FAQ Functional

A: Cleopatra Enterprise is a unique cost engineering tool supporting your full project life-cycle process, starting from identification up to and including the abandonment phase. The product consists of various modules.

Cleopatra Enterprise has the ability to:

• Support all kinds of estimates, from factor to detail
• Assist in management decision making
• Provide detail cost information for EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) as well as maintenance projects
• Manage and control your contracts effectively
• Well suited for multinational companies as well as small companies
• Effectively support the bidding process of both owner and contractor
• Facilitate the cost engineer in working efficiently and deliver high quality work
• Integrate with the company's work and business processes
• Share secured information through the Internet
• Be user-friendly, high performance and easy to deploy at low cost
• Communicate between the various (external) information sources in every stage of life-cycle process such as CAD systems, ERP systems and planning systems

A: Yes, estimate components can be estimated from a knowledge. There is no restriction on the number of levels an estimate can have (except performance).

A: Yes, a single database can contain multiple estimates and knowledgebases. They can be ordered in a folder structure and protected with different access permissions.

A: No. This can easily lead to problems and is therefore prevented. Cleopatra Enterprise does allow merging multiple estimates in one total estimate. This enables working simultaneously on one project.

A: Cleopatra Enterprise supports both ways of escalating prices
- component:
with the search and replace functionality it is easy to escalate one or more components;
- summary level: with the "what if scenarios" it is possible to escalate blocks of it items based on certain characteristics such as discipline, cost category and break down structure. Before applying the changes the impact on the grand total can be evaluated.

A: Cleopatra Enterprise can handle multiple currencies by retaining original currency values at the (detail) line item / components of an estimate. Exchange rates are maintained centrally in the currency rate list library.

A: This is supported by "what if scenarios". It is possible to create multiple scenarios for an estimate where each scenario can consists of multiple rules. Each rule describes how a portion of the estimate (eg based on rate, cost category, discipline or breakdown structure) should be changed. These scenarios can be evaluated (on a per rule basis) before applied to the estimate.

A: You can use high level historical information of projects to be used as the basis of future estimates. Historical data can easily be upgraded to the price level of today.

A: Cleopatra Enterprise can handle both direct and indirect costs. Indirect costs can be specified as a percentage of the direct costs, as well as many other options.

>A: Yes, currently importing BOQ data is supported from Excel files. If your tool cannot export to Excel, an customized importing plugin can be developed.

A: Yes, this can be enabled through revision control.

A: Currently not, but it is a high priority feature request.

A: Yes. There is no limit to the number of breakdown structures and their coding levels. Breakdown structures can exist in both estimate and knowledgebase and can be used for reporting purposes.

A: Yes, an estimate or knowledgebase can be viewed in multiple ways (for example by level or by breakdown structure). Advanced, but user-friendly searching allows you to quikcly find and edit specific components.

A: Cost categories and disciplines can be defined by the user. There is no limit to the number of cost categories and disciplines.

A: Yes. Cleopatra Enterprise discriminates labour and rental rates.

A: Yes several standard reports are available. Moreover, these reports are highly configurable to your wishes in a user-friendly way. Additionally, custom report to your specific needs can be developed and imported into the Cleopatra.

A: Yes, reports are customizable in a very user friendly way. Moreover, you can completely design your company's headers and footers.

A: The reports can be exported in the formats PDF, XML, HTML, CSV, XLS, RTF, and TXT.

A: Yes. There is a comprehensive offline and online manual available.

A: Cost Engineering has many standardized cost knowledgebases for all kinds of disciplines and is very experienced in this.

A: Cleopatra Enterprise is open and flexible to create your company specific knowledgebase or other third party data (Eg. Page & Nation). Data can be imported using the Excel interface and can be provided as a service from Cost Engineering.

A: No. We recommend using specialized third party tools for this.

A: Yes. Cleopatra Enterprise has a workflow module which facilitates this.

A: Yes. Each component can be hyper-linked to an external source (e.g. websites, office documents, and intranet). For a knowledgebase PDF documents can be embedded.

A: User friendliness is a key focus point in our software. As such we try to adhere to Windows guidelines as much as possible. This means that you can cut, copy, paste complete cost estimates or parts of it like assemblies or breakdown structures. You can (multi) sort on columns, use
drag and drop and short-cut keys whenever you like.

A: Cleopatra Enterprise supports the complete spectrum of a cost estimation: direct cost, allowances, indirect cost, escalation and contingency are all part of an estimate.

A: Yes, it is easy to create any assembly of components to your specific wishes.

A: Yes, by default it supports the English and Dutch languages. If you wish, you can modify terms in an existing language or even completely add a new language to the application.

A: Yes, you can. Cost estimates can be secured by the use of workgroups. Workgroups can be given specific permissions (eg. read, write, none) to folders so no accidental changes are made or confidential information can viewed. Additionally with the help of workflow it is possible to incorporate these permissions in a work process.

A: If you have any questions which are not covered by this faq, don't hesitate to contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. We will be happy to answer all your questions.