Below-the-Line Prelims Default

Below-the-line prelims

By default, preliminary costs (prelims) are included within the total contract cost on the tender summary. If you would rather show prelims as a separate line beneath the net contract cost — giving you a three-line breakdown of net cost, prelims, and grand total — you can enable this as a default.

Enabling below-the-line prelims by default

1. 1

   Go to Tools > System Preferences.

2. 2

   Click the Prepare Bill Default tab.

3. 3

   Tick Show prime cost, provisional sums and prelims as a below-the-line cost.

4. 4

   Click Exit to save.

This adds a split at the bottom of your tender summary:

• Net contract cost — the contract value excluding prelims.
• Prelims — the preliminary costs as a separate figure.
• Grand total — the combined total.

Without this setting, the tender summary simply displays a single "Total Contract Cost" figure with prelims rolled in.

Toggling per project

You do not have to commit to one approach for every project. At the bill preparation stage, when you press Continue and reach the bill section, you can select No to the default prompt and then tick or untick Show prime cost and provisional and prelims as a below-the-line cost at the top of the screen. This overrides the system default for that individual project only.