Outside Rent – Hidden Costs
I was setting up a new customer this week, and part of this process is setting up equipment. When a vendor invoices for equipment, sales tax is usually added but that is not all. Here are the additional charges that the customer added to the…
How to Handle DEF Fluid burn in Equip. Setup
In the equipment setup (Advanced and Comprehensive Versions) you can specify for EOE (Equipment Operating Expense) the fuel burn. Approximately 10 years ago diesel equipment manufacturers were required to install a tank for DEF fluid that injects into the fuel mixture to reduce the nitrous…
Your boss says “Go learn HeavyBid”
It does sound pretty humorous, but I have met so many HeavyBid users that we were just told to learn HeavyBid with no real direction. Maybe on another blog, I will discuss the downfalls of learning HeavyBid on your own but today, let’s say your…
New Support Phone Number
HCSS just announced that tech support for HeavyBid will have a dedicated phone number. It is unclear to me yet if this means there will be dedicated HeavyBid Tech Support people but at least when the tech Support person picks up the phone when you…
A Good Investment
I am always talking up and bragging about HCSS Tech Support. If you want to be a power user of any HCSS software product you have to be calling Tech Support with your questions. But sometimes, the question crosses the line from a technical question…
HeavyBid Version 2023.1
The new version has been released. Call Tech Support if you don’t know how to download the update. Here is a list of the major improvements.
Setting up Key Performance Indicators
This Youtube video is Part 1 of setting up KPI’s. In the Advanced and Comprehensive versions you can customize these values and even send these up to Insights to compare across estimates. Highly recommended. Be looking for Part 2 in this Youtube series. Youtube Video
Youtube Video – Setting up Parent Child Biditems
I could not find this subject on the HCSS Academy, which is my first rule for my new effort of making Youtube videos. There are many reasons for setting up parent-child biditems; now you can even price the first child biditem. Some of the reasons…
Notes from 2014 UGM Class by Mike Rydin
As far as I know this was the last class topic taught at a UGM by the founder of HCSS, Mike Rydin. This was a popular class, and I just found the notes for it and thought it was worth publishing here. If there is…
Night Pay Adjustment to Labor
Sometimes, an estimator knows that the crew will be working at night and the pay rate will be increased. A simple way of doing it is to create a labor code like “NWORK” which will be the pay rate differential. Then add it to the…