Rave's Estimate Categories & Sub-categories

Rave Financial provides powerful tools to help you organise, track, and report on your project costs, so you always know where your money is going. At the heart of this system are Categories and Sub-Categories, which structure your financial documents for maximum clarity and control.

With the introduction of Estimate Sub-Categories, you can now dive even deeper into your project spending—making it easier to identify over or under spending before it becomes an issue.

What are Categories?

Categories are the high-level groupings of your project costs.
They help organise your budget into clear sections and improve the accuracy of reporting and client communication.

Examples of Categories:

• Preliminary & General

• Foundations

• Drainage

• Framing

• Roofing

• Fixtures

• Labour

• Site Costs

Benefits of using Categories:

• Logical, structured budgets

• Easy-to-read reports

• Clear cost breakdowns for clients

What are Sub-Categories?

Sub-Categories sit beneath Categories and provide a more detailed breakdown of costs.
They are optional, but highly recommended if you want to track spending more precisely.

Examples under "Preliminary & General":

• Builders Risk Insurance

• Health & Safety

• Skip Bins

• Site Toilet

• Builders Guarantee Costs

• Temporary Power

Benefits of using Sub-Categories:

• Record detailed supplier quotes

• Manage PC Sums and Provisional Sums

• Spot overspending or savings within specific work scopes

Categories + Sub-Categories = Powerful Cost Control

Think of them like a filing system:

• Category = Folder

• Sub-Category = Documents inside the folder

This two-tier structure helps you stay organised while keeping your budget clean and easy to report on, without overcomplicating things.

Customise Your Setup

Don’t need Sub-Categories? No problem.
You can continue to use Rave at a Category-only level by disabling Sub-Categories in your Branch Settings > Categories (slide off the Sub-Category tab).

Reporting Just Got Smarter

Rave now supports back costing reports at both the Category and Sub-Category levels.
Click here to view your Back Costing Report

Managing Estimate Categories in Rave

Users with the appropriate permissions can manage Estimate Categories via the Branch Settings > Estimate Categories tab, accessible from the profile dropdown menu.

Permissions Overview

Access to Categories and Sub-Categories is permission-based:

• No Access – Cannot view or make changes

• View Only – Can view categories and sub-categories but not make changes

• Full Access (Add/Edit/Delete) – Can create, update, and delete categories and sub-categories

Important Note on Deleting Categories or Sub-Categories

Deleting a category or sub-category may affect existing projects that have used this data, potentially causing broken links or data inconsistencies.

For this reason, we strongly recommend avoiding deletion wherever possible.

Upcoming Improvements

We are working on new functionality that will allow you to:

• Archive unused categories and sub-categories

• Merge categories to simplify your list without impacting existing data

These updates will help you manage your categories more safely and effectively. This article will be updated when these features are available.

Uploading via a CSV

Users have the ability to upload or download their Category and Sub-categories via CSV.

Uploading Your Estimate Categories

When uploading your Estimate Categories into Rave, use the following format:

• Column A: Enter your Category name

• Column B: Enter your Sub-Category (if applicable)

Sub-Category Format

• If a Category has multiple Sub-Categories, enter them on the same row in Column B, separated by commas.
  Example:

  • Column A: Foundations

  • Column B: Excavation, Concrete Pour, Boxing, Steel Reinforcement

• You can also upload:

  • A single Sub-Category per Category

  • A Category with no Sub-Category (leave Column B blank)

This flexible format allows you to set up your cost structure based on the level of detail you need.