Swiss Knife Software – A Reality
Companies are always looking for the all in one solution and software companies are all too willing to offer this product. Just think if someone drove up to your construction site with one piece of equipment that according to the salesman could replace all your equipment….
Automatic Backup – Settings
I love the automatic backup feature of HeavyBid. It will back up an estimate when you close HeavyBid or switch to another estimate as well as when major changes are being made (like in the Edit routines). So you will have at least one backup…
Setup Biditems-Customized Tab
Be sure to check out the options in the Customized Tab for setting up biditems. Some of the options are new and undocumented in 2015. There is a taxable biditem option now where the entire biditem can be taxed. Go to Setup Biditems>Customized View. As…
Recommended Optional Settings – Quote Folders
There are two optional settings that every estimator should activate. The first one shows the quantity for each material or sub in the grid (and not just on the bottom of the screen). This does not take a lot of screen room and most users…
Export to Primavera P6 from HeavyBid – SDK
In order to export an estimate to P6 you will be required to the Software Development Kit (SDK) installed. Attached are selected pages from the Primavera administrator manual that addresses this. Also P6 will have to be installed in the same environment as HeavyBid. For…
Listing of Local Materials/Subs not in System Wide Materials Codebook
Are you inputting the same materials on the fly for every estimate? To increase your efficiency do the following. When your estimate has been completed get a list of the created materials/subs and move them into the system wide codebook. Two ways to do this….
Using HeavyBid to Calculate Project’s Cost to Complete
HeavyBid is a good tool for calculating a project’s cost to complete and it gives you a snapshot of each succeeding month’s remaining work. Start with the conformed estimate and at the end of each month for each bid item (or you can do it at the…
Clean up Spreadsheet Calculations
If you are a regular reader of my blogs you know I like the internal spreadsheet (SpreadSheet Gear) in HeavyBid. But honestly there are a lot of spreadsheets in the list that you will never use such as all the Metric ones (unless you are…
Copy from Other Estimates – Version 2015
The new Copy function in HeavyBid Version 2015 is a big improvement over the the previous routine. In 2014 and previous versions if you copied from another estimate with different labor and equipment codes it would bring those resources over with their costs. The issue is…
Trapping Errors – Detect Changes to Activities
In Version 2015 the activity “Unreviewed” box preference is estimate specific (See my previous blog detailing this revision LINK). This is a very significant change since previously it could be changed only for all estimates (system preference). So this is how it can work for…
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.
