What is an external report database configuration?

How you generate data for external reports is similar to Report Manager, except that you save settings for data generation as configurations, which you can use any time you want to refresh the external reports database.

An external report database configuration is a set of options that the Estimating Management Console and Sage Estimating use to generate data for one or more estimates into a separate external report database.

A configuration contains the following information:

• A name for the configuration.

• A name for the external report database you will generate.

• Whether to use the selected estimate’s current sequence or a custom sequence you specify. The sequence determines how items are processed and the content of overlines, if you choose to include them.

• Whether to combine items on reports. Items can be combined if all the following fields have matching values: phase code, item code, item description, takeoff unit, order unit (each category must match), price (or lump sum amount), subcontractor, or bid grid.

  For combined items, whether to round quantities for the included estimates when you generate data.

• Whether to allocate add-ons.

• Whether to include overlines. Data is generated for every sort sequence overline, including category totals, description, quantity, unit, and notes.

• Whether to include or exclude items that are assigned to alternates based on the alternate status.

• The estimates for which to generate data, and whether to automatically generate data for new estimates in the external report database (including imported, copied, and merged estimates).

• The non-administrative users that will have read privileges for the generated data.