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 Model the work with ease. Hard Dollar BID*BUILD lets you break the job down any way you want, from high-level to highly detailed. New jobs get easier and easier with each estimate you complete. That’s because you’re constantly adding to your database of cost items that can be dragged and dropped into new jobs to dramatically reduce your estimate setup time. |
 Profit-building precision in record time. Hard Dollar BID*BUILD gives you the power to estimate costs the way you think about them, using crews and production rates, man hour factors, quotes from subs and vendors, and historical data. And by re-using and adjusting previous work instead of starting from scratch, you have time to craft detailed estimates that give you better visibility into your profit on the job before you submit the bid proposal. |
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Work Planning & Estimating is the core module of the Hard Dollar BID*BUILD solution. It gives you everything you need to build a work plan and cost estimate for any size job, to any level of detail, with unmatched efficiency and effectiveness.
With its patented user interface, flexible cost estimating methods, point-and-click reproduction capabilities, and customizable screens and reports, this Hard Dollar BID*BUILD module provides the work planning and cost estimating solution you need to:
- Define detailed work plans with ease
- Create comprehensive cost estimates in record-time
- Produce professional reports for your team and your customers
- Work in an intuitive, user-friendly environment to get work done faster
- Share information with your team in real-time
Define detailed work plans with ease
Job Properties
- Record Cover Sheet information for each job, including owner name, job location, bid date and time, and dozens of additional fields
- Record pre-bid notes for each job to document important information
- Define default shift arrangements (e.g., 8 hours a day, five days a week) for the job so that shift arrangements can later be changed globally if needed
- Define default pay rules to automatically calculate overtime pay when appropriate
- Define current unit costs of fuel to automatically calculate the job’s fuel cost based on the fuel consumption rate of each equipment resource employed in the estimate
Resources
- Define unlimited Labor, Equipment, Rented Equipment, Installed Equipment, Materials,
Supplies, and Unique resources - Categorize costs for each resource using 100+ distinct categories
- Create multiple resource rates for each wage zone or geographic region
- For each Labor resource, use multiple wage scales to facilitate automatic calculation of overtime costs
- Automatically apply the job-specific tax rate to applicable materials, rentals, supplies, and unique resources
- Categorize resources for easy searching and filtering using user-defined Tags
- Create pre-defined crews and assemblies – groups of resources – to employ in the estimate with a single mouse click
- View crews and assemblies as a single line item, or expand them to show the individual resources
- Easily select a subset of the master resources to be used in a specific job
- Adjust resource rates on a job-by-job basis without impacting master rates
- Add new resources to a job at any time
- Easily copy job-specific resources back to the master files
- Easily copy resources from one job to another
- Maintain a Master Address Book containing contact data for business partners (subs, suppliers, etc.)
- Import contacts into the Master Address Book from Microsoft Outlook
Create comprehensive cost estimates in record-time
Estimate setup
- Create new estimate folders by copying all, or portions, of existing estimates
- Automatically fill new estimates with “standard” data to eliminate extra effort
- Copy in user-defined subsets of master resources to ensure that the job is using the appropriate resource rates
- Create Cost Breakdown Structures (CBS) with unlimited levels of detail to truly model the job and provide a head start for project management
- At each level of the CBS, create unlimited cost items
- Collapse/expand the CBS tree to display the desired level of detail
- Move cost items within a job, or between jobs
- Copy cost items within a job, or between jobs, by dragging and dropping or copying and pasting Cost Estimating
- For each cost item, use three different cost sources: Detail, Plug, and Quote
- Switch between the Detail, Plug, and Quote cost sources at any time on a cost item by cost item basis
- Plug costs from scratch through direct dollar input by cost category
- Detail costs for each cost item by employin resources or assemblies whose quantities vary with the cost item’s quantity
- Detail costs for each cost item by employing resources /crews /assemblies whose hours vary
with an established production rate - Globally swap one resource for another throughout the estimate
- Establish production rates by entering a value expressed in any of fifteen ways, including units/time, units/man hour, units/equipment hour, time/unit, man hours/unit, and equipment hours/unit
- Establish production rates by entering a unit cost and backing in to the required production rate
- Apply man-hour factors to production rates to adjust for weather, geography, and other job-specific conditions
- Detail costs for each cost item by employing fixed dollar values entered on-the-fly
- For each cost item, handle escalation and other contingencies by making dollar value or
percentage adjustments by cost category - Record free-form notes for each cost item to list assumptions, jobsite observations, and more
- Easily perform “what if?” analysis by adjusting production rates, quantities, shift arrangements, pay rules, and more
- Edit resource rates on a cost item by cost item basis
- Estimate indirect costs using a variety of “dependent cost items” whose values vary with the cost of other cost items
- Escalate costs that occur within specified data ranges by percentage (requires Schedule module)
- Automatically calculate bond costs with user-defined layer limit tables
- Assign account codes (cost codes) to individual resources or entire cost items for instant budgeting
- Activate the Changes Log to keep a running audit trail of all estimate changes
Produce professional reports for your team and your customers
- Create customized output by selecting which columns of data to include
- Apply user-defined filters, sorting, and grouping to report output
- Save custom output settings by name for later re-use
- Customize appearance of reports, including font, font size, colors, and more
- Send report output directly to Excel, Word, RTF, and Adobe Acrobat PDF
- Print a variety of “standard” resource utilization reports, cost summary reports, and cost detail reports, all with user-defined content
Work in an intuitive, user-friendly environment to get work done faster
- Use Hard Dollar’s patented, intuitive and easy-to use interface to get work done faster
- Navigate through the system using keyboard shortcuts and hotkeys
- Enter and edit data using on-screen forms (one record at a time)
- Enter and edit data directly on spreadsheet-style registers (many records at once)
- Use Multi-edit to make global changes to many records at once
- Rearrange columns to the desired order
- Use instant filters to display only the data rows currently of interest
- Customize columns to display only the data columns currently of interest
- Easily sort and re-sort data simply by clicking on column headings
- Group and re-group data multiple ways, using any predefined or user-defined field
- Save customized Views by name for instant access to frequently used display settings
- Compress and archive estimates for efficient storage and portability
- Work with predefined English and metric units of measure
- Add user-defined units of measure to handle unique situations
Share information with your team in real-time
- Allow multiple users to work in the same job folder at the same time, even across multiple locations
- Keep all users in the job in synch with real-time updates when changes are made by any user in the job folder
- See the list of users currently working in the job folder before “joining” the workgroup
Maintain accountability with onscreen display of last changed information, including user name, date, and time
Minimum System Requirements
Hardware
- Pentium III 600 Mhz processor
- 512 MB RAM
- 2 GB available disk space (5GB for network servers)
- 800 x 600 resolution - 16 bit color
- Available parallel port or USB port
- 100MB Network Interface Card (for network operation)
Desktop operating systems
- Windows 2000 Professional w/ service pack (sp) 3; or
- Windows XP Professional w/ latest sp
Network operating systems
- Windows 2000 Server w/ sp 3
- Windows 2000 Advanced Server w/ sp 3
- Windows 2000 Terminal Services w/ sp 3
- Windows NT 4.0 Server w/ sp 6a
- Windows 2000 Prof. w/ sp 3
- Windows XP Prof. w/ latest sp
- Citrix (call for specific requirements)
