Best Electrical Estimating Guides

What if a stronger electrical proposal starts with the estimate, not the template? When takeoffs and calculations are manual, bid preparation can...

Everybody Has A First · Chapter 10 Sometimes the smallest decisions produce the biggest consequences. I've learned that lesson many times during more than 50 years in the electrical contracting business, but one particular experience has stayed with me because of how simple it was. It wasn't about losing thousands of dollars. It wasn't about a major estimating mistake or a failed project. It was about one hundred dollars. For years, our company performed nearly all of the electrical work for a particular general contractor. We had a great relationship. They trusted us, and we trusted them. Whenever they had a project, we expected to receive an invitation to bid. Relationships like that don't happen overnight. They are built through years of doing what you say you're going to do,...

The Philosophy Behind Electrical Estimating: What Contractors Must Understand | Steve Griffin Best Bid Electrical Estimating Home Blog Full 30-Section Guide Contact Home› Blog› The Philosophy Behind Electrical Estimating: What Every Contractor Must Understa Estimating Philosophy  ·  Series Part 10 of 30 The Philosophy Behind Electrical Estimating: What Every Contractor Must Understand Electrical estimating is more than math — it is a discipline with its own philosophy. Steve Griffin explains the principles that separate profitable estimators from struggling ones. By Steve Griffin  ·  Founder, Best Bid Electrical Estimating Software  ·  July 23, 2026  ·  8 min read 📖 Part of the Complete Series This article is Series Part 10 of 30 in The Art of Balance in Electrical Estimating Software — the complete 30-section philosophy guide by Steve Griffin. Read...

What if the hardest part of an electrical bid isn’t choosing the number, but showing how you got there? Incomplete drawings, unclear scope, and...

What if the biggest time savings with on-screen takeoff software come not from measuring plans faster, but from avoiding the handoffs that follow?...

Most electrical contractors don't lose money on the job site. They lose it before the job ever starts, in the bid. If your numbers are off by even a small percentage on labor or material, that mistake gets locked in the moment you sign the contract, and there's no fixing it once you're in the field. This is the honest, practical guide to the five bidding mistakes I see most often, and how Best Bid Electrical Estimating Software was built specifically to close those gaps. Why do electrical contractors lose money on bids they should have won? I'm Steve Griffin, and I've spent decades building estimating tools for electrical contractors, first as part of 1st Choice Electrical Estimating Software (1CEES), which we started back around 1989, and now through the...

What if the fastest way to build an electrical material list wasn’t counting symbols faster, but connecting each takeoff to the materials and pricing...

Why should you pay a monthly toll just to open, mark up, and estimate your own blueprints? If you are tired of recurring subscription fees draining...

— POST 11 —   The Information Great Electrical Estimators Use Before Bid Day One of the biggest differences between an average electrical estimator and a great electrical estimator is not how fast they can put numbers on a page. It is the information they gather before they ever start building the estimate. I have seen many contractors make the same mistake. They receive a set of plans, open their estimating software, and immediately begin counting and pricing. The problem is that drawings only tell part of the story. A successful estimate requires understanding the project behind the drawings. The best estimators know that information is one of the most valuable tools they have before bid day. Reading the specifications and finding out the key information can not be skipped....

Hidden project costs are rarely caused by bad luck in the field; they are almost always born on bid day. When estimated margins vanish into unplanned...

Why do seasoned electricians with decades of field experience struggle to win profitable jobs the moment they step behind an estimating desk? Knowing...

Everybody Has A First · Chapter 9I didn't set out to become a software developer. I was trying to become a better electrical estimator. That distinction is important because most of the major changes in my career didn't begin with a grand business plan. They began with a question I couldn't get out of my head.One of the biggest lessons I share in my book, Everybody Has A First, is that curiosity can take you places you never planned to go.If the biggest electrical contractor in town was estimating with assemblies, I wanted to know what assemblies were and why they worked. I wasn't interested in copying somebody else's system. I wanted to understand it.At the time, finding information wasn't easy. This was before Google, YouTube, online forums, and instant...

Real-World Electrical Estimating: 50 Years of Hard-Won Lessons | Steve Griffin Home› Blog› Real-World Electrical Estimating: 50 Years of Hard-Won Lessons Estimating Philosophy  ·  Series Part 9 of 30 Real-World Electrical Estimating: 50 Years of Hard-Won Lessons What 50 years of electrical estimating actually teaches you. Steve Griffin shares the hard lessons that classroom training and software manuals never cover. By Steve Griffin  ·  Founder, Best Bid Electrical Estimating Software  ·  July 23, 2026  ·  8 min read 📖 Part of the Complete Series This article is Series Part 9 of 30 in The Art of Balance in Electrical Estimating Software — the complete 30-section philosophy guide by Steve Griffin. Read all sections in one place. Section 9: Real World Lessons Learned Over Decades This section expands into deep, practical...

Renting your core bidding tools has turned standard overhead into a permanent monthly tax on your balance sheet. When you start researching...

Before you buy electrical estimating software, ask these twelve questions: how you're licensed and billed, whether support and updates are free or ongoing costs, whether takeoff is built in, whether the software speaks your language, whether you can build custom assemblies and substitute materials on the fly, whether labor difficulty can be adjusted by percentage, whether pricing stays current, whether it produces a real proposal, whether it tracks indirect costs, and whether anyone will actually teach you how to use it. If a salesperson can't give you a straight answer to all twelve, keep shopping. I'm Steve Griffin, and I've spent most of my working life inside electrical estimating software, first building it, then teaching contractors how to use it. Here's how this checklist came together, and why each question...