One of the biggest challenges in the construction industry is estimating projects. Contractors and Developers are very busy and estimating are one of those tasks that take time and focus.
Advancements in digital takeoff and estimating software have dramatically improved the speed contractors can calculate quantities for projects and finalize their pricing. It has really been a breakthrough in construction. Many contractors find more time in their day to meet clients and supervise projects by creating and estimating department in their company or using and estimating service.
What is Digital Estimating? It’s the estimating of takeoffs through online software, as opposed to printing plans out and doing it by hand.
You can imagine this frees up much more time for everyone involved in the estimating process, and also produces more accurate numbers than estimates done by hand.
Given all the benefits, it’s a no-brainer to switch to digital estimating if you aren’t already.
Manual vs Digital Method
Manually estimating projects means printing out the plans, taking out a ruler, and analyzing one-by-one every single measurement to the tee. These are called construction takeoffs.
The digital method of estimating involves getting an estimating software and clicking your way through plans in order to measure and have a spreadsheet completed automatically. You barely have to write anything down, and the speed of projects increases rapidly.
Unlike traditional estimating, digital estimating software does cost money up front to be able to use, but the advantage of being faster and more accurate on your bids more than makes up for it.
More Accurate Cost Analysis
When it comes to manual estimating, the accuracy is based completely on how steady your hands are and where you pencil mark things, so it’s not the most sustainable way to consistently estimate and bid out projects.
On digital estimating software, all the costs are calculated by the most up-to-date, modern construction software out there. The only thing you need to double-check is if you actually measured what needs to be measured, but the measurements themselves and the costs associated with them are all done completely for you.
Submitting Bids Faster Wins More Jobs
Contractors who submit bids faster and more accurately to many different jobs deserve to win more than the ones that don’t.
There are contractors completing bids in a couple hours that normally would’ve taken multiple days of nonstop measuring and analyzing.
That is the power of a digital estimating software, and it’s why it’s completely shaking up the construction industry.
To help you understand how huge this could really be for your construction business, let’s go over an example:
Let’s say you’re a one-man show drywall contractor and you’re trying to secure more work so you can make more money, hire more people, and be a real business owner.
But, since it’s only you, you have to do the estimates, handle the sales process, and manage the entire operation. This means you barely have the time to estimate projects and submit bids to even get the work in the first place. On top of that, if you’re doing your estimating by hand, it could take you days to complete one and send in the bid. And then when your bid doesn’t work out, you get so frustrated that you do it all over again.
This is the case with so many contractors starting their construction business, and that’s exactly why digital estimating software is improving the entire industry slowly but surely.
But, if you want to take it 1 step further and submit accurate bids quickly, then consider hiring construction estimating services to completely take it off your hands so you can focus all your energy on actually selling the job.
Cost Databases
If you’ve ever estimated a construction project by hand, you’ve probably had to sort through a massive book filled with prices for every construction item under the sun.
This is a common story among estimators, the amount of time looking through books to find the correct costs for certain items often takes up so much valuable time that could be better spent ensuring you actually get the job.
With digital estimating software, the cost databases are online, so copy-pasting, searching up, and overall applying costs to your estimates suddenly takes up 50%, 40%, sometimes even 25% of the time it would’ve taken if you had done things the traditional way.
Different Estimating Software
Before we go into the different estimating software out there, you need to understand something first.
It’s very simple but also very often overlooked.
Construction estimating software, and construction takeoff software are NOT the same thing.
Construction takeoff software is a tool that allows you to accurately measure takeoffs of different projects, and that’s it.
Estimating software is a bit different, this is software that handles the pricing and costs of different projects.
They both work together but are 2 different things. I bring this up because I often hear contractors use the 2 inter-changeably, they believe they’re the same thing. They’re not.
With that in mind, let’s go over some construction estimating software you can start taking advantage of the second you finish this article. There’s a lot of different software out there, and for your convenience, we’ve narrowed it down to 2 that we feel work the best. So you don’t feel overwhelmed by all the options out there.
Here we go.
- Stack
This is one of the most popular estimating software out there and for good reason. It’s an all-in-one solution to estimating and bidding projects and is quite affordable as well.
- ProEst
ProEst is also one of the best estimating software out there, it includes all you need to create and submit bids yourself and grow your construction company.
Conclusion
So no doubt by now you understand the sheer impact digital estimating software has on the construction industry and can have on your own construction company.
The entire construction industry would be much less stressed, much more connected, and most importantly, much more modern.
Here’s the bottom line:
Anything that saves time and allows for things to run more effectively should have the attention of any business professional, not just construction ones.
But the truth is, the construction industry needs something like digital estimating software, and more software to come to do what tech has done in every other industry,
Make things easier.
Thank you for reading this piece. I hope it brought you some value!