One of the strengths of Sage 100 Contractor is that you can move data into and around in Sage 100 Contractor in many different ways. Some data, such as a template, must be used “internally,” that is, within a single Sage 100 Contractor company. Other data can be moved from company to company and transferred to another party, for example, as a budget file. In addition, other data and lists can be imported via special functions and third-party applications.
Sage 100 Contractor provides standard, Microsoft Windows copy and paste functionality. You can copy and paste data from grid to grid in Sage 100 Contractor.
In some windows, you can save records as templates that are for use inside a Sage 100 Contractor company. These are text files, and you cannot email them to an other party to use with a different company. They are for “internal” use within a specific company. A template can be a shell for maintaining a structure for data, or it can be a shell with some data in its structure. Consider that a template is the starting point for working with a set of data.
Other examples of data that can be moved around and into Sage 100 Contractor are referred to as “files” and “grid files.” These files and grid files can be considered a different type of template. Sage 100 Contractor provides a way for you to import and export these files from one part of Sage 100 Contractor to another, for example from 9-5 Takeoffs to 6-2 Budgets. Essentially, files and grid files represent work that is in progress to which you can add data at any time.
A file, such as a takeoff file or a budget file, is an entire unit of data, whereas a grid file is a portion of an entire unit of data. For example, a grid file could be a single phase of a budget or a specific bid item/phase combination of a takeoff. These files and grid files are created in Sage 100 Contractor for use in Sage 100 Contractor only; however, they can be emailed to another party or copied from one Sage 100 Contractor company to another.
There are important differences between files and grid files. For example, always import files before entering any other information in the grid because they overwrite any information that you have already entered in the header and grid cells. Grid files, in contrast, insert data at the cursor and do not overwrite the existing content. So you can import a grid file at a certain position in a grid.
You can move data into Sage 100 Contractor via specialized external imports with such features as adding parts and updating prices using database update services.
Finally, the Sage 100 Contractor API and third-party applications provide ways to import a variety of specialized data. Finally, the Sage 100 Contractor API and third-party applications provide ways to import a variety of specialized data. For more information about the Sage 100 Contractor API, see Appendix G.
Here is a basic list of ways to move data into and around in Sage 100 Contractor:
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