An estimate in BldrTeam is a structured list rather than a freeform spreadsheet. Every line is filed under a cost code, and that single fact is what lets the estimate turn into a budget later without anyone re-keying it.
What a line is made of
Each line carries a quantity, a unit cost and a markup. The cost is what you expect to pay; the markup is what you add on top. Multiply quantity by unit cost to get the cost of the line, apply the markup, and you have the amount the client sees.
Markup is entered as a percentage, so 10 means ten percent. Lines can carry different markups: trades you are confident in can be thinner than the ones that routinely surprise you.
Tax is applied per line, based on whether its cost code is taxable. The rate comes from the project, so you set it once rather than per line.
Grouping
Lines can be nested under item groups, which exist for readability rather than math. "Foundations" holding excavation, footings and backfill reads far better than forty flat rows, and the group totals its children for you.
If you build the same combination repeatedly, an assembly is the reusable version of that group. Building your list of assemblies is what makes the second estimate much faster than the first.
Costs that are not lines
Some money on a job is not a trade line: permits, insurance, general conditions, a contingency. These go in as additional costs rather than being smeared across the trade lines, so the estimate stays honest about what is a real material or labor cost and what is overhead on the job.
Getting the cost codes right first
Everything above assumes a cost code list you are happy with, because the codes are what make estimates comparable across jobs. If you have not settled that yet, start there: see what a cost code is.
Changing a code after several estimates are built against it is possible, but it makes the history before and after harder to compare.
What happens next
While the job is being planned, the estimate is fully editable. Scope moves, prices firm up, lines come and go.
When you are ready to hold yourself to a number, you lock it as the budget, and from that point the estimate and the budget become two different things that BldrTeam tracks against each other. Read turning an estimate into a budget before you press that button.
More on how this fits the rest of the job in estimating and preconstruction.