Civil

Civil Construction Estimating Solutions from Benchmark Estimating Software Benchmark Estimating Software has its foundations in civil construction. Founder and CEO Rob MacDonald is a Civil Engineer with over 25 years experience as a Civil Estimator. This has resulted in an estimating system that is used by many Civil Contractors – small companies through to multi-national organisations.

Civil construction projects can vary significantly due to changes in site conditions and also diversity in the way clients specify schedules. It is important therefore that Civil Estimators have an intuitive, nimble tool to take care of these types of variations with efficiency, consistency and most importantly with accuracy.

Benchmark Estimating Software offers all of this and more. A “Load Spreadsheet” feature is available to import your client’s bill of quantities without re-typing data, and you can price these schedules with our Software’s amazing “Auto Allocate” feature. Our “Production Rate” feature allows you to quickly adjust productivities to suit each job, and you can easily adjust user-definable “Variables” to make changes to other job specific parameters like Density/Wastage. Integrated “Quantity Takeoff Sheets” enable detailed takeoff calculations and the powerful Reporting features help Site Supervisors/Project Managers run jobs to budget and on time.

Our software also allows you to produce professional quotes, Progress Claims, Variations, and the Software will create a program in Microsoft Project for you, to make it easier to manage your project once it has been won.

If you do work in different geographical areas where pricing varies, the “Regionalisation” feature in our Corporate version helps you to prepare accurate Quotes based on regional prices with no more work for the Estimator.

Below are just a few of the Benchmark Estimating Software features that are helping the Civil Construction industry produce better civil construction estimates.

Routines

Pricing repetitive civil projects with numerous parameters is made easy with Benchmark Estimating Software’s Routines function. Routines are suited to all manner of Projects from small, road repair quotes through to more complicated items in larger estimates. Routines take the guesswork out of your civil estimating by providing you with a list of questions, like a checklist, regarding your Project and all you need to do is answer these questions and our software does the rest.

The example of a Routine to the right shows the questions within a Benchmark Routine for an Asphalt laying Project.

Import/Export a Bill of Quantities

Save time and eliminate typing errors by importing a bill of quantities / schedule of items directly from a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Once you have priced your Project you can save your submission rates directly into the same spreadsheet meaning you cut down on confusing, duplicated files.

Auto Allocate

Benchmark Estimating Software’s Auto Allocate is a must have feature for your business if you are pricing many schedules of items from the same client (like an Engineer or Road Authority) and their standard schedule or specification rarely changes. With the Auto Allocate feature, you can bid an entire civil construction estimate in minutes by automatically pricing the Items in your estimate using the same Items from your pre-existing Item Library.

Microsoft Word Quote Templates

With Benchmark Estimating Software, you can can set up your own Quote Templates in Microsoft Word and automatically export your estimate data to these templates. This ensures consistent, professional quotes are always distributed to your clients.

Progress Claims

Progress Claims are easy to produce directly from your civil estimate with Benchmark Estimating Software. Our software includes the ability to do your claims by percentage or by Quantity complete, as well as handling Retentions.

You have multiple progress claim reports available to you with Benchmark Estimating Software including a one-page Summary of your Progress Claim, detailed reports Item by Item, a Claim Report with Options (to allow you to customise the format of the report), and a report showing summary data for the last four claims.

The Progress Claim example to the right is for a Project with Variations

Subcontractor Manager

Benchmark Estimating Software allows you to import quotations directly from your Subcontractors and Suppliers using our Subcontractor Manager. You can store quotations electronically which saves you time and increases accuracy by allowing you to compare quotes in a comparison screen. You can also automatically update your estimate with your selected Subcontractor or Supplier’s price.

Export to Microsoft Project

Resources-based exports to Microsoft Project are easy to do with Benchmark Estimating Software. This export automatically creates a gantt chart for your civil project, calculates the duration of each Item (activity) in your Project and exports the Resources and their corresponding costs.