Ending the Year Right
Most of you have a few days left in this year. Here is my challenge. Take a day, or two and stop. Just stop and as a group ask how can you improve your estimating workflow. Call HCSS Support for specific questions and see if…
HeavyBid Fundamentals video series
This is the first video in my new video series on the fundamentals of HeavyBid. As any experiened estimator knows, backing up is vital and it’s best to do it often. Let me know what my next video should be on!
Preset Subtotals & Headers in the Master Estimate
I love the new subtotals in HeavyBid. They don’t take up a bid item anymore and have more features. If you are the type of contractor that either makes up your own bid form (client does not provide one) or have standard bid forms where you can predict…
Cost of Estimating Inefficiencies
You would think that construction companies would study the actual costs of the process of estimating construction costs but they rarely do. Think about it. When was the last time someone in your company asked how the estimating process could be made more efficient? But…
Number Keypad for a Laptop
Many estimators today work in or out of the office on laptops that don’t have a dedicated keypad. Personally, I don’t like the wider keyboard that have a dedicated number pad. The solution is very cheap – a separate keypad that is either USB or wireless….
Copying from Other Estimates – A Discussion
This is not a blog on how to copy from other estimates but one that asks why are you copying from other estimates? I see many HeavyBid customers whose workflow is this. Create all the Activities (or Biditems) by going out to previous estimates and…
How to Access HeavyBid Tutorial
I get emails sometimes from companies saying that did not get HeavyBid launched successfully for one reason or another and what can they do? First make the commitment that Heavybid will not become expensive shelfware. I suggest this, complete the HCSS HeavyBid tutorial. HCSS has an…
Export to Accounting
If there is anything in HeavyBid that seems to be underutilized I would say it is all the features of the Export to Accounting. There are so many options that a majority of users have not investigated. This is what I recommend. Get the person…
Estimate Entry Resource Addons by Percent
I have learned to like this feature when I dived into it. It has been around since the DOS version of Heavybid. This is what Addons by Percent can do in the estimate Treeview. It connects a resource cost like small tools to the total…
Determining HeavyBid Resource Escalation Cost
I discovered this today in my training. The Escalation feature of HeavyBid does a great job of calculating escalation per resource type, or per individual resource. You can show the escalation charge per resource type and total it in a report. This might be required…
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.
