When I train new customers they usually want me to prioritize the tasks of setting up HeavyBid. Usually at the training we are able to setup the Master Estimate which will include the Labor, Equipment and Crew setup. Here is my opinion of the priority order of setup data:

1. Setup labor, equipment, crews for the Master Estimate first. You can start estimating without anything else but will not be as efficient without Codebooks. However it is better to start using Heavybid than waiting until everything is 100% setup.

2. System Wide Material Codebook – I always recommend keeping the code simple and only include material that you might see in estimates in a two year time frame.  You can get the meat of the codes in quickly and fill in the gaps later with multiple imports. Remember you can search on description so the code itself is not that important other than organizing it with levels.

3. System  Wide Activity Codebook – Like the Material codebook use Excel to setup the codes and import them into HeavyBid. If cost codes already exist for your accounting software then the same codes could be used as the Activity Code. The Activity Codebook was always the foundation of HeavyBid and true efficient productivity cannot be achieved in HeavyBid without it.

4. Biditem Codebook – an overlooked feature of HeavyBid. Huge value for public or well as contractors who do work for private entities. “State” in the Biditem codebook can be your company initials (max 3 characters).