How to use Buildertrend cost codes with PlusDesignBuild

How to export your custom Buildertrend cost codes to Excel and import them into PlusDesignBuild for Sketchup

1. Inside of Buildertrend go to the gear icon in the top right-hand corner and click setup inside the drop-down
2. Inside of Setup click on Cost Codes (it's the large second tab in the top row)
3.  Click on the  CostCode Actions Tab at the top right-hand side
4. Click Export Codes, then name and save the file in a location on your computer ( by default the file  will be named BTCostCodes_date.xls
5. Open the file from its saved location using Excel
6. When the file is open you may see a yellow notification asking you to "Enable editing" click this tab
7. After opening the excel file you will have two columns, Column A will be named CostCategory & Column B  will be named CostCode. Delete Column A By Selecting the entire column at the top and right-clicking and selecting delete
8. At the base of the Spreadsheet, you will notice that there are 2 Sheets, 1. Costs & 2. Variances you can right click and delete the Variances or you can copy and paste the Variances codes into your cost codes sheet.
   • • Tip Variances can be used as Preliminary items in your estimate See video on preliminary items in PlusDesignBuild
9. Once you are happy with your cost codes go to the file and save the file as a CSV file. Not there are several CSV options, ensure you choose CSV(Comma Delimited)(*.csv) choose a location to save the file & then click save.
   • • TIP if a prompt comes up stating " the selected file type does not support workbooks that contain multiple sheets " Click Ok as you only want the costs codes page
10. To import these cost codes, Go back to Sketchup and click the estimating Icon in the PlusDesignBuild toolbar,
11. When the takeoff is open at the top Select the COST CODE icon in the Summary Page of the takeoff
12. Select Export Cost Codes and click open file
    • If you have trouble importing the cost code file for any reason.
    •   Go back to the Cost Codes tab in the takeoff
    • Click on "Export Cost Codes"
    • Delete column A
    • Copy and paste your cost codes from the Buildertrend export you created (in Step 4 above) into this sheet
    • Repeat step 9.
13. A prompt will come up inside of thePlusDesignBuild takeoff asking if you'd like to archive the existing cost codes, choose yes or no according to your preference.  We suggest selecting yes.

Now you are ready to use your Buildertrend costs codes inside of PlusDesignBuild estimates.

See related Buildertrend CostCode Videos

This functionality is exclusive to PlusDesignBuild. If you would like to learn more about PlusDesignBuild, click here

**If you have PlusSpec-related questions, please use our forum.