Activity Codebook – the Core of HeavyBid
At its initial development, the Activity codebook was at its core. Everything was built around this codebook, and the Activity codebook was developed prior to the programming of the initial version of HeavyBid! I found a video on the HCSS Youtube site that is pretty…
Package Alternates
I had two requests the other day for more information on this feature in HeavyBid. Here is a summary of what it does. You have groups of biditems that HeavyBid calls “Packages,” and you want to control how Indirects spread to each one. A tab…
Entering a Sub’s Quote Total
Sometimes, a subcontractor will quote a total for their item or items. You don’t have to use your calculator (if you can find it) and calculate the unit price. Not too many releases ago HCSS added the feature, so you can just input the total,…
Creating Material on the Fly – No Tax Option
This was added in HeavyBid Version 2022.1. So when you add a material code in Tree View you get the box as shown below. Much better than having HeavyBid ask you a yes/no question. Way to go programmers! I wish there was documentation for 2022.1…
HeavyBid Version 2022.1
HeavyBid 2022.1 has been released but there are no notes on what is this release. More to come on this release but it will be pretty much correcting some bugs and have a few new improvements. This will be the final update I suspect until…
Equipment Depreciation Article
Construction Equipment (a great magazine and website) had a great article by Mike Vorster on the three types of equipment depreciation. At the end of the day for estimating purposes it is “Market” depreciation that only counts. In other words, when calculating the true cost…
US Energy Website-Current/Historical Fuel Prices
This might be useful for some. Current prices of fuel in the US. It only has on-road diesel and gas as far as I can tell. This could be useful for change orders since this shows past prices also. LINK Their website overall is very…
Jerod is a Genius! A Different Way to Learn
I have trained Brevard Concrete Paving three times now. They are located in the Titusville FL area (Space Coast). First training which was the original implementation was just after the national lockdown due to Covid. We did a second one and last month I went…
Reindexing HeavyBid
I always preach good maintenance of HeavyBid. It cannot just run on its own and one thing that should be done on a quarterly basis (my opinion) is reindexing the Master and System-Wide files. Reindexing can make HeavyBid run faster especically in a multi-user system….
Change Material Costs Throughout the Estimate
It has been a while since I posted anything about this feature. A must use in HeavyBid but many estimators with years and years using HeavyBid under their belt don’t know about the screen. Vastly superior to the Local Material screen. Here is a video…
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.
