Accubid

[SIRSPARKSALOT]

What modifications have you done to make it easier to use? Content of assemblies, adding new material etc.? The out of the box version comes with A LOT of info in the database already.

When I came to the company I am now at is when I was first exposed to Accubid. I use to estimate the "old fashioned" way even though I was 32 at the time. I dove right into Accubid and realized that there is a ton of stuff in there, but it seemed like I was always finding a common assembly and modifying it to make it what I wanted. After about two months of this I took the database home with me and created my own common assemblies based on what we seemed to use most. By doing that I was able to put in the material that I wanted and remove what I did not want as well as organize my common assemblies in a way that made the most sense for me. This made doing my job much easier. As the months and years progressed I continued to keep notes on what assemblies I was modifying and continued to build them the way I wanted. It's well worth the time.

Also, if you use Trade Service for your pricing and it is linked with Accubid, Accubid 11 now allows you a supplier link for 'real time' pricing...atleast its updated once a week. You just hit a couple of buttons and it reutrns your suppy account pricing which you can review and re-extend into Accubid. Before this we used to get material quoted and manually adjust pricing which was very time consuming and a great place to make a BIG mistake. After that, I created material codes for our main materials (pipe, wire, fittings, etc) in Accubid. I would then create a .csv file that I would push to our main supplier. They would use this as a template for their quote and send it back to me as an excel file which I could then import into the database and automatically update pricing and seconds.

Now we do a combination of both.

One last thing...the main reason for making my own assemblies is that we had one estimator here who would constantly use the same (incorrect) assembly for something completely different. It was always, "a receptacle is close enought." It used to (and still does) drive me nuts.

 

[mstrlucky74]

When I came to the company I am now at is when I was first exposed to Accubid. I use to estimate the "old fashioned" way even though I was 32 at the time. I dove right into Accubid and realized that there is a ton of stuff in there, but it seemed like I was always finding a common assembly and modifying it to make it what I wanted. After about two months of this I took the database home with me and created my own common assemblies based on what we seemed to use most. By doing that I was able to put in the material that I wanted and remove what I did not want as well as organize my common assemblies in a way that made the most sense for me. This made doing my job much easier. As the months and years progressed I continued to keep notes on what assemblies I was modifying and continued to build them the way I wanted. It's well worth the time.

Also, if you use Trade Service for your pricing and it is linked with Accubid, Accubid 11 now allows you a supplier link for 'real time' pricing...atleast its updated once a week. You just hit a couple of buttons and it reutrns your suppy account pricing which you can review and re-extend into Accubid. Before this we used to get material quoted and manually adjust pricing which was very time consuming and a great place to make a BIG mistake. After that, I created material codes for our main materials (pipe, wire, fittings, etc) in Accubid. I would then create a .csv file that I would push to our main supplier. They would use this as a template for their quote and send it back to me as an excel file which I could then import into the database and automatically update pricing and seconds.

Now we do a combination of both.

Yes, I use the supplier link for pricing...it's great. I have access to the database manager so I can make any adjustement I need to MY database.



One last thing...the main reason for making my own assemblies is that we had one estimator here who would constantly use the same (incorrect) assembly for something completely different. It was always, "a receptacle is close enought." It used to (and still does) drive me nuts.

Yes, I use the supplier link for pricing...it's great. I have access to the database manager so I can make any adjustement I need to MY database.

 

[cdslotz]

Project sizes $1M- 10M....

Wow...really? And you don't breakdown and track mat/labor cost codes?????

 

[mstrlucky74]

Wow...really? And you don't breakdown and track mat/labor cost codes?????

Yes.... I know but I think thney are implementing something.

 

[SIRSPARKSALOT]

Back-up

Back-up

Yes, I use the supplier link for pricing...it's great. I have access to the database manager so I can make any adjustement I need to MY database.

FYI - Our database is on our server. We all use the same database. Make sure you create a copy with a different name to modify so you can always go back to where you came from in case you mess it up.

 

[Fulthrotl]

We use Accubid at our shop. I will say that we only use it for materials and manhours. Once we have that information we use some sophisticated excel spreadsheets to take care of the rest. It is much easier for us to look at the whole job using the spreadsheets rather than Accubid. That's just what works for us.

it's a pretty good idea. i like it.....

as "old school" as spreadsheets are, there are some distinct reasons why it's sometimes good
to look at a job as raw data.....

i was doing project management for a contractor on a $24M project, and they used a heavily
modified version of timberline.... and the IT guy for the company set me up with a password
so i could query the database directly thru a citrix window, and pull down all costs assigned
to a job, directly into an excel spreadsheet.

so i ran a P&L statement at about $10M into the billing, when timberline was showing us
with a net profit after all costs and burdens of about $400k..... and i looked at the raw
data, and set up filters on the columns, and did a REAL profit and loss, based on income,
and outgo... how much came in the door, and how much went out, and what was left.

if you subtracted what they spent, in real dollars, from what had come in, they were ahead
about $45,000 on $10M, and there was a big mobilization they had burnt thru to get that
far.... and that was counting the retention as income.

they were out of pocket $950k at the halftime show, and thought they were almost half a
million ahead. they were still showing in the black, but were paying interest on $950k, cause
their retention wasn't theirs to use. so they had to carry that.

turns out the custom programmer had mapped some fields incorrectly.

laser measuring tools are wonderful, but every once in a while it's nice to check with
a tape measure, y'know? spreadsheets are a nice tape measure.

i went into the CFO with the spreadsheet, and explained what i'd noticed, and the decision
was made by upper management to not address it at this time, as it would screw up bonding.

the thing that is screwy is they were using the timberline numbers for forecasting, so they
could bid more work based on their profits on existing work.

 

[mstrlucky74]

it's a pretty good idea. i like it.....

as "old school" as spreadsheets are, there are some distinct reasons why it's sometimes good
to look at a job as raw data.....

i was doing project management for a contractor on a $24M project, and they used a heavily
modified version of timberline.... and the IT guy for the company set me up with a password
so i could query the database directly thru a citrix window, and pull down all costs assigned
to a job, directly into an excel spreadsheet.

so i ran a P&L statement at about $10M into the billing, when timberline was showing us
with a net profit after all costs and burdens of about $400k..... and i looked at the raw
data, and set up filters on the columns, and did a REAL profit and loss, based on income,
and outgo... how much came in the door, and how much went out, and what was left.

if you subtracted what they spent, in real dollars, from what had come in, they were ahead
about $45,000 on $10M, and there was a big mobilization they had burnt thru to get that
far.... and that was counting the retention as income.

they were out of pocket $950k at the halftime show, and thought they were almost half a
million ahead. they were still showing in the black, but were paying interest on $950k, cause
their retention wasn't theirs to use. so they had to carry that.

turns out the custom programmer had mapped some fields incorrectly.

laser measuring tools are wonderful, but every once in a while it's nice to check with
a tape measure, y'know? spreadsheets are a nice tape measure.

i went into the CFO with the spreadsheet, and explained what i'd noticed, and the decision
was made by upper management to not address it at this time, as it would screw up bonding.

the thing that is screwy is they were using the timberline numbers for forecasting, so they
could bid more work based on their profits on existing work.

Wow...u da man

 

[twoelk]

We use Accubid at our shop. I will say that we only use it for materials and manhours. Once we have that information we use some sophisticated excel spreadsheets to take care of the rest. It is much easier for us to look at the whole job using the spreadsheets rather than Accubid. That's just what works for us.

That's pretty much what we do. We apply our mark ups, rental, and just about any other associated costs.