Cost Estimating Software help!

[Beel]

Does anyone know of a decent cost estimating program that doesn't cost a gazillon dollars?! I have surfed the net for weeks and have tried every garbage program out there. They are either too confusing or focused on residential/commercial building, and remodeling. Can't seem to find anything focused on heavy construction priced reasonably under $1000.:beatsme

 

[Acivil]

I wouldn't hold your breath for one under 1000. We use Maxwell Systems but it was a whole lot more than 1k. I would recommend generating some spreadsheets on MS Excel and using them. We still use Excel for a lot of one off bids that we turn in(if we don't have the right line items in our database). In order for a real heavy construction estimating program to work right you have to do a lot of cost data imputting in order to develop a cost database for the program to run against your take off quantities. If you start using excel and then keep up with your cost tracking you can use the spreadsheets repeatedly and just adjust your unit costs according to your cost tracking. Good Luck!

 

[CementCreek]

Did you try PlanSwift and dig into the plugins they have. It has the ability to do a lot more than they show. If it saves you time and headaches the price could be worth it.

 

[hurcon]

Interesting, thanks

 

[Drc]

Build a spread sheet on Excel
-Description, Qty, Labor Rate, Extension. Equipment Rate, Extension. Material Rate, Extension. Sub Rate, Extension- Total

Total

 

[DanRooks]

Why Software Is Cheap!

Does anyone know of a decent cost estimating program that doesn't cost a gazillon dollars?! I have surfed the net for weeks and have tried every garbage program out there. They are either too confusing or focused on residential/commercial building, and remodeling. Can't seem to find anything focused on heavy construction priced reasonably under $1000.:beatsme

The only problem with $1,000. is that gives you about 8 hours of time to:
Respond to 100 prospects who might be a buyer
Train the Client (10 hrs minimum)
Develop a program with 6000 computer programmer hours
Develop the documentation for the program
Hire and Train the Support Technicians and Sales Staff
Pay for the office overhead
Develop software improvements
Make a small profit

You can do this if you sell more than 500.000 programs. However there are about 21,311 Heavy Construction businesses in the U.S. and you are not going to sell all of them.

So if you get 21,311 to give you 100 sales of $1,000., you will make $100,000 this year which will never pay your costs. You need to turn this around and figure what it costs you NOT to have a good estimating program. A good estimating program will make you hundreds of thousands of dollars. (I can say this because we do not sell estimating programs.) if you spend $12,000 to make $60,000 you just made $5.00 for ever $1.00 you spent this year! Next year is $2,000. for the same $60,000. And so on.

You can see why the $12,000 is a real deal!

 

[CementCreek]

That has got to be one of the best responses I've seen, and something to think about, Thanks Dan

 

[IsaacEssex]

Hey i was wanting to see if anyone here was interested in trading excel spreadsheets just to see what we can learn from each other on how we create our template

 

[mlocklear1]

Has anyone worked with RS Means Costworks?

 

[Chopjaw]

Trimble offers a core module of Business Center. You can do allot with it in it's base setup. If you are going to be doing takeoff then you can get only get the modules that you want. To be honest if you are going to do takeoff then for under 5K you can get what you need. 10k and you have the whole program. The best part is, it doesent cost you the crazy fees associated with most other programs. http://www.trimble.com/construction/heavy-and-highway/software-solutions/Business-Center-HCE.aspx?dtID=overview&

Give it a shot. I think you will really like it...

 

[Fordpickupman]

Make yourself a good spreadsheet.....That is all I use....I continually modify it to fit my needs and where I see holes that could be covered. All it really does is make the math easy when you tinker with the productivity.

I used to work for a world wide construction company, the estimators I worked with used XL.....If you don't know how to use it, take a class on it....It will be the best thing you ever taught yourself.

Keep good record of your actual costs so you have something to compare with and you will know where you can shave some to win and where you need to ad some where you lost out.

Most importantly, keep it simple....

Also, make sure you change the settings to only utilize the showing digits, if you don't it will utilize something like 10 decimal places when cyphering. It can affect your price up and down more than you would imagine. The Government kind of frowns on math that doesn't seem to add up.

I believe Adobe Acrobat will scale and measure surface areas also.....kind of crude, but it can get you close enough.

 

[watglen]

Keeping track?

As far as keeping track go, i just never do it! I'm a loser! I get in the seat and i just go and go and go till its done. Then don't write anything down.

Any good ways to change that? How do you best keep track of work done? How do you estimate what you have done each day?

My inability to properly estimate the job forces me to just work by the hour, which scares a lot of people. I suppose a lot comes with experience.

Ken

 

[Acivil]

If you are laying pipe its obviously very easy to track production and cost (how many sticks of pipe/structures/tees, average depth and material ect). If moving dirt is the task, you can use load counts, or cross sections, or just quick and dirty... "its this wide, this long, and I cut it down two feet today". Then throw that data into a laptop along with your running costs and you are cost tracking! My expereince has been that you gotta get something recorded every day, or your records will get sloppy.

 

[CM1995]

Make yourself a good spreadsheet.....That is all I use....I continually modify it to fit my needs and where I see holes that could be covered. All it really does is make the math easy when you tinker with the productivity.

I used to work for a world wide construction company, the estimators I worked with used XL.....If you don't know how to use it, take a class on it....It will be the best thing you ever taught yourself.

Keep good record of your actual costs so you have something to compare with and you will know where you can shave some to win and where you need to ad some where you lost out.

Most importantly, keep it simple....

Very well said Fordpickupman!:drinkup That is exactly what I use - Excel and I have the same philosophy. Actually calculating the job is the same as the old timers did it - production per hour per piece of equipment, cost to operate said equipment per hour and the "unknowns". What I like about using a spreadsheet, like you said, is being able to tinker with the production rates/costs and OH&P, etc. Being able to to fine tune your bid rapidly, without re-calculating everything, is a life saver and sometimes a bid winner.

If you have your historical costs and knowledge of what you can produce, a simple Excel spreadsheet is really all you need to compile a bid on most small to medium jobs.

 

[DGODGR]

I use historical data, and experience, to do my estimating. I use Excel if the job is complex and large enough. It is a good tool. IMO the real value to estimating software is not going to be the one that will compile data in a spreadsheet. It is the one that will save you time on the take-offs. The only one I have seen is Agtek. It looks like a great system. I had a sales presentation where the salesman remotely controls your computer to show you how the program works. I must say that I was thoroughly impressed. Unfortunately it only works if you have a good set of civil plans. If you do a lot of big dirt jobs it would fit right in. Most of what I do does not have a grading plan so the system has nothing to read. Unfortunatley the system costs more than $20K. That's just not practicle for a company, as small as mine, that only occasionally bids off a set of civil plans. For now I'll just keep using the "grid" method when I do.

 

[884487]

Excel is your only option for that price range. With minimal experience your should be able to build a good template. Excel is used by both small owner operators and large companies. I know a local contractor with revenues over $100M/yr that went away from Hard Dollar and back to excel as it was easier to train employees to use there custom excel sheet.
We use Bid2Win and previously used Hard Dollar. My chief estimator will still use our old excell sheet he set up in the 90s for jobs that are under $200 grand as he feels he can bid them faster.

 

[RBMcCloskey]

I have been using HCSS Heavy Bid for pricing and Heavy Job for job costing and project management, since 1989 they work very well for estimates of any size and any size company.
Call HCSS and speak to John Davis 713-270-4000, I think they may have financing plans
Ask him about Heavy Bid Basic and Heavy Job Foreman.
web site: HCSS.com