Optimize Your Projects with Construction Proposal Software

Construction proposal software

[Music] welcome to the simple project systems estimate and proposal tutorial in this tutorial we'll go over the estimating and proposal tool showing you how to quickly put together a detailed estimate and professional proposal on your project first open the estimating folder in this folder you'll see a bid documents folder a correspondence folder an estimate and proposal folder a pre-bid rfi folder and a subcontractor and vendor bids folder the bid documents folder holds all of your project bid documents for the project you're bidding including plans specifications and other documents provided by your client and design team the correspondence folder is where you can save all your correspondence sent to and from your client design team and subcontractors the estimate and proposal folder is where your estimating and proposal templates are held the pre-bid rfi folder is where you will manage your requests for information related to this project the subcontractors and vendor bids folder is where you will save all of your bids that you receive from subcontractors and vendors before using this folder make sure that you save a master copy of it in a secure place do not modify your master copy instead make additional copies for each new project you bid to build a new project first create a new project folder make a copy of the master estimating template and save it in your new project folder then make sure you receive all bid documents and save them in your bid documents folder after reviewing your bid documents you can begin to build your estimate open your estimate and proposal folder this folder contains a bid workbook template open the bid workbook this workbook is a fully built out estimating and proposal tool which allows you to create detailed estimates and proposals quickly and effectively this workbook contains several tabs the first tab is the estimate and proposal worksheet this worksheet is where you build your estimate and ultimately your proposal document the second tab is a general conditions worksheet this sheet contains general conditions cost which you can estimate for your project the third tab is a quantity takeoff sheet where you can enter quantity takeoffs as needed for your project the following tabs are called trade bid comparison sheets these sheets allow you to enter multiple subcontractor bids for each scope of work on your project and compare them along with their pricing and qualifications this allows you to accurately review your subcontractor bids and ultimately select the right bids for your overall project estimate let's start with the estimate and proposal worksheet click on the estimate and proposal worksheet tab the top of this sheet has spaces for your company information and project information for the project you're bidding enter that information and then continue down the sheet the next section has a full bid breakdown organized by scope of work division the columns represented are item number csi division number trade description specification sections contractor name bid total options and notes to the right of these columns there are also additional columns which can be used when the project you are bidding has subcontractor listing requirements if your project does not have listing requirements you can ignore this section if it does have listing requirements you can enter all of the information in those columns first review all of your bid documents and identify all trades and scopes of work included on this project as you identify trades and scopes of work enter those scopes of work on your estimating form this estimate form comes pre-filled with standard trade descriptions you can replace these trade descriptions with the trades your particular project actually includes the options columns may be used if there are bid options on your project that need to be broken out from the main bid amount you can rename the bid option columns as needed once you've entered all the trade descriptions and bid options within your project you're ready to begin requesting and receiving bids for your project as you review your project documents and get cost information for your project you may also begin entering budget amounts for your project even before you start receiving actual bids you can put together a budget for your project to give you an idea of the overall bid values you will notice that the cells in this contractor name column are colored blue and labeled budget you may enter budget amounts in these cells if you have an idea of rough budgets for different trade line items when you receive actual subcontractor bids you can enter the actual bid amount in the total and options columns then enter the contractor's names in the contractor name column at the bottom of this section is a row labeled subcontractor bonds this line can be used to estimate subcontractor bond cost on your project if there are any in the next section of the worksheet there are other soft costs listed for your estimate these include general conditions contingency general contractor fee insurance builders risk insurance and general contractor bond cost the general conditions cost is calculated on the general conditions tab this tab has pre-built general conditions cost that can be used to estimate your total general conditions on a project but you can also customize this based on your company's cost structure the total general conditions on this worksheet carries over to the total bid cell on your estimate and proposal tab note that the options bid items do not automatically calculate any general conditions costs you need to manually enter any other general conditions costs for the optional bid items the other soft costs in this section of your estimate are calculated based on percentages and lump sum amounts entered within each cell you can adjust the percentage amounts and enter lump sums ing to the costs of those items as you change percentages the associated costs will change in each of the cells as shown the grand total amounts of your project bid are calculated at the bottom of this section after this main bid section there are additional alternate bid sections where you can put pricing together for alternate bid items their format is identical to the format in your main bid section and can be used as needed on your project below the alternate bid sections you will find a section for entering bid qualifications and assumptions as well as exclusions you can add qualifications assumptions and exclusions to these lists as you put together your estimate you can also add notes to each of the subcontractor trades as needed to clarify the scopes of work for each trade please note as you assemble and complete your project estimate it's very important that you go through your sheet and verify that all the numbers are adding up properly there are a lot of formulas in this workbook and it's important to verify each cell is adding up properly prior to finalizing your bid you may also lock certain cells of your worksheet if you want to keep you or others on your team from accidentally changing or deleting formulas that should not be changed or deleted once your estimate is complete and assembled it's time to create your proposal to do this you simply hide rows and columns as shown first hide rows 8 and 9 then hide the specification sections column then hide the subcontractor names and any of the option bid items that do not pertain to the project next you can hide any other bid tallies or alternates that do not apply or that you do not want to be shown on your proposal you will be left with a detailed estimate and proposal which you can submit to your potential client note that the footer on your proposal sheet reflects the name of this workbook you may change the name of the workbook to the project name so the footer reflects the name of the project there you go you have a complete detailed estimate and proposal ready for your future client now let's review the trade bid comparison tabs in detail as you review your project documents and review subcontractor bids coming in you can use the trade bid comparison tabs to expedite this process open the trade bid comparison template and enter the project information at the top left then open your trade sheets to enter each specific trades information first name each tab by its respective trade then enter the bid item number trade description and specification sections that correspond with your estimating sheet below this you can enter the scope of work items pertaining to that particular trade along the top of this sheet you'll enter each subcontractor's names and contact info as you receive the subcontractor bids enter their bid amounts and information in the spaces provided you can compare pricing for each line item from column to column with this sheet the scopes of work are broken into separate sections for easier reference these sections are tallied up so you can have an overall comparison based on each section of work within the project in this example the trade's work is broken into general scope items building scope site work scope and other scope this breakdown is useful for quick comparison of overall portions of the trades the grand total bid amount for each company is located at the bottom of the bid tally columns here's a tip you can also use these scope comparison sheets by sending them to your subcontractors to fill out themselves simply send them a copy of the scope sheet with all the scope items listed out they can fill these sheets out confirming the scope of work that they have included along with their pricing for each item this concludes our estimating and proposal tutorial thanks for watching