Flat rate pricing for residential

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chris1971

chris1971

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What is available for software for flat rate pricing software? Particularly for residential service work? Not quite sure I want to pay a monthly fee. Any other options?
 
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I'm in the same situation. If I did a lot of residential service I would use the ESI program. But months go by where I do no residential service at all, so I do not want a monthly plan. I just want something to use as quick reference for when resi. service work does come along.

Here is what I am going to try. I haven't completed it yet.

Go here and get labor units for $95, http://www.durandassociates.com/books/labor_units_manual.html
Then go here and get a pretty good looking Excel book to insert the data into to make a cost-book. $20, http://www.electriciansmart.com/pricing-guide.htm
Use my local historical parts prices.

Rick
 
wolfman56 said:
Here is what I am going to try. I haven't completed it yet.
Go here and get labor units for $95, http://www.durandassociates.com/books/labor_units_manual.html
Click to expand...
Rick, are these labor units adjusted by region?

The estimator, author who publishes this guide instructs out of San Jose, CA. The bay area is among the most expensive sub market in the country. Pricing onself out of your local market is not good, even for $95 bucks.

I'm in the Los Angeles basin, one of the cheepest sub markets in 2010 acording labor schedules used by Home Warranty companies. $75 per hour was too expensive here, tried $60 for a year, but still was only called for absolute emergencies. So wen't back to $75 and havn't heard from them since.
 
ramsy said:
Rick, are these labor units adjusted by region?

The estimator, author who publishes this guide instructs out of San Jose, CA. The bay area is among the most expensive sub market in the country. Pricing onself out of your local market is not good, even for $95 bucks.

I'm in the Los Angeles basin, one of the cheepest sub markets in 2010 acording labor schedules used by Home Warranty companies. $75 per hour was too expensive here, tried $60 for a year, but still was only called for absolute emergencies. So wen't back to $75 and havn't heard from them since.
Click to expand...

Area rates can be upside down depending on the service companies market reach, a company investing in wide area ads can demand a higher rate, and get it.
 
ramsy said:
Rick, are these labor units adjusted by region?

The estimator, author who publishes this guide instructs out of San Jose, CA. The bay area is among the most expensive sub market in the country. Pricing onself out of your local market is not good, even for $95 bucks.

I'm in the Los Angeles basin, one of the cheepest sub markets in 2010 acording labor schedules used by Home Warranty companies. $75 per hour was too expensive here, tried $60 for a year, but still was only called for absolute emergencies. So wen't back to $75 and havn't heard from them since.
Click to expand...

The whole point of a flate rate pricing system is to avoid revealing your hourly rate by giving a grand total price only.
 
I have signed up with ESI and so far am very happy with it. They are releasing a new version pretty soon. It makes my job very easy, I have installed a small printer in the car with my IPAD or MAC print an estimate on the spot then do the work and get paid.
 
http://www.constructionworkzone.com/bnicostbooks/nec.asp

I have this, but have not used it yet. It has multipliers for different areas of the country, ie:state/cities. Also, you can download a pdf version and input your own labor rate and mark-ups etc. and customize it. It was around $69 including the shipping. You have to buy the hard copy/printed book to be able to use the free download of the pdf.
I didn't need the other trades listed in the book, but the electrical seems to be very complete.
 
Chris1971

I don't think you will find a labor units data set that you can just download into the Excel template. I intend to use the labor units book as a guide, and to test my historical data, and insert them by hand.

I just took a look at the NEC Costbook and I don't think it's as comprehensive as my National Electrical Estimator book. The problem with these books is that they are more for commercial industrial then residential. I'm looking for data that consists of mostly residential assembly's, with stepped rates like, (easy, moderate, hard, or old work) this is what the format of the Durand Associates data appears to be.

Now that ESI has gone high tech, does anybody know if it's OK with ESI if a contractor was to sell their old book to someone else? If it's OK I may be interested in that.

Rick
 
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