HCSS HeavyBid: Emergency Plan (Video)
The worst can happen an instant. You’re servers go down and you have a deadline on a bid. What do you do? Well, if you have this plan ready to go then you don’t have to worry. It will take a little bit of prep…
HeavyBid Updates 2020.1 to 2020.3 Summary
I put together this document from the HCSS “What’s New” section. Now is a good time to see what version of HeavyBid you are currently using and considering updating. Staying with older versions just means you are living with lots of bugs – stay current…
Don’t Use VPN for Remote Connection to HeavyBid
I know some HCSS customers are using a VPN connection to connect to HeavyBid when out of the office. Recently I found out this is not a good option as first you can get performance issues but it can also produce data corruption. Remote Desktop…
HCSS One Page Help Guide
HCSS sent out a one-page help guide with links to all of their various help portals with a quick sentence of explanation. I recommend checking it out and sending it to any new hires unfamiliar with HeavyBid and HCSS. HCSS does a lot to support…
Copy Option Improvements
Copying from other estimates is a huge feature in HeavyBid but if you are not aware there have been some recent changes. I highly recommend that you take the time and review the changes over the last 6 or so updates and make sure that…
My Return to Estimating
I had the opportunity this week to put together an estimate for a hard bid. I trained the company several months ago but they have been busy and just couldn’t get to HeavyBid and I just love doing takeoffs and estimating. It gives me the…
Starting a New Company
I get phone calls periodically from someone who I have trained that is starting a new construction company and is seeking my advice. Here is a summary of my recommendations: HeavyBid – go with a standalone at first and if cash flow is an issue…
Vendor Business Contact System – Video
I find that existing HeavyBid users rarely have the above setup or if they do they don’t take the time to add the necessary information like product codes to really make the system useful. This YouTube video combined with the downloadable Excel spreadsheet will assist…
Version Update Notifications
I always tell HCSS customers that all software especially products like HeavyBid has to be managed. A part of that is knowing when updates come out and timing the update so that the team is not impacted if they are in the middle of a…
Some V2020.2 Features
I was training some very sharp estimators this week and we were diving deep into HeavyBid and I noticed two new features in V2020.2 that you might find useful. I know the list of improvements is under the “What’s New” but until you actually see…
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.
