Electrical Estimating Software
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Do you want to learn how to:
Estimate Electrical Projects?
Produce More Electrical Estimates?
Knowledge to Succeed In Electrical Contracting
Speed up your Estimating Time?
Track Your Electrical projects after you win them?
Getting your Electrical License or Mastering the NEC
At Electrical Estimating Software we are here to solve your
Electrical Estimating Problems
Do you have a need for:
- Electrical Estimating Software?
- Drafting Software?
- On-Screen Takeoffs?
- On-Line School for Electrical Estimating?
- Freelance Estimating?
- Freelance Drafting?
- NEC Code Questions?
Would you like to understand more about:
- Man-Hours?
- Electrical Estimation?
- Devices?
- Branch Circuits?
- Feeders?
- Labor Cost?
- Labor Burdens?
- Understanding how to use Assemblies?
- Understanding Breakouts?
- Creating Electrical Proposals?
- Profit?
- Overhead?
- Gear?
- Lights?
- Lighting Controls?
- Tracking Electrical Projects?
- Creating Custom Assemblies?
- Pricing services-Updating Electrical Prices?
- Understanding what Electrical Estimating Software does for you?
If any of the above topics interest you then you have landed on the right page
If you have a question about any of the above topics you can send an email and we will answer your questions ASAP.
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Send us your questions
We are here to help you with your Electrical Estimating needs. We want to pay back to the electrical industry that has been so good to us over the last 40 years. We can offer our opinion on many topics from building an Electrical Business, Pricing Electrical Work, Scheduling and tracking electrical projects, etc.
There is no obligation for using our free services. We are glad to help. Many people are electricians that are moving into an office environment or going in business for themselves. They understand electrical work but they are not as comfortable moving to an office setting. This is where we come in. We can make suggestions from our own experiences.
We understand that learning Electrical Estimating or learning an Electrical Estimating Software can be frustrating. So many choices. How do you know which software is right for you?
First let’s start by deciding if you need an Electrical Estimating Software or not.
We have told countless Electrical Contractors that they really don’t need Electrical Estimating Software.
Every successful Electrical Contractor is using Electrical Estimating Software
Do I need Electrical Estimating Software?
Ask yourself these questions.
01. Are you doing service work and never have any interest in New Construction?
02. Are you stuck doing Residential Electrical Projects and have no desire to do New Commercial Electrical Projects?
If you answered “yes” to the questions above you may not want to spend a large sum of money for Electrical Estimating Software. If you are in the Residential Contracting world knowing your cost has little value when all of your competitors are pricing by the square foot or per item. Most Residential Electrical Contactors actually don’t know their cost or do actual electrical estimates. So in reality, unless people will pay you more to do their work, knowing your cost has little value when your competitor is wiring by the sq. ft.
A large number of Residential Contractors go bankrupt. All is good as long as nothing happens and money is flowing. It can seem like you are doing well until one of your contractors don’t pay you or the work stops and you find that you have been robbing Peter to pay Paul and now there isn’t a Peter.
Most Residential Electrical Contractors are small and don’t have in house accountants, project managers, purchasing agents, or an office staff. The owner usually is working in the field and at night trying to bill and price new work. They never have the time to understand labor burdens or true cost. Basically they work for wages. Sometimes a Residential Electrical Contractor will have a fulltime job and wire homes as a side gig. This is what you are up against.
There are exceptions to the rule and a hand full of Residential Contractors find a niche and do quite well. With this being said there aren’t many Residential Electrical Estimating Software to choose from. We have found one. The 1CEES Residential Estimator. The cost is great just under $100.00. The old saying YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR may somewhat apply. The software in our opinion is well worth the money. The software will produce a material list based on your quantities. It also has two unlimited databases to add items that you might need. It is fast, easy to use and well worth $100.00. It is not based on code so depending on what version of the NEC you are under you may need to add items. The best part of the software, other than the price, is you just enter 100- Receptacles and it calculates Devices, Plates, Boxes, staples, conductors, and calculates the cost of material and the time it should take to install these items. The downside to the software is you must self- manage your pricing. Overall the 1CEES Residential Estimator is a great value if you are never moving into Commercial Electrical Work. You can find this product at www.electricalestimatingsoftware.com.
03. Do you do Commercial or Industrial Electrical Projects?
If the answer to the question above is yes then you need to review our findings below.
After speaking to 1000’s of Commercial Electrical Contractors we have found that all successful contractors have a few things in common.
01. They all know their cost to operate.
02. They know what type of work to bid for their company.
03. They understand the importance of relationships.
04. They treat their employees as a valued commodity.
05. Last but defiantly not least, they all own and have mastered an Electrical Estimating Software
Electrical Estimating Software is the most important tool that you own
You will fail or succeed based on your ability to estimate
If you are an Electrical Contractor it is no longer a choice. You cannot compete in today’s market without a software to do your electrical estimating.
Now that we have determined that you need a bidding software
Let’s talk about your choices
After talking to numerous Electrical Contractors we found that a large number of them purchased an
expensive Electrical Estimating Software and never used it until years later.
These were the top 3 reasons
01. They didn’t take the time to read the instructions and tried to just stumble through.
02. They had unrealistic expeditions that you could open a new estimating software and perform an estimate the same day.
03. They never reached out for help or took the time to learn how to use it.
Learning a new software of any kind takes a commitment. You must be willing to invest time to learn and then master it. It is much like when you started out in the electrical trade. You didn’t know how to bend conduit or make up electrical panels. Now you can do these task in your sleep.
The time spent learning an electrical estimating software pays dividends the rest of your career.
You must set aside some quite time with no distractions and learn a software.
Electrical Estimating Software will speed you up, eliminate simple mistakes, and give you the information to manage your projects after you win them.
Selecting the right estimating software for your company
We have to agree that there seems to be a lot of choices when it comes to Electrical estimating Software. Once you understand that not all electrical bidding programs are the same the choice narrows. Let us break it down for you.
Shopping Carts
You will have what we term (Shopping Cart) style of software. In reality this is nothing more than a laundry list of products to select from. It does nothing to speed you up or give you the tools to track your work. This type of software may have some value to an Electrical Service Company or a very small Electrical Contractor that only does some small jobs as a side gig.
This type of software has little value to the majority of Electrical Contractors.
Older Technology
Next you have a few older software that have not kept up with the newer technology. For example they have not developed their own On-Screen Takeoff and rely on a third party such as On Center or Bluebeam. This just causes issues moving from the Takeoff to the Estimate. They are better than the shopping cart version but after review we cannot recommend these software either.
Cloud Based Electrical Software
There are some good and not so good companies offering Cloud Based versions of their electrical software. Some companies only offer Cloud Based versions. To be honest this is all about producing monthly income for the software company for life. You sign on and you never own your software. You are subject to internet issues, server issues, price increases, etc. Obliviously this offers more value to supplier than the user. What if you get 3 years into this rental and someone buys out the company, triples the fee, or shuts down? Server prices will increase with more users so your speed will decrease until they upgrade their servers then the price will increase. It is just not a great idea from the users perspective.
The choices are narrowing down
Let’s talk about a couple of software that you have most likely heard of.
Accubid
Most everyone has heard of Accubid. They have spent enormous money in advertising and they boast of being the industry standard.
Click here. Accubid is a Canadian company that was purchased by Trimble.
Their focus is MPE and not just Electrical.
Trimble Acquires Accubid Assets to Expand Its Building Construction Solutions. SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug 13, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ -- Trimble (Nasdaq: TRMB) announced today it has acquired the assets of privately-held Accubid Systems based in Concord, Ontario, Canada. Aug 13, 2010
Accubid seems to be pushing hard to sell their Accubid Anywhere package which is another monthly subscription service.
There are many electrical companies that use Accubid due to their name recognition through mass advertising.
McCormick
McCormick is another house hold name that most people recognize. They could be very well the 1st company to offer Electrical Estimating Software.
Jack McCormick, founder of McCormick Systems, began his journey as a contractor in the 1960s. Immediately, he saw the need for moving estimating from a large mainframe to personal computers — leading to the introduction of McCormick Systems in 1979.
They have also spent enormous amounts of money on advertising so everyone knows their name.
McCormick has merged with Foundation software and their focus is divided as well. Click here
These two software are good choices for electrical Contractors with multiple branches or a single branch that specializes in Multi-Million dollar projects. If you need several estimators working on the same project you may want to look at Accubid or McCormick.
Both software have been around for a while. We feel McCormick is more complicated to learn.
Neither software is user friendly and will take training to master. Both companies offer off site training for a fee.
The disadvantage to both these software are:
01. The enormous upfront price.
02. They charge per user
03. The price for Tech support
04. They are hard to learn, especially if you are a first time user
05. They are hard to reach for questions
06. Both are larger companies that employee sales people that may know the software but not necessarily the electrical trade.
Summary, both of these software have their place. Neither company post their price but they are pricy. If you are just moving into electrical estimating software and you have less than 50 employees you might find these two overwhelming. With both of these software there will be a large learning curve. They were defiantly not built user friendly.
Our Choice for the best overall Electrical Estimating Software is
THE BEST BID HYBRID PRO
The Best Bid Hybrid Pro checks all the boxes in what you need for a great Electrical Estimating Software. They have been around for a long time and their single focus is on electrical and helping Electrical Contractors.
These are some of the things that we love about the
Best Bid Hybrid Pro
When we review most software we open the product and scratch out heads for a moment and try to intuitively create something. Most of the time we fail. We need to do some reading or watch some videos to get the direction of most software.
With Best Bid we opened the software and you see a very simple Control Panel. It is clearly marked with names that we instantly recognize.
Lighting, Switches, Receptacles, Stub Ups, Branch Circuits, Custom Assemblies, Conduit and Wire, Metal Clad, Standard Conduit and Wire, Feeders, Site PVC, Fire Alarm, Gear, Quotes, and Summary.
At least we understand these names and what they are but what is behind the buttons? We are all assuming that nothing can really be this easy to understand so we assume when we click Lighting we will be taken to the Lighting section of the database to choose from a group of lights.
To our surprise when you select a button you are taken to a pre-created assembly for what- ever button you select.
For example, when you select Receptacles you would enter your quantities and the software is designed to produce:
01. Devices
02. Plates
03. Box for device
04. Plaster ring
05. Raceway
06. Couplings
07. Connectors
08. Straps
09. Screws
10. Conductors
11. Grounding stinger
12. Box
13. Blank cover
14. Wire Nuts
This is the most complete assembly we have seen from any software.
Right out of the box we created a great assembly for Receptacles. If the other buttons produce the same quality assemblies we have struck gold. To our surprise they do. Next we thought this is really too simple. We assume we are stuck with these choices, which were great choices but would not work for every project.
After watching a few videos we learned that the Best Bid Hybrid Pro is a complex electrical estimating software with many layers.
Everything in each assembly can be changed. Raceway type, fitting type, conductors, etc.
All choices could be changed and made to be your default selections, you can change items for just 1 job , or even changed items after you have already entered the items. There was a substitution feature to substitute any item anytime during the estimate.
Even the choices in your dropdowns can be added to. If there has ever been a software that can be modified to produce the results that you specifically want this has to be it.
The Best Bid Hybrid Pro can be used right out of the box or be modified to create estimates any way that suites you,
We obviously can’t list all of the feature of the Best Bid Hybrid Pro but here are some of our favorites.
Highlights of the Best Bid Hybrid Pro
You cannot overlook the price. For less than $2,000.00 you own your software with no monthly or yearly fees. Price does not mean a lot if the product is lacking but we found that the Best Bid Hybrid Pro has all the features that are needed to produce accurate estimates.
This is a small list of what we found:
- Unlimited License - This is a plus since every other company charges for extra license.
- Free Technical Support - This is another feature that this is a premium price from all other companies.
- Life-Time Software Updates - Keeping your software fresh is always a plus.
- Built – in On-Screen Takeoff that is part of the software. They don’t rely on a 3rd party. This allows you to move from the Takeoff to the Estimate flawlessly.
- Unlimited database – With this feature you can create a perfect database for your company.
- Extremely Flexible- You can use Best Bid to average, scale, or do a hybrid version of estimating where you average the branch and scale the homeruns. You can estimate your electrical projects in many different styles.
- Pre-Set Wizards- Wizards are much better than hunting for single assemblies. These Wizards allow you to instantly make changes for every aspect of your assembly. You create the results or use the pre-sets, which we found fine just as they were.
- Any report that you could want-We found that the break downs provides you with your schedule of values along with Request for Quotations, and even included Proposals.
- One-Time Fee for life-This is unheard of in the software world.
- Multiple entries can be made on the same screen-This allows you to estimate faster than having to enter 1 item at a time.
- Labor adjustments for difficulty-Most software has a version of this but what we found interesting is you not only get to choose column 1-2-3 you dial in any percentage you want. This allows you to get the number you want and you don’t have to settle for just 3 choices.
- Create estimates amazingly fast
Most Electrical Contractors will love this product.
We will rate Best Bid the Best of the Best
At Electrical Estimating Software, our goal really is to help Electrical Contractors. If we can help you in any way we will be glad to do so. We are here you answer your questions or give you our opinion at no charge you.
We do offer the following services that we charge for
• Freelance Electrical Estimating
• Freelance Drafting
Let us draw your As-Built Drawings-One-Line Service Detail- Complete Electrical Drawings-or Estimate your next project.
For Code Questions ,Electrical Training, and Electrician Exam Preparation Programs
Our choice is Paul Abernathy
Paul Abernathy is the CEO and Founder of Electrical Code Academy, Inc., a premier electrical training provider located in the great state of Texas. However, they have students all over the world enrolled in our electrical training programs.
You may be familiar with his name as the author of books on the electrical trades for master electricians or journeyman electricians but he also serve on the National Electrical Code Making Panels 5 (Articles 200 and 250) and 17 ( Articles 422, 424, 426, 427, 680, and 682). You can validate this by looking in the front of your 2017 or 2020 NEC just to help establish who he actually is. When you want to learn the CODE you want someone who lives and breathes it on a daily basis, you want someone like Paul helping you learn in key fundamentals of the National Electrical Code.
They have helped thousands of people just like you learn the National Electrical Code using his NEC Learning Techniques that aim to teach you how to use, understand, interpret, and correctly apply the safety standards found in the NEC. In fact, Paul is the creator of the Fast Trax® NEC Learning System designed specifically to teach students