A manual cost override is a cost figure a planner enters to replace the calculated labor-plus-material rollup as the basis a quote's profit and margin are computed from. It exists for real costs the system cannot derive from a routing, and it does its job without discarding the calculated split it stands in front of.
This entry defines the manual cost override and shows how it reads inside EDGEBIC by User Solutions. For the wider index of terms, see the manufacturing glossary; for the calculation it replaces, see the labor and material cost basis on a quote; and for the run that produces that calculation, see EDGEBIC quote simulation explained.
How It Works
A quote's cost is normally built from the routing. Simulating the quote schedules the product against real current capacity and reports the work hours each step consumed. Labor cost is those hours priced at each work center's rate, and material cost comes from material-type steps in the routing or falls back to the product's unit cost multiplied by the quantity. The two together form the cost basis, and profit and margin follow from it against the quoted price.
That calculation is only as complete as the routing. Some real costs are not routing facts at all. A one-off fixture, an allowance for scrap on a difficult alloy, inbound freight on a specialty material, an outside process quoted by a vendor on the phone: none of these can be inferred from steps and rates.
The manual cost override is the sanctioned way to include them. Enter a figure and it becomes the pricing basis: profit is the quoted total price minus the override, and margin is that profit over the price. While the field is blank, the quote shows use calculated and behaves exactly as before.
The important detail is what the override does not do. It does not erase the calculated labor and material split, which is retained alongside it, so the later comparison of quoted cost against actual cost remains meaningful. You gain an honest margin without losing the evidence.
A Concrete Example
A quote is raised for 200 units. Simulation returns 151.5 work hours across three work centers, labor of 7,930 and material of 1,300, giving a calculated cost of 9,230. At a quoted price of 85 per unit, the total price is 17,000, so profit is 7,770 and margin is 45.7 percent, which the grid paints green.
The estimator then remembers the job needs a dedicated fixture, quoted by the toolmaker at 1,800, and that the specialty plate carries 400 of inbound freight. Neither belongs on the routing. Adding them as steps would consume machine capacity that no machine will actually spend, pushing the promised date out for no physical reason.
Instead the estimator enters 11,430 in the manual cost override, being 9,230 plus 2,200. Profit becomes 5,570 and margin becomes 32.8 percent. Still green, still worth quoting, but now true.
Had the estimator instead raised the unit price by 11 per unit to cover the same 2,200, the margin would have read 45.7 percent on a job that actually returns 32.8. Six months later, when someone compares quoted margin against realized margin across the account, that quote would look like a job that went badly wrong. It did not. It was quoted dishonestly.
How EDGEBIC Uses It
In EDGEBIC, the manual cost override sits on the quote configuration dialog alongside markup and unit price, and it displays use calculated while it is blank. Entering a value makes it the effective cost basis for profit and margin from that point on; clearing it restores the calculated basis.
The calculated labor and material split is kept regardless, so the override never destroys the underlying rollup. That is what makes the override the recommended route for known extras rather than a hand-adjusted price.
The override also interacts with automatic pricing. When the unit price is left at zero at simulation time, a price is derived from the effective cost and the markup percentage, which means an override raises the derived price accordingly. Once a price has been typed by a person it is never overwritten by a later simulation, so an override on a hand-priced quote changes margin without silently changing what the customer was told.
Two habits keep overrides useful. Put a rate on every production work center first, because a missing rate silently prices those steps at zero and is the most common cause of a margin that looks too good. And re-simulate before sending anything old, since costs are a snapshot and capacity moves daily.
For the pricing lever that sits beside it, see markup percent in quote pricing. For the lifecycle the quote moves through, see what is a quote status, and for the what-if variants that can carry their own costs, see what is a quote scenario.
A manual cost override is a cost figure you enter yourself that replaces the calculated labor-plus-material rollup as the basis for a quote's profit and margin. It exists for real costs the system cannot know from a routing, such as tooling wear, a scrap allowance, or inbound freight. When the field is blank the quote shows use calculated and prices from the rollup; once you enter a value, profit and margin are computed from your number instead, and clearing the field returns the quote to the calculated basis.
No, and that is the main reason to use it rather than adjusting the price. The calculated labor and material split is retained alongside your override, so later variance reporting can still compare what the routing said the job should cost against what actually happened. The override changes which number the margin is computed from; it does not delete the number it replaced. That preserved split is what makes the quote still useful as evidence months after it was sent.
Use the override whenever the extra amount is genuinely a cost, because raising the price to absorb a cost destroys the reason for the change. A price bumped by hand looks identical to a price bumped for a commercial reason, so nobody can tell later whether you were covering freight or chasing margin, and the margin figure itself becomes fiction. Entering the amount as a cost keeps profit and margin honest and leaves the pricing decision visible as a separate act.
Enter the total expected cost, including the fixture, in the manual cost override so profit and margin compute against the real number rather than the routing rollup alone. Take the simulated cost the quote already produced, add the 1,800, and put the sum in the override field. Margin now reflects the true position, and the calculated labor and material split is still recorded for later comparison. Two things to avoid. Do not add a phantom routing step for the fixture, because that would consume real machine capacity in the simulation and push the promised date out for no physical reason. And do not simply raise the unit price by 1,800 divided by the quantity, because that hides the cost inside a commercial number and leaves the margin figure overstating how well the job actually performed.
Probably not, and the more likely reading is that the override revealed a position the rollup was flattering. The most common cause of an unexpectedly comfortable calculated cost is a work center with no hourly rate, which silently prices its steps at zero and makes the margin look far better than it is. Before defending or discounting the number, check that every production work center on the routing carries a rate, and check that material is modeled either as material steps or as a realistic unit cost on the product. If both are sound, then the override is simply telling you the truth and the conversation to have is a commercial one about price, not a technical one about the quote.
Expert Q&A: Deep Dive
Q: This job needs a one-off fixture that costs 1,800 dollars and no routing step will ever show it. How do I quote it honestly?
A: Enter the total expected cost, including the fixture, in the manual cost override so profit and margin compute against the real number rather than the routing rollup alone. Take the simulated cost the quote already produced, add the 1,800, and put the sum in the override field. Margin now reflects the true position, and the calculated labor and material split is still recorded for later comparison. Two things to avoid. Do not add a phantom routing step for the fixture, because that would consume real machine capacity in the simulation and push the promised date out for no physical reason. And do not simply raise the unit price by 1,800 divided by the quantity, because that hides the cost inside a commercial number and leaves the margin figure overstating how well the job actually performed.
Q: I entered an override and now margin looks worse than my boss expects. Did I do something wrong?
A: Probably not, and the more likely reading is that the override revealed a position the rollup was flattering. The most common cause of an unexpectedly comfortable calculated cost is a work center with no hourly rate, which silently prices its steps at zero and makes the margin look far better than it is. Before defending or discounting the number, check that every production work center on the routing carries a rate, and check that material is modeled either as material steps or as a realistic unit cost on the product. If both are sound, then the override is simply telling you the truth and the conversation to have is a commercial one about price, not a technical one about the quote.
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