Best Bid Electrical Estimating Software

Lighting Takeoff We suggest that you perform the lighting takeoff first. It is often the first page of the drawings past the site pages. The Lighting Quote usually takes the longest to return, so by performing it first, it gives the Supply House ample time to receive completive pricing. I suggest the use of a takeoff sheet. The Electrical Solutions Takeoff Sheet is a great tool for this purpose. I start each estimate the same way every time. By creating a systematic approach to estimating, it insures that items are not left out. Start off by copying the lighting Tags, as listed on the lighting schedule, onto the takeoff sheet. Later, we will discuss the use of Digital Takeoff software, like the Digi Count Takeoff Pro, that eliminates the use...

Include your exclusions: 1. All Concrete 2. Painting and patching 3. Utility fees 4. Engineering fees In some cases, you will only be able to present a dollar amount with no exclusions. You will be bound to perform the work as indicated by the working drawings and specifications including all addendums. Summary: The following phases make up the estimate: A. Material B. Quotes C. Labor D. Sub Quotes E. Miscellaneous F. Overhead and Labor G. Submit Bid In the following chapters, you will learn the art of each of these phases. In today’s age, most successful contractors utilize the use of estimating software. We will cover the use of computer estimating in depth, but we feel that you should know how to estimate by pen and paper first. Out of...

Lost time F. Storage and Job trailers G. Temporary Office H. Clean up I. Bonds J. Plans K. Lifts L. Scaffolding M. Tie wire to independently suspend fixtures when needed Overhead and Profit So far, we have addressed the cost raw cost of material and labor. Once you arrive at the raw cost of a project, the next step is to add OVERHEAD. Overhead is the cost of doing business. This is covered in detail in our book entitled Steps To A Successful Business “How to start or improve your business.” The final step is to add profit and submit your bid. Submit Bid Follow all instructions to bidders. I can’t emphasize this enough. Whenever possible, clarify your scope of work in detail. Make sure you qualify as much as...

TIP: Over the years, no matter how good the employees are, two people will not do twice the work of one person, four people will not perform twice as much work as two people etc. Sub Quotes Often times, you will need to hire other companies to complete your scope of work. Some of examples of these times could be: A. Fire Alarm Contractor B. Security Contractor C. Cable Contractor D. Fiber Contractor E. Telephone Contractor F. Data Contractor G. Excavation, backhoe, trenching, tamping. contractor H. Crane and Operator I. Bucket Truck and Operator TIP: When a systems contractor gives you a price, sometimes it will be turnkey and other times it may be what is referred to as parts and smarts. In most states, you would not include tax...

TIP: Over the years, no matter how good the employees are, two people will not do twice the work of one person, four people will not perform twice as much work as two people etc. Sub Quotes Often times, you will need to hire other companies to complete your scope of work. Some of examples of these times could be: A. Fire Alarm Contractor B. Security Contractor C. Cable Contractor D. Fiber Contractor E. Telephone Contractor F. Data Contractor G. Excavation, backhoe, trenching, tamping. contractor H. Crane and Operator I. Bucket Truck and Operator TIP: When a systems contractor gives you a price, sometimes it will be turnkey and other times it may be what is referred to as parts and smarts. In most states, you would not include tax...

Labor/Man-Hours Labor/Man-Hours is the time it takes to install the material on a given project. Man-Hours are consistently the most misunderstood Part of estimating. When a project can be completed in a couple of weeks, it is easy to visualize it will take one day for this function and two days for that function, but when a project takes several months or longer it becomes much more difficult. A way to achieve this is to assign a Man-Hour to each product installed. This takes much of the guesswork out of the process. It is close to an absolute that the material to do a function will be reasonably the same for everyone. Once the material list is established, a Man-Hour is placed by each item. For example: Material Man-Hours Extended...

Someone once pointed out to me that I spend more time on the phone teaching estimating practices and answering questions about estimating than I do almost anything else. So, it seemed like the right thing to do was to just place all of the conversations and questions in a video, so everyone could benefit from it. We decided to create this estimating class due the vast numbers of Electrical Contractors posting for Estimators in every state. After just a little research it seemed obvious that there was just not a direct path to becoming an estimator. Most companies don’t want to spend their time and money training an estimator. So now this brings us back to the time when you heard “You stay away from the water until you learn...

Throughout the past years, the use of electrical estimating software has become popular particularly among electrical contractors. They are used by small, medium, and large-scale electrical businesses. This software comes with features and capabilities designed to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the bidding, which profoundly impacts the success of a company. Importance of Electrical Estimating Software Overpriced bids aren’t considered while underpriced bids mean that the cabling contractors are losing money with each installation. The process includes estimating the labor and material costs that go into every bid. It usually involves implementing a materials take-off from CAD or computer-aided drawings. Those drawings were included in the construction documents. The contractor sends the final materials list for pricing after completing the take-off and totaling the quantities. The distributors take care...

The truth about Electrical Estimating Software The truth about Electrical Estimating Software and On-Screen Takeoff Solutions is that they can win you more bids and make you more money because, you simply make less math mistakes, they allow you to bid more work in much less time, they streamline the process so after you dial in the software to your company’s needs you create uniform estimates every time. When using the right electrical estimating software you can just enter a quantity and create long list of predetermined material. With old school pen and paper estimating if you had 100 120V Receptacles you would perform a similar task. You would write out the following: 100-Receptacles 100-Boxes with bracket 100-Plaster Rings 100-Plates 100- Box 100-Blank plate 100-Ground Stingers 300-Wire nuts. 2000’-1/2 EMT...

Best Bid was created many years ago out of necessity. Our electrical company had a need to producing more estimates, in less time, than our present software could produce. We ended up creating several hundred pages of Excel spread sheets and this was actually some better than what was on the market at the time. Missing from this spread sheet compilation was clean reports and flexibility that real software could provide. So step one, was we took our existing software and made a wish list of what was just obviously wrong, noted the errors, and what additions we would like to see that would make the software more like what we needed. Being naïve, we wrote the software company and ask them what it would cost to add these features...