HeavyBid Keyboard Shortcuts – 2018 UGM Course
Here is a course I taught at this year’s UGM. Keyboard shortcuts can really increase your productivity in HeavyBid, especially in Tree View LINK
Quick Biditem Spreadsheet On the Fly
I was working on an estimate and had this need for a spreadsheet for the biditem. I won’t need it again as it just a one-off spreadsheet. Now you can create a spreadsheet using the internal spreadsheet for an activity but I needed it for…
Bid Item Codebook – Why aren’t you using it?
If there is one underused or ignored feature in HeavyBid it is the Biditem Codebook. Of course if you are a DOT type contractor this is a huge time saver but it also is valuable for county, city and even private work. Typically if a…
Autofill Productivity and Productivity Factor
A feature I did not notice is how HeavyBid now fills in the crew productivity and productivity factor if the estimator fills in one of the productivity information fields. I see estimators who have not come up through any formal estimating training just fill in…
Do your estimators need more training? A Simple Test.
What are some indications that you or estimators you work with need formal HCSS training? I use one indicator to test the depth of the user’s HCSS knowledge. If the estimator does not know about this feature then I know there are many more gaps in their…
What If Scenario- Activity Costs
An estimator might want to compare different activity production costs but doesn’t want to change the estimate. HeavyBid has a “what if” routine that performs this task. First be in the activity you want to do a “what if” and go to the third icon…
Activity Codes – Lessons Learned
Lately I have been working on codebooks for a number of companies. I have come to a couple of conclusions and offer these thoughts to those who are making an activity codebook or recoding your current one. Don’t include letters in the codebook – use only…
HeavyBid on the Enterprise Option
The Enterprise Version of HeavyBid allows a company to setup multiple business units. For example a construction company has two divisions, one heavy civil and one a general contractor. Both divisions could share one HeavyBid installation but the system wide files will also have to…
A Simple Tree View Keyboard Shortcut – F6 Key
Keyboard shortcuts will make you more productive in HeavyBid. Here is a simple easy to remember shortcut for Tree View. In Version 2015 the feature was added where the “F6” key will cycle through the major fields. For example if I want to go from…
Crew Costs Per Hour
If you want to see what hours crew costs are there is a simple report to print that is useful in estimate analysis. Go to Reports>Estimate Resource Reports>Crew Costs. There is an option to see only the crews in your estimate and also to include…
HeavyBid – Basics and Beyond is devoted to everything HCSS HeavyBid and estimating. Updated regularly with helpful insights and tools of the trade, this blog is designed to make your estimating easier and more successful.
