edit a row and save; add a row for anything you price that the library lacks; delete rows you never use. The settings page shows how many rows still carry placeholder values.

Regional adjustment is your call: enter your region's figures rather than a national average. Where a line needs a unit cost the library does not have, the draft prints engineer to provide and the reviewer types a figure in the workspace, which is recorded as provided by the reviewing engineer.

Do not paste figures from a licensed cost database whose terms forbid this use; see unit-cost sources.

Useful lives

Expected useful lives come from the HUD CNA e-Tool table, cited by row on the basis sheet, with the Fannie Mae 4099.F value carried where it differs. They are not editable per firm in this version; a reviewer's RUL opinion on any line overrides the arithmetic.