First off thanks for responding. I really appreciate any advice you've had over the years and hope one day i can do the same for others. Love the mike holt cult, first ever electrical book i owned was his.
Well, i just landed a few jobs to bid and i really need to be the best i can be , I've been pretty small time since i started, as in time and material jobs, service work...
I don't plan on having more than 3 emploeeys at the momment and I'm focused on residential custom homes in the 30k-50k$ electrical cost.
is software right for me? Im far from lazy just know human error is a factor.
I am a commercial estimator, but I understand the principles of estimating residential. Honestly, the estimating program isn't going to do you a lot of good for things like audio/tv systems installation, etc. As someone said, you need to have experience estimating before you trust an estimating program, or be very meticulous when you first start to analyze. I have no formal training, but here are a few things I have figured out over time, that I believe to be true.
The biggest strength of an estimating program is it allows you to dial in more minute changes. I can easily think for myself that for example, since I get 6.5 hours of work out of an 8 hour day, first I need to allow for a 1.3 (8/6) factor. So it takes 8 minutes to layout and nail on a device box 15 minutes to run 25 feet of romex, 3 minutes to make up the box, 13 minutes to install a receptacle and cover for a total of 39 minutes time 1.3 for lost time plus a little fudge for clean up, so lets say 41 minutes. multiply that by your labor rate add the cost of your material, plus your markup and a receptacle may cost say $52 each, You can use that all day long as a unit price.
With an estimating program you have all of those items in the an assembly you probably have to build some yourself. Anyway, it spits this out, but if you have a change in labor rate, or material cost you change it and the assembly cost along with all the others automatically changes. Also, say you find a house where you need to install receptacle at an exact location requiring boxes with a span bracket. You can just change you box to the new including a new time for labor and cost for the box. And you are there.
So, an estimating program certainly will improve your accuracy and allow you to dial in your estimates when every penny counts in a bid, however, they aren't a magic cure. Initially you may spend more time on the software than just using the seat of your pants to price something. Especially if you have already done some of the above thinking. If I were in a situation as you describe, I would likely just do what I had to to get the immediate prices out and then shop for an estimating program. I can't recommend, because again, residential is very different than commercial. The biggest thing you are paying for in an estimating program is the database and the ease of changing assemblies. My personal opinion having tried three or four different estimating programs is any of them are exactly as good as the time you spend on them.