Health and Safety Xpert Review

On the Safe Side

A brand new package from the leading marketing specialists in Estimating Software, EstimatorXpress™ has been launched called Health and Safety Xpert™ to simplify the tedious process of completing health and safety paperwork for builders.

Health and safety legislations in construction are paramount for any builder; the problem being is the mountain of paperwork that comes with it. In today’s society the significance of completing the paperwork cannot be underestimated.

Evidence suggests that builders rarely manage to cover everything that ought to be considered - due to time, practicality and inconvenience, which is then complicated by the ambiguity of advice given by leading industry bodies over the exact standards that need to be met.

HBXL found that prior to creating this software; builders were estimating around a thousand pounds per job to comply with the health and safety law. Another commonly recognised problem was the level of repetition arising in this paperwork. For many builders time spent in the office means less time on site earning money, or worse it means less time away from work.

HBXL’s solution to the problem is its latest piece of software; Health & Safety Xpert™. It’s designed specifically for builders and adopts a similar on screen set up as Estimator Xpress™. The software is extremely accessible and simple to use so that it doesn’t require any specialist IT skills.

Joanna Mulgrew, Marketing Director at HBXL said “Building companies have a legal obligation to demonstrate that they take their responsibilities seriously. It is often very difficult for businesses to know where to start, so what Health & Safety Xpert™ does is simplify the process of producing all the right documentation for a project and gives confidence to the user that they are covered.”

The many advantages of using this software is that you can access and maintain numerous jobs simultaneously, with the software guiding you through each of the steps required to complete a comprehensive set of paperwork for each project. Also all of this information can be saved and re-used for subsequent jobs so once you have used it a few times, you can pick and choose extracts from previous jobs cover the requirements of new ones. This cuts out the problems of duplication and repetition, potentially shaving hours off your workload.

The software prints off all the necessary forms that you need to legally comply and prove beyond doubt that you have considered every eventuality and problem areas - all done within your power to prevent accidents on site.

Every user gets regular updates that take into account changes to industry regulations. Builders can be confident that their paperwork is up-to-date and complies with the latest legislation and legal requirements.

David Price, CITB Accredited Trainer and Health and Health & Safety Consultant said “Health & Safety Xpert is the most comprehensive system I’ve seen and encourages builders to take a more proactive yet jess time consuming approach to health and safety on every job”.

Health and Safety Xpert™ is available in two packages. This includes The Essentials’ Edition priced at £439 + VAT and Total Toolkit’ Edition priced at £699 +VAT.

Extract taken from Professional Builder Magazine September 2006

EstimatorXpress Review

Freedom Xpress

Terry Smith gets a quick lesson in how to price up a building job and still be done in time to watch the football down the pub.

There is a saying that the real money is won and lost in the office. Many builders tell us that they spend up to four nights a week doing paperwork and pricing up jobs. This would be bad enough, but some of them are only winning one in seven of the jobs that they price. If it only took an hour to price up a job this might be acceptable, but often it takes seven or eight hours of intense concentration to price up one job.

So, despite the fact that many builders put it on their sign boards, there is no such thing as a ‘Free Estimate’. Either the builder is giving his leisure time away or his customers are subsidising the time-wasters.

EstimatorXpress™ was launched to give builders a quick and easy way to price up jobs. The aim was to make it very easy to use so that any builder, even one with no computer skills or desire to learn them, could feed in the measurements and come up with a quote.

There is no need for a calculator, a tape measure or even a pen (so our editor had nothing to chew!) The software also comes with a tutorial to take you through a couple of sample jobs so you get the hang of it.

Picture Show

One of the features that makes EstimatorXpress™ more builder-friendly than others on the market is the use of onscreen building drawings, so if you are pricing up brickwork you simply enter your dimensions into a picture of a wall including the foundations and footings. If you want to estimate the window then the window appears on the screen. This isn’t to say that you build up a drawing of the house, though a CAD version is on its way, but at least you have a visual check so you aren’t inputting the slab dimensions on the wall.

One of the main concerns with any typical estimating package, be it book or computer, is keeping the prices up-to-date and relevant to your area. We know that builders in Cornwall charge less than builders in London and there are differences in materials and suppliers. The difference with EstimatorXpress™ is that the materials ‘pricebook’ is automatically updated from the merchant list prices, and arrangements can be made to ensure individual terms and discounts come into the system too. This comes through the internet for an annual subscription, and you can also change prices and input your own prices on labour.

The best approach with any estimating software is to try it out on a job you have already done. If it comes in above or below your price you can compare that price with the amount of profit you made on the job. It may well be that you felt the job didn’t pay as well as you hoped and if the EstimatorXpress™ price is higher then this is not necessarily a bad thing.

If, on the other hand, you are pricing jobs and not winning them then you might want to adjust the profit percentages to produce a lower estimate. The software can’t guarantee to win you the work because the market is unpredictable but it can save you a lot of time and effort in tendering for those lost contracts. It will also ensure that the price is accurate and allow you to print and analyse cost reports, schedules and profit charts.

Godwin Construction, based in Wiltshire, uses EstimatorXpress™ for producing quotes and recently won a Category 2 Award in the South West Master Builder of the Year Awards which is a category sponsored by Professional Builder magazine. Pauline Godwin, who does the estimating, says: “EstimatorXpress™ enables us to get our quotes out a lot quicker and has really impressed the clients. By presenting so much detail we position the company as one that is at the forefront of new technology. In addition we’ve been able to take hold of the financial reins, which has made a huge difference to the business.”

One of the ways that money is lost in the office is when you make a silly error, forgetting to include a cost or wrongly calculating the quantities. As most estimates are drawn up late in the evening, often under pressure from deadlines, it is a wonder that this doesn’t happen more.

When it does happen you either have to swallow the loss or go to the customer with a revision which is bound to leave a nasty taste in your mouth.

EstimatorXpress™ provides you with a check list so you can see that everything is included. In addition, the software automatically produces a thorough, professional looking estimate for the customer with the job details on the front and no spelling mistakes!

This immediately sets you apart from the ‘back of an envelope’ brigade and, as we keep saying in Professional Builder magazine, it should be your overall presentation rather than the cheapest price that wins you the contract. The detailed estimate (or quote) is a major step on the ladder to building a successful business, and that’s why HBXL will be sponsoring the FMB Master Builder of the Year Awards 2006 to help improve estimating standards across the industry.

Click here for more information about EstimatorXpress™ or call 0870 850 2444.

Extract taken from Professional Builder Magazine, October 2005