What Visibility and “Show as” Columns Are
When preparing an estimate, you may not want to show every detail to your client. Buildern gives you full control over this using two columns:
Visibility – controls whether an item appears in the client-facing proposal
Show as – controls how the price of that item is displayed
Enable Visibility and “Show as” Columns
To enable the columns:
Open the project you want to work on
Navigate to the Estimates module
Open your estimate
Click the Column Configuration (Columns/Layout) option
Enable:
Visibility
Show as
Once enabled, both columns will appear in your estimate table.
Use the Visibility Column
The Visibility column determines whether a line item will be shown in the proposal sent to the client.
Available options:
Visible - The item will appear in the proposal
Invisible - The item will be hidden from the proposal
💡 Tip - Use Invisible for internal costs, calculations, or items you don’t want the client to see.
Use the “Show as” Column
The Show as column controls how the price of each item is displayed in the proposal.
Available options:
Price - Shows the full price of the item
Included - Hides the price but includes it in the total
Excluded - Hides the price and excludes it from totals shown
Empty - Displays the item without showing any price
💡 Tip: Use Included when you want to simplify pricing for clients without exposing detailed costs.
Example: How Visibility and “Show as” Work Together
Let’s say your estimate includes the following items:
Timber flooring
Warranty fees
Electrical wires
You can configure them like this:
Timber flooring
Visibility: Visible
Show as: Included
Warranty fees
Visibility: Visible
Show as: Empty
Electrical wires
Visibility: Invisible
Result in Proposal:
Timber flooring appears, but its price is not shown (included in total)
Warranty fees appear without a price
Electrical wires are completely hidden from the client
ℹ️ Note - Even if an item’s price is hidden, it can still be included in the total project cost depending on the selected option.
Calculate in Total and Visible in Total
In addition to the Visibility and Show as columns, Buildern also provides more control over how items affect totals directly from the item edit page.
When editing an estimate item, you will find the following options:
Calculate in Total - Determines whether the item is included in the total project cost
Enabled → The item is included in total calculations
Disabled → The item is excluded from total calculations
💡 Tip - These settings work together with Visibility and Show as, giving you full flexibility to control both internal calculations and client-facing pricing.
The same Visibility and Show as logic applies when working with Change Orders / Variations in Buildern.
👉 Learn more about Visibility and Show as Columns in Change Orders / Variations
Best Practices
Use Visibility = Invisible for internal budgeting items
Use Included to simplify client-facing proposals
Avoid showing too many detailed costs to keep proposals clean and professional
Review your estimate before sending the proposal to ensure everything appears as intended
Keep exploring to discover more Buildern tools that support efficient project management.
Happy Building!