Estimate Code – Best Practice
In HeavyBid an estimate code is limited to 12 characters which are more than enough. My opinion is that best practice for an estimate code is a sequential code starting with the year. For example, the code structure would look like this: 20-001, 20-002, 20-003….
Instructions to Activate Estimate & Production History
Looking for biditems from other estimates to copy is very time consuming and those minutes quickly turn into hours of lost time and energy. This could easily be avoided with a better workflow. In Version 2018, HCSS rolled out a method of searching for individual…
Review Fuel Price Setup
Judging from current events overseas the price of fuel is going to go up. Many HCSS customers work on projects that are equipment-intensive and if that is the case then fuel usage is high and certainly a significant cost to the construction budget. Even a…
Tree View – Customized Tab
I was actually in Australia (Newcastle) training when I came to the decision that the customized tab in the resource section is now the one to default to. Now that equipment and labor pieces can be revised without going to the modify crew routine it…
HeavyBid: Overtime Rules & Calculations
Users of HeavyBid need to understand the way HeavyBid calculates the overtime factor and how that is used. I have been wanting to do this video for a long time and hope it helps estimators understand this critical concept. It certainly won’t be the last…
Estimate/Production History Variance Setting
The ability to see HeavyJob data in HeavyBid and in the Estimate History is awesome, but there is a setting that will give you more results when you do a query. The default in Tree View Binoculars is to return plus or minus 25% of…
Crew on the Fly
When I set up a new customer I recommend that they set up a blank crew along with their standard crews. I would set the crew code to “ZCREW” and the description to “CREW ON THE FLY”. There will be no labor or equipment saved…
DOT Biditem Descriptions
If you import in biditems into HeavyBid from the Expedite/Aashtoware many state DOT’s will have biditem descriptions greater than 50 characters. Issue is the information truncated beyond HeavyBid’s 50 character limit can be the most valuable information of the entire description! HeavyBid has many options…
Checklists in HeavyBid – Video
Checklists are a good way to keep different checklists running for the estimating team for an estimate. Like anything else in HeavyBid to really make use of this tool, you need to add and customize the checklists beyond what comes with the original HeavyBid install….
Outside Equipment EOE Tax Setting
I see this quite a lot at companies I visit have equipment designated as “Outside” in the setup. This is a great feature in HeavyBid so that in Summary you can see the total cost for the Outside Equipment. When equipment is rented from a…
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.
