I get asked frequently for a list of indirect biditems (or activities). Here is why each company is unique in respect to its project indirects: there are costs that are allocated to the Company Overhead (COH) and then there are costs that get billed to the Project (lets call these PGC for project general conditions). Every company does this differently. If you are really serious about making an estimate (and therefore project budget) you need to know what is being charged to the COH and the PGC. The theory behind an estimate is that you are developing a cost model for the project that ultimately will be tracked in the accounting system. With this goal in mind this is what I suggest. Go to the accounting department and take a few current projects. Go through the account payables entries and cost transfers for maybe six months including all vendors and internal charges. You will start seeing items you thought was COH being charged directly to the project. For example small tools, portable toilets, mechanic time etc. You are looking for items that you thought were covered by COH but instead is covered by PGC. The charged items are the start of your Indirects (to be set up in the Master Estimate). Now to be fair a company can’t have the COH percentage covering the charged items and then charge them to the project too! So a dialog should be started on the COH % charged to each estimate and the actual COH%. If I was a chief estimator I would want to see a detailed calculation of what is charged to the COH and how the COH % is calculated. More on this in another blog but for now do the research and determining what are your indirect items for a project.