This short blog will cover setting the item tree level when inside the Bid Item Detail View in SharpeSoft Estimator. What we mean by tree level is how expanded the information contained in the item tables will be displayed to the user by default. Setting tree item levels are especially useful for tables with several hundred individual items, which might ordinarily be time-consuming to parse. How to: Open a bid item to the Bid Item Detail View. Select a table of information to

Determining how to number your jobs may seem like an unimportant task in the grand scheme of things, but keeping a consistent system will allow users to quickly and easily route through their jobs in order to find just what they're looking for. If your company has a numbering system already in place, Estimator can accommodate it easily. There are several ways to change a job's number after it's already been created, which will be elaborated on below. If your company does not

This Rounding Rules window is used to set up specific rounding rules for the system to use when rounding your job bid. This includes changing the decimal point the system will use when rounding the bid, such as to the nearest cent, the nearest whole dollar, etc. If you have bid items with large quantities (say 200,000 to a million or more), then rounding a unit price to the nearest dollar could amount to a great deal of money. In that case you would probably set up a rounding

SharpeSoft Estimator offers users the ability to freely and easily import table items from their old Excel worksheets into the Estimator environment with just a few clicks. The example in this blog will focus on material items and the Materials table, but the same basic process is applicable for all other SharpeSoft table items. How to: First we will find the Excel document to be imported into the Estimator system. Below is a screenshot of what the data in our example documen

Equipment rates are always subject to a degree of change, whether due to a change in labor area or other factors influencing price. This blog will explain the two different methods by which users can update their equipment rates on the fly, without needing to stop the bidding process. This blog is concerned primarily with pushing updated information through to the system. For more information on updating equipment rates themselves, see Equipment Rates by Area. The first metho

The Story Located in British Columbia, Canada, Dunbar Civil Solutions is a fresh face to the world of the Canadian heavy civil estimating industry. Serving small to mid-sized civil contractors, Dunbar Civil Solutions also offers takeoff options, as well as general project management services, in addition to cost estimating. Helmed by Ben Dunbar, Dunbar Civil Solutions has already established itself as a trusted industry provider. We sat down with Ben to discuss business and l

Most estimating jobs will have numerous vendors attached to the project, all providing necessary materials at various different prices. Users have the ability to print a list of what materials a given vendor has supplied to the job, including important information like sales tax. This blog will explain how. How to: There are two ways to get to the Material Costs report. The video above demonstrates the button in the Summary sheet, in the Material Details tab. Click on the Sum

Linking labor to a piece of equipment is a quick and easy way to tie two frequently used items together. You can link labor and equipment in two ways. Here in the Labor table you link equipment to labor. In the Equipment table you can link labor to equipment. How to: Select the Tables menu from the toolbar. Select either the Labor or Equipment menu from the dropdown. For this example we will use the Labor table, but the processes stipulated are the same for Equipment. In the

A plug item in construction is usually in reference to bid items that were neglected during the course of the original bid for one reason for another; usually these items were missed, excluded, or underpriced. These plug items are not associated with any table-based data, allowing users to enter any appropriate plug item information for a given item of work. The SharpeSoft Estimator does not require that these plug items be replaced before the final proposal is generated, ope

How to When copying bid items, especially between jobs, it's important to remember there are options present within Estimator for registering any changes between prices. This article concerns specifically the option Prompt to keep existing item detail costs during item copy. This is done from the Options tab within the Preferences window. It's located within the Defaults menu on the toolbar. In practice, If the box is NOT checked and you copy an item from another job, the sys