Estimating Software for a General Engineering and Electrical Contractor

[ElectronWrangler]

We currently use Excel Spreadsheets for our estimates. The decision has been made to explore an estimating software platform. I am looking for recommendations for an estimating platform for a contractor that performs Civil work, Transmission, Distribution both AG and UG, Substation, Solar, Wind, and Industrial Electrical Work. Our parent company currently uses Heavy Bid, however their scope is primarily Civil and Wind Turbine Erection.

We would like to find one package that will more readily interface with our accounting software, allow on-screen takeoffs, make populating the owners bid-sheets easier (My personal pet peeve), and be scalable so that we can use it for small one off limited scope jobs all the way to a large Wind Farm or 100MW Solar Facility.

One package currently being explored is Timberline. Does Accubid have a MV/HV/Civil component? McCormick has already been investigated and rejected.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[brantmacga]

I'm not sure there are many contractors here that work in your field , and I don't know specifically of any software that does all you're asking for .....


We use Conest software, and it may work for you, but I think there would be a lot of custom assembly building to match your specific field. It comes out of the box setup for commercial building and there is a residential section also ive used for multi-family bids. Being that you already have spreadsheets setup, it may not be that difficult of a transition for you to make the assemblies you need.

There are three products I use, which are Intellibid, SureCount, and JobTrac.

Intellibid is for your assemblies and manually counting, and SureCount allows you to load your plans, scale them, and do a visual take-off. Once the bid is complete, you can manage the project in JobTrac. We use that part for purchase orders and scheduling, and keeping track of how accurate our bids are. Intellibid has a pretty extensive material library that will link up through netpricer or other services to your suppliers for pricing. I've found that you still need to manually check them for accuracy; I'll find the occasional screw priced at $7/ea or some pipe fitting that is $200 when it should be $10.

For the most part I do my take off in Intellibid and use SureCount just for scaling my site work.

The customer service and tech support is pretty good. They've always spent however much time is needed to sort out whatever issue I have and help me figure out things I just don't know how to do. They'll also spend a day or two waking you through the program when you purchase it.

I honestly don't know if it interfaces with accounting software; I've never asked. Most software I looked at only worked with the online version of quickbooks, and we don't use that version. All of our data is stored locally with a nightly offsite backup to a local company that handles our IT services.

As for populating a bid sheet, it offers multiple ways of breaking a bid down in phases and assembly groups, so I'll print out a sheet of what I need and manually enter the figures.

Their website is Conest.com ; they'll let you demo the software if it looks like something you're interested in. I would say call them and describe what you're looking for and see if they can help.

I have a friend that uses Accubid and is pretty happy with it. Talking with him, it seems very similar to what I'm using.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[gadfly56]

I'm not sure there are many contractors here that work in your field , and I don't know specifically of any software that does all you're asking for .....


We use Conest software, and it may work for you, but I think there would be a lot of custom assembly building to match your specific field. It comes out of the box setup for commercial building and there is a residential section also ive used for multi-family bids. Being that you already have spreadsheets setup, it may not be that difficult of a transition for you to make the assemblies you need.

There are three products I use, which are Intellibid, SureCount, and JobTrac.

Intellibid is for your assemblies and manually counting, and SureCount allows you to load your plans, scale them, and do a visual take-off. Once the bid is complete, you can manage the project in JobTrac. We use that part for purchase orders and scheduling, and keeping track of how accurate our bids are. Intellibid has a pretty extensive material library that will link up through netpricer or other services to your suppliers for pricing. I've found that you still need to manually check them for accuracy; I'll find the occasional screw priced at $7/ea or some pipe fitting that is $200 when it should be $10.

For the most part I do my take off in Intellibid and use SureCount just for scaling my site work.

The customer service and tech support is pretty good. They've always spent however much time is needed to sort out whatever issue I have and help me figure out things I just don't know how to do. They'll also spend a day or two waking you through the program when you purchase it.

I honestly don't know if it interfaces with accounting software; I've never asked. Most software I looked at only worked with the online version of quickbooks, and we don't use that version. All of our data is stored locally with a nightly offsite backup to a local company that handles our IT services.

As for populating a bid sheet, it offers multiple ways of breaking a bid down in phases and assembly groups, so I'll print out a sheet of what I need and manually enter the figures.

Their website is Conest.com ; they'll let you demo the software if it looks like something you're interested in. I would say call them and describe what you're looking for and see if they can help.

I have a friend that uses Accubid and is pretty happy with it. Talking with him, it seems very similar to what I'm using.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you get the premium version of SureCount (~$1,900) you can train it to recognize the device symbols and automatically do your counts for you. It can also do compares, so if there is a bid set revision it will highlight the adds/deducts.

We just spent about nine man-days doing takeoffs for a project based on 50% drawings. Two engineers and an office assistant. The program could probably have done it after set up in half a day. The engineer bill rate is $150-$200/hr. Y'all can do the math.

 

[brantmacga]

If you get the premium version of SureCount (~$1,900) you can train it to recognize the device symbols and automatically do your counts for you. It can also do compares, so if there is a bid set revision it will highlight the adds/deducts.

We just spent about nine man-days doing takeoffs for a project based on 50% drawings. Two engineers and an office assistant. The program could probably have done it after set up in half a day. The engineer bill rate is $150-$200/hr. Y'all can do the math.

I didn't know there was a version that wouldn't do that.

I use it on some jobs; if you've tried it, you know it's not perfect, and is also dependent on the quality of the drawings. Some files load grainy and I don't know why, and it gives sure count a hard time trying to find the symbols. It always does a pretty good job with lighting symbols, but devices near walls seem to be more troublesome.