Typically companies new to HeavyBid find that they have missed setting up certain labor, equipment or crew. Or maybe you are redoing your Master(s) and want to copy in setups from recent estimates. Obviously you want your Master to have the latest information so you don’t have to keep revising resource rates. But before you begin I suggest making a new Master from the current one so you can always go back and review previous Masters (or at least make a backup before revising your Master(s)). Here are the steps to bring setup files into a Master Estimate.

STEP 2 – Go to EDIT>COPY>COPY MERGE RESOURCES

STEP 1 – Open up the Master Estimate that you want the setup files to be copied into. You have to always be in the TARGET (the estimate the files are to be copied into) and copy in data from a SOURCE estimate. In the example above you would be in the Master Estimate and copy in setup files from an estimate you recently completed. Go to EDIT>COPY/MERGE SETUPS as shown below

STEP 3 – Copy from the SOURCE (for example your last estimate) into the TARGET (Master Estimate, the estimate you are currently in). I usually use the “Replace Estimate Files” since the estimate I am copying from was initially created from the Master Estimate. Some people get nervous about this and want to do a MERGE ESTIMATE FILES. Here is the issue with that option. It will work if you know exactly what information is to be overwritten in the Master Estimate since to update your estimate you will have to use the “Prompt for each duplicate” if you want to selectively update the Master. If you choose “Skip-duplicates” option then if the labor rates have been updated in the Source estimate it will skip the record anyway since it is only looking at the code, not the cost information. So I just use the “Replace Estimate Files”.

The goal here is to maintain your Master estimate and prevent repetitive and time-consuming revisions to individual estimates when they are created. The above can also be used to bring in setup information from one estimate to another. For example you want to bring in regional labor rates from an estimate you have completed into your current estimate. If you use HeavyBid this is an essential screen you should be familiar with.

Note: This is an update to an older blog