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…
Adding Activities From An Estimate to the Activity Codebook
Once an Activity Codebook is in place there are usually activities that have to be added. One method is to go ahead and make it on the fly in the estimate and then add it later to the Activity Codebook. This also holds true for…
Considerations for Weekend Work
In my training I always make it a point to discuss planned weekend work especially for utility construction work. So you are working on an estimate where the estimator knows that a utility tie in (or whatever it is) can only be done on off…
HCSS Support Options
This is new (at least new to me). It gives the HCSS customer a one page summary of all the options available to get help for any of HCSS products. Share this with your estimating team. LINK Help Summary
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…
Simplify Your Crews and Activity Codebook
For companies involved in excavation, grading, pipe laying and other activities where number of equipment pieces vary with the project there is a tendency to make crews for each possible equipment combination. For example for excavating, load and haul you can have a crew for…
Process Owner for your HeavyBid System
This is a new term for me. I learned it while in a technical session at HCSS’ office in Sugarland. True not much in the software development world is applicable to the construction industry but this can ported over with little effort. In any office with…
Deleting Resources and Crews
In a training the other day the question was asked how to delete crews in the estimate setup. You can delete any resource as long as it is not in the estimate. In the Crew Setup there is an option tab that is very handy…
Fix Your Productivity Information in Tree View
It is not unusual when I review a HeavyBid setup for a company that has used HeavyBid for a long time that some of the Activity Productivity Categories are blank. This is a system wide setting so probably someone was trying to change a productivity…
HeavyBid for the New Year
I am going to defer back to a blog post I did at the end of 2014 on preparing HeavyBid for the New Year. I do want to emphasize the Best Practice of using a new master estimate for the New Year (and not use…
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.
