In light of the current market conditions
It makes fiscal sense to consider outsourcing services. No longer will you need to be concerned with employee salaries, health benefits, holidays, or bonuses.
Turn around time on most estimates is 7 to 10 working days from the date of confirmation of order.
I know how important it is to provide accurate, detailed estimate with labour and material breakdowns – ON TIME!
I also understand how frustrating it is when the estimating department is snowed under with enquiries and tenders need to be submitted, whilst doing your utmost to keep present, future prospective clients at ease whilst preserving harmony within your estimating team.
I offer an on-line Estimating Service for Contractors, Architects, House Builders, Design & Build, Sub- Contract Trades, Developers, Investors, Home Owners, General Builders, Site Fix Joiners and Specialist Joinery Manufacture.
Why use my Estimating Services?
Employing my Estimating Services on a freelance basis, you can be assured I will ensure that mutually agreed deadlines will be met and ensure a smooth transition from tender to contract stages.
I guarantee that you will get a personal Estimating Service with the commitment and dedication of any team player. Acting on your exact requirements, I will customise my services to meet your demands. After receiving my Estimate for your proposed project please feel free to review it and inform me of any minor adjustment that you wish to make. This is all part of the service to ensure that you receive an individual service.
Material Takeoffs
My "hands on" construction knowledge, the latest Estimating Software package and my professional expertise provides me with the understanding needed to read drawings and provide accurate labour and material cost breakdowns.
Cost Estimates
With a customised database of over 20,000 items, I am able to provide cost estimates which include current pricing for material and labour, modified to your labour rates.
Site Surveys
I can undertake site surveys within reasonable travelling distance if you wish and produce scale CAD drawings for Specialist Joinery Manufacture etc.
Thursday 23 April 2009
Saturday 7 March 2009
Construction Estimating Software – Get The Updates
It doesn’t matter what Construction Estimating Software that you use, it is vital that you update any changes or updates on a regular basis. Some Estimating Software is automatically updated either automatically or by email notifications.
Fast Estimate uses will have to click on their help button and check for the latest update. The latest version of this popular Estimating Software for Builders has had issue in the past regarding importing files and information from Excel. However, by updating your Estimating Software now these issues will be resolved.
Thursday 5 March 2009
Construction Estimating Software - Meeting Your Needs
Do you know what you need to make your construction business grow, while meeting your every need, including time? You need construction estimating software, which considers all the everyday aspects of your business, as well as helping you calculate estimates and monitor proposals
When you use a construction estimating software, your construction estimating process is professionally streamlined. Doing the groundwork is essential. You will find that using your construction estimating software helps you provided for those unexpected twists and turns when taking on new construction developments.
Whether you are a seasoned professional or aspiring entrepreneur in residential or commercial construction, you and your business will prosper by using the right construction estimating software. Proper use of this programming helps you be a true, dependable service professional.
Calculating very accurate estimates on your own is time consuming and frustrating. Construction estimating software programming, design is to aid you and is a very useful business tool. It aids in preparing estimates, keeping your profit margin in check while providing such management tools as figuring the costs of a subcontractor as well as budgeting for those arising unforeseen events that happen from time to time. You can streamline your business in more ways than you consider right now, when using the proper construction estimating software.
You should always consider the inconsistencies of running a construction business, before making a choice of which construction estimating software program you should use. One of the most important aspects of using a construction estimating software program is to make sure that it provides the ability to upgrade any future improvements as they come along.
Other business tools that should be included in your software should be the estimating reports preparations, such as project estimation, scheduling considerations, invoicing forms, statements and letters of acceptance templates. All of these should be provided as customizable, pre-formatted and printable, since practice of tracking is most essential in purchasing and controlling your business inventory.
You will require the use of a good archive database, which is easy to build, maintain and access. This also allows you to keep track of all projects, past and ongoing. You always have to anticipate job changes, using a construction estimating software program helps you keep up with many things such as materials, overtime and downtime. A good construction estimating software program also includes an industry standard accounting software that considers, profits and losses as well as other bookkeeping essentials such as employee payroll.
A good construction estimating software program should be easy to navigate and use, since if it is not easily used, it become a burden. Make sure your construction estimating software program is user friendly. A construction estimating software program should allow easy set up and maintenance, while not disturbing your everyday business activities. A construction estimating software program should in be quick to install while also adding the benefit of an easy to contact technical support system, whether online, email or by telephone, when you need assistance.
Keep in mind while choosing a construction estimating software program for your business that they will vary, and you should take your time choosing the best construction estimating software for your business.
Nick Hurd is the developer of LiteningFast Estimating. LiteningFast is an estimating program that helps you estimate faster, easier and more accurately. It's integrated with QuickBooks to provide job cost.
It was introduced to the market in 1994 and currently has over 3,500 users in the US, Canada, and around the world.
You can find more information at construction estimating software. Discover how you can error proof your estimates.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nicholas_Hurd
Thursday 26 February 2009
The Top Ten Things You Didn't Know QuickBooks Could Do
Introduction
QuickBooks is such a rich software that it contains several features that are rarely or never used, simply because the small business owner doesn't take the time to explore all of these valuable features. In this article we are going to examine several of these features that if used, would be of a great benefit to the small business owners. Most of these features are free, some of them require a nominal fee to purchase add-ons, but each one is far cheaper than the industry specialized software packages and best of all, each integrates seamlessly into your QuickBooks data.
1. The Shipping Manager
If your company does a lot of shipping with either Fed Ex or UPS, the shipping manager can integrate your costs and flow all information into your QuickBooks files. Click on the create invoices key and look for the word, "Ship" on the top menu bar of the invoice itself. You can enter your FedEx or UPS account number and shipping information once, and use this feature to schedule a pickup, track packages, and even to print the end of day reports. It allows you to skip the step of connecting to the Fed Ex or UPS site and will ease some of the time restrictions that this step places on your business.
2. The Feedback Button
The feedback button is located on the main menu icon bar right after 'search'. The changes that are made every year to improve QuickBooks software are ideas that have come from actual users of QuickBooks like yourself. It is an Intuit rule that the Feedback sent must be read, so whatever the idea is, SEND IT! They get everything from 'can I get a different color screen' to 'does my chart of accounts really NEED numbers?'
3. Intuit Marketing Tools
Google has teamed up with QuickBooks to allow users to market their business on Google through the QuickBooks software. Typically, the offer is $50 of free pay per click advertising for you business. Google will also allow you to market your products or services online by adding your business to Google Maps. Clicking on the Google icon will take you to a page where it will direct you to Marketing tips, ideas and more! Paying for the per click advertising has become a little overdone online, so as soon as you have reached your $50, I would recommend ceasing this promotion. There are ways to promote your business using search engine sites without paying for it but that is information for another article.
4. The Loan Manager
To find the loan manager, you must click on the help key and enter 'loan manager' to begin using it. This application allows you to enter in all your debt, short and long term, with the interest rates and payoff amounts. Then, you can experiment with different monthly payments to see how fast you can pay off the debt your company owes. Your debt can be significantly reduced by simply paying every other week instead of once a month. This feature will allow you to strategize the best possible scenario for you to get out of debt quickly.
5. Third Party Solutions
QuickBooks works with many different types of software packages. The place to find it is at the Marketplace site on Intuit's main website. The third party solutions page contains Industries that have unique needs. Construction companies for example, sometimes use separate software for estimating costs, and will have completely different software needs than the Retail or Professional industries.
6. Electronic Payments Sent Through QuickBooks
In general I discourage people in my training classes from downloading information into QuickBooks; this can lead to some difficulties if the information is not formatted according to QuickBooks needs. However, for those entities that can accept electronic payments, the small business owner can create the parameters to electronically pay these payments, all information flows into the program and there are fewer transcriptional errors made.
7. Customer Manager
Many business owners with more than 100 customers have purchased a program called ACT which retails at about $300. The Customer Manager is $70 off of an affiliate website and will do what ACT will do. It keeps track of each communication (email, letter, or phone calls), each document (invoices, sales receipts, etc) and each job or project associated with that customer. It also keeps track of your referrals, scans, pictures and customer history.
8. QuickBooks Merchant Service and Online Web store
If you have a web store for your business that wasn't set up through QuickBooks, chances are you paid too much for the setup and maintenance. QuickBooks has arrangements with the top online store generators which will allow you to be open 24/7 on the web and have all the information flow into QuickBooks while you are away. The companies that QuickBooks uses are: Go Daddy, Homestead, Network Solutions, Prostores (EBAY), and Website Pros. With the seamless integration of your merchant services account and the online web store, you can rest assured that your business continues operating, and customers can keep paying you, even while you are closed, or on vacation.
9. Gift Cards
For those Point of Sale users, they may not be aware that they can create Gift Cards that are unique to their business. Statistics show that upwards of 60% of all gifts during Christmas are Gift Cards to various stores. That's money in the pocket of the small business owner that cannot be used in any other store! A gift card represents money exclusively to your business so that you can now be on a level playing field with the larger retailers who can offer gift cards of any denomination to all their customers.
10. Document Manager
The Document Manager is part of the customer manager program which is available separately. This feature allows you to scan and keep all copies of invoices sent to you and filed under the individual customers or vendors. All of these scans are available to you with the touch of a button or click of a mouse so that all those filing cabinets become obsolete.
11. Extra tip
With all of these scans, files and more kept on your hard drive it is more important than ever to have a back up of your information that is readily accessible to you. Intuit offers an online backup service for your hard drive for $149.95 a year. It is thorough and will do what you need to have done. However, as complete and convenient as that is, there is a better choice out there which for $50.00 a year will back up everything on your hard drive from QuickBooks files and music, to documents, pictures and everything else. This service is called Carbonite and is located on that companies' website. I've had too many clients lose valuable data to viruses, Trojan horses, and worms to sit back and allow them to not back up their data.
David Roberts, CFE, CQBPA, MBA, lives in Kissimmee, Florida with four girls, three dogs, two snakes and one wife. He has been a member of the ACFE for 5 years and has been studying fraud for longer than that. He is the owner of Homesoon Accounting Services which specializes in Quickbooks Consultations and Fraud Prevention and Detection.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_S_Roberts
QuickBooks is such a rich software that it contains several features that are rarely or never used, simply because the small business owner doesn't take the time to explore all of these valuable features. In this article we are going to examine several of these features that if used, would be of a great benefit to the small business owners. Most of these features are free, some of them require a nominal fee to purchase add-ons, but each one is far cheaper than the industry specialized software packages and best of all, each integrates seamlessly into your QuickBooks data.
1. The Shipping Manager
If your company does a lot of shipping with either Fed Ex or UPS, the shipping manager can integrate your costs and flow all information into your QuickBooks files. Click on the create invoices key and look for the word, "Ship" on the top menu bar of the invoice itself. You can enter your FedEx or UPS account number and shipping information once, and use this feature to schedule a pickup, track packages, and even to print the end of day reports. It allows you to skip the step of connecting to the Fed Ex or UPS site and will ease some of the time restrictions that this step places on your business.
2. The Feedback Button
The feedback button is located on the main menu icon bar right after 'search'. The changes that are made every year to improve QuickBooks software are ideas that have come from actual users of QuickBooks like yourself. It is an Intuit rule that the Feedback sent must be read, so whatever the idea is, SEND IT! They get everything from 'can I get a different color screen' to 'does my chart of accounts really NEED numbers?'
3. Intuit Marketing Tools
Google has teamed up with QuickBooks to allow users to market their business on Google through the QuickBooks software. Typically, the offer is $50 of free pay per click advertising for you business. Google will also allow you to market your products or services online by adding your business to Google Maps. Clicking on the Google icon will take you to a page where it will direct you to Marketing tips, ideas and more! Paying for the per click advertising has become a little overdone online, so as soon as you have reached your $50, I would recommend ceasing this promotion. There are ways to promote your business using search engine sites without paying for it but that is information for another article.
4. The Loan Manager
To find the loan manager, you must click on the help key and enter 'loan manager' to begin using it. This application allows you to enter in all your debt, short and long term, with the interest rates and payoff amounts. Then, you can experiment with different monthly payments to see how fast you can pay off the debt your company owes. Your debt can be significantly reduced by simply paying every other week instead of once a month. This feature will allow you to strategize the best possible scenario for you to get out of debt quickly.
5. Third Party Solutions
QuickBooks works with many different types of software packages. The place to find it is at the Marketplace site on Intuit's main website. The third party solutions page contains Industries that have unique needs. Construction companies for example, sometimes use separate software for estimating costs, and will have completely different software needs than the Retail or Professional industries.
6. Electronic Payments Sent Through QuickBooks
In general I discourage people in my training classes from downloading information into QuickBooks; this can lead to some difficulties if the information is not formatted according to QuickBooks needs. However, for those entities that can accept electronic payments, the small business owner can create the parameters to electronically pay these payments, all information flows into the program and there are fewer transcriptional errors made.
7. Customer Manager
Many business owners with more than 100 customers have purchased a program called ACT which retails at about $300. The Customer Manager is $70 off of an affiliate website and will do what ACT will do. It keeps track of each communication (email, letter, or phone calls), each document (invoices, sales receipts, etc) and each job or project associated with that customer. It also keeps track of your referrals, scans, pictures and customer history.
8. QuickBooks Merchant Service and Online Web store
If you have a web store for your business that wasn't set up through QuickBooks, chances are you paid too much for the setup and maintenance. QuickBooks has arrangements with the top online store generators which will allow you to be open 24/7 on the web and have all the information flow into QuickBooks while you are away. The companies that QuickBooks uses are: Go Daddy, Homestead, Network Solutions, Prostores (EBAY), and Website Pros. With the seamless integration of your merchant services account and the online web store, you can rest assured that your business continues operating, and customers can keep paying you, even while you are closed, or on vacation.
9. Gift Cards
For those Point of Sale users, they may not be aware that they can create Gift Cards that are unique to their business. Statistics show that upwards of 60% of all gifts during Christmas are Gift Cards to various stores. That's money in the pocket of the small business owner that cannot be used in any other store! A gift card represents money exclusively to your business so that you can now be on a level playing field with the larger retailers who can offer gift cards of any denomination to all their customers.
10. Document Manager
The Document Manager is part of the customer manager program which is available separately. This feature allows you to scan and keep all copies of invoices sent to you and filed under the individual customers or vendors. All of these scans are available to you with the touch of a button or click of a mouse so that all those filing cabinets become obsolete.
11. Extra tip
With all of these scans, files and more kept on your hard drive it is more important than ever to have a back up of your information that is readily accessible to you. Intuit offers an online backup service for your hard drive for $149.95 a year. It is thorough and will do what you need to have done. However, as complete and convenient as that is, there is a better choice out there which for $50.00 a year will back up everything on your hard drive from QuickBooks files and music, to documents, pictures and everything else. This service is called Carbonite and is located on that companies' website. I've had too many clients lose valuable data to viruses, Trojan horses, and worms to sit back and allow them to not back up their data.
David Roberts, CFE, CQBPA, MBA, lives in Kissimmee, Florida with four girls, three dogs, two snakes and one wife. He has been a member of the ACFE for 5 years and has been studying fraud for longer than that. He is the owner of Homesoon Accounting Services which specializes in Quickbooks Consultations and Fraud Prevention and Detection.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_S_Roberts
Sunday 15 February 2009
Using Construction Estimating Programs and Your Business
When you are supervising a construction-contracting firm, it takes a lot of manoeuvring such as managing the projects and labor relations as well as scouting around for new work prospects and keeping a running tally of the expenses. There are times when contractors get so caught up in the daily challenge of their business dealings that they find no time for constructive planning of their business. You know the scenario, so busy you haven't the energy to try to think long-term business plans. Now imagine having the assistance of a Construction Estimating Program, the programs design is to give you the best support while you build a profitable business. Construction Estimating Programs take care of to help you plan long term, allowing you to breathe easy and enjoy life.
Good construction estimating programs are designed to create to use the job specifications and a retrospective run to help you develop project schedule that is easier to stick to for a smoother running construction business. Construction estimating programs will aid you in producing a used materials list, scheduling when supplies need to arrive on site and a time and work schedule for your subcontracting teams.
Construction estimating programs give you more significant and down-to-earth guidelines to determine the actual expenses of a job, and you are better able to build a profit margin. This eliminates the atmosphere that many medium and small construction-contracting companies have of living from one week to the next. Construction estimating programs allow you a concrete overview of long-term accomplishments, and helps prevent the costly mistakes, which affects your profit margins. Identifying those costly mistakes will give you a heads up and give you the room to work your budget to include some of those costly mistakes that are normal in everyday business. Take for instance, that you are working multiple job sites, construction-estimating programs can drastically advance your margins, by allowing you to identify what materials can be purchased for both assignments, thereby saving you on the expense of buying materials in bulk. A construction estimating program allows you to determine which word crews are indeed doing their jobs, by meeting their responsibility requirements as well as their time schedule, which is vital in acquiring the best work crew for the job.
Of course, good construction estimating programs will require compatibility of your business accounting program, which the majority will run compatible with the industry standard QuickBooks and some are compatible with Mind Your Own Business. The generation of reports should be easily customized and fast, since by the end of a work day, the least you have energy for is sitting in front of a monitor for hours trying to tally up the invoices and retrieving the correct report.
At the end of the day, you are able to easily keep your business in control. Using construction estimating programs, by following the organization of your work activities, and the exercise of using such software so when you clock out; your on your way home, to your life, rather than continual worry for being organized and what your profit margins tally up to.
Nick Hurd is the developer of LiteningFast Estimating. LiteningFast is an estimating program that helps you estimate faster, easier and more accurately. It's integrated with QuickBooks to provide job cost.
It was introduced to be market in 1994 and currently has over 3,500 users in the US, Canada, and around the world.
You can find more information at Using construction estimating programs in your business. You'll be glad you did.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nicholas_Hurd
Good construction estimating programs are designed to create to use the job specifications and a retrospective run to help you develop project schedule that is easier to stick to for a smoother running construction business. Construction estimating programs will aid you in producing a used materials list, scheduling when supplies need to arrive on site and a time and work schedule for your subcontracting teams.
Construction estimating programs give you more significant and down-to-earth guidelines to determine the actual expenses of a job, and you are better able to build a profit margin. This eliminates the atmosphere that many medium and small construction-contracting companies have of living from one week to the next. Construction estimating programs allow you a concrete overview of long-term accomplishments, and helps prevent the costly mistakes, which affects your profit margins. Identifying those costly mistakes will give you a heads up and give you the room to work your budget to include some of those costly mistakes that are normal in everyday business. Take for instance, that you are working multiple job sites, construction-estimating programs can drastically advance your margins, by allowing you to identify what materials can be purchased for both assignments, thereby saving you on the expense of buying materials in bulk. A construction estimating program allows you to determine which word crews are indeed doing their jobs, by meeting their responsibility requirements as well as their time schedule, which is vital in acquiring the best work crew for the job.
Of course, good construction estimating programs will require compatibility of your business accounting program, which the majority will run compatible with the industry standard QuickBooks and some are compatible with Mind Your Own Business. The generation of reports should be easily customized and fast, since by the end of a work day, the least you have energy for is sitting in front of a monitor for hours trying to tally up the invoices and retrieving the correct report.
At the end of the day, you are able to easily keep your business in control. Using construction estimating programs, by following the organization of your work activities, and the exercise of using such software so when you clock out; your on your way home, to your life, rather than continual worry for being organized and what your profit margins tally up to.
Nick Hurd is the developer of LiteningFast Estimating. LiteningFast is an estimating program that helps you estimate faster, easier and more accurately. It's integrated with QuickBooks to provide job cost.
It was introduced to be market in 1994 and currently has over 3,500 users in the US, Canada, and around the world.
You can find more information at Using construction estimating programs in your business. You'll be glad you did.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nicholas_Hurd
Monday 5 January 2009
What Is A Public Insurance Adjuster And How They Can Help You?
Experience is key; Public Adjusters have the knowledge and training to successfully represent your interests and maximize your insurance claim. Public Adjusters work on your behalf so you receive the best possible settlement.
They maximize your recovery by representing your interests. Your insurance company will recognize the Public Adjuster as your representative because they are licensed by the State Insurance Department.
A Public Adjuster will prepare all necessary estimates and inventories of damage that are required to document your claim. Public Adjusters will assist you in fulfilling all policy requirements and demands made by your company.
Public Adjusters will meet with the insurance company representatives and handle all details and negotiations essential to you receiving a proper settlement. You are informed of the progress and status of your claim on a regular basis.
When you have a Public Adjusting firm representing your interests in the claim process, you don't just have one specialist representing you, you have a team. You will have a experienced specialist arrive to evaluate your contents and substantiate the claim. You will also have an experienced building estimator review any structural damage and provide real-world estimates for replacing what is damaged.
Additionally, you will have a licensed public adjuster who is a skilled negotiator to represent your interests at all meetings with company adjusters. This team approach will ensure that you leave nothing behind in your claim, and you will be fully reimbursed in the shortest time possible. Since we have worked with many insurance company adjusters over the years, we have an established rapport with them, making the adjustment process go smoothly.
About the author:
Bryan E. Thomas is the President of United States Adjusters, Inc http://www.unitedstatesadjusters.com He has been in Construction since the age of 15 and an Insurance Adjuster since 2001, and involved in Public Adjusting since 2005. His goal is to provide practical information based upon his years of experience to help homeowners, business owners, and commercial owners, understand the insurance industry from the "other side" which will explain that you do have recourse against the insurance companies. You can email him at bryan@usa4help.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bryan_E._Thomas
They maximize your recovery by representing your interests. Your insurance company will recognize the Public Adjuster as your representative because they are licensed by the State Insurance Department.
A Public Adjuster will prepare all necessary estimates and inventories of damage that are required to document your claim. Public Adjusters will assist you in fulfilling all policy requirements and demands made by your company.
Public Adjusters will meet with the insurance company representatives and handle all details and negotiations essential to you receiving a proper settlement. You are informed of the progress and status of your claim on a regular basis.
When you have a Public Adjusting firm representing your interests in the claim process, you don't just have one specialist representing you, you have a team. You will have a experienced specialist arrive to evaluate your contents and substantiate the claim. You will also have an experienced building estimator review any structural damage and provide real-world estimates for replacing what is damaged.
Additionally, you will have a licensed public adjuster who is a skilled negotiator to represent your interests at all meetings with company adjusters. This team approach will ensure that you leave nothing behind in your claim, and you will be fully reimbursed in the shortest time possible. Since we have worked with many insurance company adjusters over the years, we have an established rapport with them, making the adjustment process go smoothly.
About the author:
Bryan E. Thomas is the President of United States Adjusters, Inc http://www.unitedstatesadjusters.com He has been in Construction since the age of 15 and an Insurance Adjuster since 2001, and involved in Public Adjusting since 2005. His goal is to provide practical information based upon his years of experience to help homeowners, business owners, and commercial owners, understand the insurance industry from the "other side" which will explain that you do have recourse against the insurance companies. You can email him at bryan@usa4help.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bryan_E._Thomas
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