Tutorial: a commercial security install, split by cost centre
Cameras, intrusion detection, access control and the panels in an office, with all the low-voltage cabling in its own cost centre.
Chapters
What you'll learn
- Set up two sections with their own cost centres
- Place cameras, detectors, access control and the panels
- Run Cat6 and security cable with a termination allowance
- Move every cable run to the cabling cost centre in one go
Each step below has a ▶ time: it plays the video from that step.
The steps
- New project: pick the customer and site, and set Cost centre for new sections to the hardware cost centre. Add the floor plan: its sheet number, title and scale are read off the drawing. In Sheets and scale, rename the section Security hardware.
- Add a second section for the cabling: in the Sections tab click Add level, name it Cabling and choose its Company cost centre. A section doesn't need plans of its own.
- Add the items: choose the Count tool (C) and, in the Add items panel's Catalogue, tick the cameras, motion sensors, reed switches, keypad, siren, card readers, strikes, request-to-exit buttons, the panel, NVR and PoE switch, then Add N items. Add the cables from the Length tool (L).
- Click each device on the plan, picking the next item under In this takeoff in the panel that opens when you choose the Count tool, then run the Cat6 and the security cable from the comms room. The Drop tool with Every point adds an allowance at every device.
- Split the job: select a cable run and, in the Selection panel, choose Move all to section… → Cabling. Every run of that cable moves at once. Do the same for each cable.
- 2 Review and price shows each cost centre with its own lines, labour and subtotal. When you create the quote, each section becomes its own cost centre in Simpro.
More to watch
Every tradeEstimators and service teamsDesktop, tablet and phone
Takeoffs in three minutes
A takeoff from plans to a Simpro quote, then a site asset map on a phone. Start here if you're new.
ElectricalEstimatorsDesktop
Price a house's electrical
A whole house, from an empty floor plan to a priced takeoff that says how many devices and how many feet of cable the job needs.
Fire and safetySurveyors and service techsTablet or phone, on site
A fire and safety survey
A surveyor's first visit to a site: walk the building once, mark each fire asset on the floor plan as you reach it, then create them all in Simpro in one go.
Every tradeEstimatorsDesktop
A revised drawing arrives
Rev B of the lighting plan lands after you've priced Rev A. Swap it in under your takeoff, see exactly what changed, and fix only that.
ElectricalEstimatorsDesktop
Count a fit-out by symbol
Box one downlight and one power point and every match on the plan is counted for you to check, then place banks of switches with one click each.
Fire and safetyEstimatorsDesktop
Price a fire alarm installation
A two-storey unit's fire alarm, counted zone by zone from the designer's layout, with the cable loop and its drops, then handed out as a marked-up PDF with a legend.
ElectricalEstimators and pricing editorsDesktop
Review and price a takeoff
A small lighting and power job priced step by step: labour, a fit time, your company's cable rules, markup, discount, fee and a Simpro price tier.
Every tradeEstimatorsDesktop
Plans from the quote's attachments
The builder's drawings are already attached to the quote in Simpro. Take them straight from there, choose the pages, and add more pages later from the plan library.
Interiors and liningsEstimatorsDesktop
Wall linings under different ceilings
Plasterboard and paint by wall area in a fit-out with three ceilings: a 2.7 m office, a double-height foyer and a raked meeting room, with the doors and windows taken out.
Fire and safetyProject managers and service teamsDesktop
As-Built and assets on a job
The install is done: record what went in on an As-Built, then tie every detector, extinguisher and exit sign to an asset on the customer's site in Simpro.