SURVEY - Locking Templates and Formulas - Internal Controls

Totally agree!

100%

Once the new update rolls out, we'll start building out our phase 2, taking our zz usage from takeoff only to an estimating platform but that will not be fully rolled out to our team until permissions are implemented. Phase 2a will be zz calculations cross checking our tried and true excel calcs. Phase 2b, after permissions, will be eliminating excel.

Kory. Hopefully, for those of us who use dedicated estimating programs, you will continue to keep working on creating a robust takeoff program.

💯.

To add another thought to this, right now anyone can go into settings and add any WBS/sort code and everyone sees it for every project. This keeps me up at night with more and more people using it.

Jumping back in here because I just realized another critical reason this matters as we think about overhauling security.

This isn’t just about preventing accidental edits — it’s about protecting enterprise standards so they don’t get unintentionally modified over time. Once formulas, templates, and inheritance get complex, even well-intentioned changes can quietly break consistency at scale.

Honestly, I love the direction this is heading. This has officially become my #2 feature request.

And for me, it’s really a two-part ask:

1. Lock down enterprise standards (templates, formulas, inheritance) with permissions so they’re protected and consistent.
2. Still empower end users at the project level — let teams create custom, project-specific WBS fields or standards on the fly, without impacting the enterprise baseline. Same flexibility we have today, but scoped only to that project.

Enterprise stays clean and governed. Projects stay fast and flexible.

If you can thread that needle… man, this would be huge.

I’m genuinely excited about this one. Let’s freaking go. 🚀

My thoughts on locking are relatively simple and look something like this image below. I don't want my end users changing calculations, so I want to minimize and lock that. I may even put the calculations that should never change in a hidden property. I haven't explored that much yet but getting into it. Variables are just that and should be able to be seen and modified so maximize that and unlock them. From there, we just need to be able to set permissions at the company level to allow different level users to unlock different level locks.

Another idea that I had was you could implement something like a green, yellow, red lock. Lock each area with the appropriate level. Only admin can unlock red, sr estimator and up can unlock yellow, estimator and up can unlock green, jr estimators/assistants/viewers can't unlock anything.

I also think we should have to be an administrator to copy Templates from one workspace to another. I feel this would stop departing employees the ability to steal information and templates.

@Todd, less concerned about stealing more concerned about not making a cluster F with our 200 estimators. Templates are another area to not cluster up too!

@Kory

I am fully aligned on locking the templates down completely. Only super users should be able to modify the actual template. But once that template is dropped into a project or takeoff, let them modify it. That is where learning happens and where future super users come from. Lock the standard, not the people.

Our folks have to earn super user status. Start at jr and learn our ways, then get estimator level unlocked and learn those pieces they can change, then sr estimator unlocked and they graduate to super user.

I've had estimators that thought they were super users, dabbled in calculations they shouldn't have touched, and cost our company five figures.

At the end of the day, certain calculations should be locked down anywhere, sometimes everywhere and even for everyone. Certain calculations should never change. We are building out estimating in zz and that requires things that must be locked down in template and at the project level.

Is there merit to having global vs person/file specific templates and formulas? Global could be locked to everyone except the admin and would show up as a default in every new takeoff, while person/file specific could allow users to experiment with formulas/templates with the hope of skill building and contributing to the company and could be imported on a case by case basis or stored within the user's settings.

We have both estimators and engineers using the software with some different needs and I want some room for the team to grow and develop to suit their needs.

Bringing this back up. I want to make sure REPORTS is on here too, as this is becoming a problem now that people are getting dangerous. Right now ANYONE and their brother can add a "Team Report" and the entire enterprise see's it....errrrrr. Really need three options here.

1) Enterprise Reports (admin only can modify)

2) Project Report (All project see's it)

3) My Reports.

I like it Kyle! This would be a great addition. I have notified the dev team of your request, thanks!