Your hour has come

03/11/2009 21:41:00

Article appeared in Professional Builder, November 2009

With news that many are still spending in the region of 468 hours per year estimating jobs, Anthony Botibol, marketing manager at HBXL believes those who are wasting too much time on putting together quotes need to take stock and assess the way they operate.

The figures have been highlighted with the release of version 8 of EstimatorXpress, HBXL’s award-winning estimating software which following a series of upgrades and new features has improved the way builders do their estimating and project management.

Anthony added: “Historically, builders would use their experience to cost up a job and use approximate square footage ratios. The problem with this method is that for a start it doesn’t take account of changes to material costs.

Price is right

“Secondly, the price of a brick can vary by anything up to 300% and unpredictable costs such as changing labour rates, groundwork issues and internal finishes are not taken into account. A builder’s profit margins can be quite small and with approximate estimates they can soon find their margins dwindling away.”

First released in 1996, EstimatorXpress helps builders to win 230% more business and slash estimating time by more than 50% making it pivotal to the success of thousands of building firms.

Anthony said: “EstimatorXpress v.8 puts unrivalled estimating speed and efficiency in the hands of the builder. No other software on the market comes close and with near to 10,000 users to date proves its popularity.

“With our exciting developments including more estimating calculators, improved customer quotation templates, plus brand new reports including Stage Payments – which means that builders can arrange payments for work and materials as they go along. - we’ve created a system that will estimate any residential building work of any size.

“It gives builders the tools to know exactly where the money is going, how much profit is going to be made and when they are going to get paid. We’ve also updated the user interface to make estimating even simpler!”

EstimatorXpress is still the only estimating software that provides builders with a link directly to live material prices from builder’s merchants ensuring 100% accuracy and saving valuable time. Users can link to a host of merchants including Jewson, Keyline, Travis Perkins, Graham, Towcester Building Supplies, Champion Timber and a new online merchant called Builderwarehouse.

According to Anthony businesses can help themselves by following some simple rules such as being sure of budgets, keeping a tight control of costs, planning projects realistically, being professional, taking advantage of home owners staying put, the relaxation of planning consent on extensions and lofts and by saving a fortune by doing estimates and plans in house.

He said: “I can’t stress enough how much of a competitive edge this gives users of our software. Because it’s been developed by those who have an in depth knowledge of the industry, builders who might be considering using estimating software in the future can rest assured they’ll be in safe hands.”

Professional Builder

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