Accubid + trade service best practices for price updates

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robbione

Member
Location
Tampa, FL
We began using Accubid a few months ago and also signed up for Trade Service to do price updates.
When I signed up for the service i was under the impression that it would basically set my net prices in the database to approx. what we pay locally. In fact we signed up for the "Supplier Link" so that we could access direct pricing from ouR local supplier.
As it turns out, that's not how it works. Trade service updates don't adjust the net pricing in any way. It only adjust the "Column 1" price. We have to manually adjust all our discounts in order to get a net price that is close to what we actually pay.
And although the Supplier Link is useful for checking bids before they go out, it doesn't correct any database pricing and often times there are items that no suppliers provide pricing for. Nice tool, but not a solution for my database concerns.

There are options for what pricing we import into Column 1 via Trade Service. Accubid tech support said that many customers use AMP (average market price), however, I see several potential problems with doing it that way because our current discount percentages would be way out of line, in some cases causing our net price to be well under what we actually pay. Good way to win a job, not a good way to make money.

Just wondering if anyone out there has been through this and what they ended up using to get their database pricing corrected.

Thanks in advance!
Robin Erwin
Erwin Electric, Inc.
 

Strathead

Senior Member
Location
Ocala, Florida, USA
Occupation
Electrician/Estimator/Project Manager/Superintendent
We began using Accubid a few months ago and also signed up for Trade Service to do price updates.
When I signed up for the service i was under the impression that it would basically set my net prices in the database to approx. what we pay locally. In fact we signed up for the "Supplier Link" so that we could access direct pricing from ouR local supplier.
As it turns out, that's not how it works. Trade service updates don't adjust the net pricing in any way. It only adjust the "Column 1" price. We have to manually adjust all our discounts in order to get a net price that is close to what we actually pay.
And although the Supplier Link is useful for checking bids before they go out, it doesn't correct any database pricing and often times there are items that no suppliers provide pricing for. Nice tool, but not a solution for my database concerns.

There are options for what pricing we import into Column 1 via Trade Service. Accubid tech support said that many customers use AMP (average market price), however, I see several potential problems with doing it that way because our current discount percentages would be way out of line, in some cases causing our net price to be well under what we actually pay. Good way to win a job, not a good way to make money.

Just wondering if anyone out there has been through this and what they ended up using to get their database pricing corrected.

Thanks in advance!
Robin Erwin
Erwin Electric, Inc.

I don't represent any of these companies but if a moderator feels it is too sales pitch like please delete.

I have used Accubid, and Trade service. It was a few years ago, but there is one more service I don't see that you mentioned. It is NetPricer. It works with Accubid (or did 5 years ago). Your supplier must subscribe and it is dependent on them maintaining a proper price matrix for you. It will adjust prices in any estimate, (not the database per se) case by case. It uses the UPC number and does some cross reference and updates pricing item by item in your estimate. It will then give you a report of the items it didn't find. As a side note, I have also used Epic, a competitor to Trade Service. I like it better. It is not as user friendly, but the database of products, especially those items more non-trade specific, like hardware, concrete products etc. seems SOOOOOOOOO much more complete. It works with Accubid as well.

One final warning. Be very careful of accurate material pricing. Traditional estimating relies on the higher price of products to compensate for all those little things we don't put in our estimate, extra boxes, KO seals, screws, anti-short bushings, hack saw blades. You really have to put that money back in. I still like it, I would rather have a 3% adder to my base material than depend on inaccurate pricing to compensate.
 

brantmacga

Señor Member
Location
Georgia
Occupation
Former Child
We use net pricer.... It's linked to OUR account with the suppliers and shows OUR actual cost. It's pretty awesome


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Strathead

Senior Member
Location
Ocala, Florida, USA
Occupation
Electrician/Estimator/Project Manager/Superintendent
We use net pricer.... It's linked to OUR account with the suppliers and shows OUR actual cost. It's pretty awesome


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes but as a bonus, it shows your counter cost, not a hard bid cost. You can usually buy job account material at a lower rate if you plan properly.
 

cdslotz

Senior Member
The OP can adjust the percentage discount in his column 1 pricing. That shouldn't change.
So when the prices changes, it should adjust relatively.
That way you can customize your 3% (or whatever) buffer you like to keep.
 

KD4315

Member
Yes but as a bonus, it shows your counter cost, not a hard bid cost. You can usually buy job account material at a lower rate if you plan properly.

That's what we do for smaller jobs which is 100K - 1M. We'll use the daily price for material and then when the job starts we'll lock in pricing which is usually a few points lower.
For large jobs we'll shop it out and lock it in at bid time unless the job won't be starting for a few months.
 
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