I'm sure I am just not understanding something but I think I am still at the same point I started with, that I will need to have an item for each piece of equipment as well as an operator item for each piece of equipment...for each phase....because for the estimation cost to be correct I need to have the cost for each of these when estimating  

so it would look something like this:

Site

    Strip Top Soil

       Bobcat Operator

       Bobcat Equipment

       Excavator Operator

       Excavator Equipment

    Subgrade

       Bobcat Operator

       Bobcat Equipment

       Excavator Operator

       Excavator Equipment

but incorporating codes for ease of data entry as you suggested.  I could setup the names to get the time for the equipment as you suggested but I don't see how that helps on the initial estimate if I am using QB to do the estimate.  It wouldn't get the cost for each piece of equipment into the estimate, only in the actual when allocated, yes?