It is relatively easy to rank methods of creating an estimate in HeavyBid as I have seen them all, and I have been training now for 23 years if I count my time training in the 90s. What is “efficient”? In HeavyBid it is the method that is most accurate that takes the least amount of time. It is a balancing act, but there is a happy marriage between accuracy and time. So here are the rankings from least efficient to most efficient.

  1. (Least Efficient) Copying from other estimates. Copying from other estimates, especially without “Estimate History” function turned on, is by far the most time-consuming and probably the least accurate of all the methods of creating an estimate.
  2. Manual Method – By this I mean there is no Activity Codebook setup. For every biditem, the estimator has to make up an activity code, fill in the crew code and production information, and add the material. It is still faster than copying, in my opinion, if you know how to estimate.
  3. Use the Activity Codebook – HeavyBid was built around well-defined activity codes. I know this because I was at the company that started HeavyBid. It is faster than the two above methods and more accurate, and if the estimate becomes a project, the budget can be a simple export to budget for accounting and HeavyJob.
  4. (Most Efficient) Biditem Codebook, and what I mean is a biditem codebook with activity codes matched up or biditems from a library estimate. All the estimator has to do is once the biditems are imported in with the Client code, a merge feature will match the client codes and import in the applicable activities from the codebook or the library estimate. This can be set up for public or private work.

Check out future blogs on this subject.

Don’t know what Estimate History is? Call HCSS Tech Support and get more information on this feature.