Facilities Management

Facilities Maintenance Solutions from Benchmark Estimating Software Benchmark Estimating Software offers Facilities Management companies a systematic and transparent estimating solution that is easy to use, yet flexible to handle many different trades and project requirements.

Our software’s central Libraries of Items and Resources store up to date rates for all of your trade elements, which can be used over and over again to improve the consistency and speed of your estimating, whilst ensuring you don’t leave costs out of your quotes. All of your previous estimates are stored in your central database and you have powerful features at hand to copy Items from original Quotes and apply a user defined % index automatically (for escalation for example).

The “Subcontractor Manager’ feature allows you to streamline the process and improve the accuracy of selecting and importing Subcontractor’s quotes. Benchmark Estimating Software even allows you to design your own professional proposal formats in Microsoft Word and generate Lump Sum quotes or Schedule of Rates proposals with ease.

Our “Spread” feature allows you to manipulate your submission rates on an Item by Item basis to offer you excellent flexibility over your submission price breakdown for Schedule of Rates tenders. Integrated with this is our “Forecast Quantity” feature; this provides you with a very powerful tool which gives you the data you need to analyse expected variations in Item quantities, so you can make decisions on your Item Submission Rates for maximum profits during execution of the Contract.

Our “Add”, “Allocate” and “Auto Allocate” features within our estimating software are ideal for Facility Maintenance companies as they can be used at all stages of a maintenance contract. Add, Allocate and Auto Allocate from Item Library can be used to quickly and accurately bid the initial Maintenance Contract whereas Add, Allocate and Auto Allocate from Project can be used to price all packages of work undertaken under the initial contract.
When using Add Allocate or Auto Allocate from Project, your Submission Price will be as set for the initial contract with the Direct Costs be based on your current Resource Rates. This provides a clear picture of your margin for all of the work undertaken under the facilities management contract.

With Benchmark Estimating Software you can also produce detailed Progress Claims and export your estimate to Microsoft Project and leading Accounting/ERP systems, meaning we have your maintenance projects covered from start to finish.

Below are just a few of the Benchmark Estimating Software features that are helping your industry produce better maintenance project estimates.

Power Routines

Benchmark Estimating Software’s Power Routines feature will save you an enormous amount of time when pricing large facilities maintenance Projects where you have many sites (e.g. parks, housing complexes, buildings etc) and where there is a similar operation at each site. Power Routines automate these types of maintenance estimates and can build the estimate for you in a matter of seconds.

Add

Benchmark Estimating Software allows you to add Items from your Item Library directly into your Project or build new Items for your Project by adding Resources to an Item from your Resource Library. This saves you time and ensures you don’t leave important costs out of an estimate.

When adding an Item from your Item Library, all of your Resource requirements are worked out for you, and you have the flexibility to tailor the Item to suit your Project if required.

You also have the ability to Add an Item from Project which is ideal when pricing packages of work undertaken within a contract. It allows you to use the Items within the initial contract as your Item Library.

Auto Allocate

When pricing a Schedule of Items from your client during a maintenance contract, Auto Allocate Resources from Item Library allows you to dramatically reduce the time and effort it takes to create a price. It does this by automatically pricing all the Items in your Project using the same (or similar) Items from your Item Library.

Auto Allocate Resources from Project, means you can use the Auto Allocate function to select the original maintenance estimate as the source of the Items used as opposed to the Item Library. When using this feature, our estimating software also gives you the option to copy the Submission Rate from your original Benchmark Estimating Software Project into your current Project, eliminating the need to retype details.

Duplicate

Benchmark Estimating Software gives you the option of duplicating an entire Project quickly and easily. This is ideal if you have submitted a maintenance contract quote and now need to make small changes as requested by your Client during negotiations or if you need to price your client’s Schedule of Items throughout the maintenance contract. Duplicating a Project within our estimating software system retains the original Project and brings the original descriptions over into the new Benchmark Estimating Software Project. You can also use the Duplicate function to create ‘template’ Projects for maintenance jobs you repeatedly bid on. For each new job of that type, simply duplicate the ‘template’ Project and edit it.

When duplicating a Project within Benchmark Estimating Software you have the ability to increase the Submission Rate by a percentage to account for CPI or agreed increases in pricing. This means greater accuracy in your pricing and tighter control over you profit margins.

Forecast Quantities

Forecast Quantities are useful for Facilities Management Projects where your client has provided you with a Schedule of Items to price and you believe that some of the Item Quantities are incorrect. With Forecast Quantities, you can model what you think will “really” happen on a Project meaning more accurate Item Submission Rates and greater profits for your business.

Microsoft Word Quote Templates

With Benchmark Estimating Software you can set up your own Quote Templates in Microsoft Word. Export your maintenance estimate to these templates to ensure consistent, professional quotes are distributed to your clients.

Progress Claims

Creating Progress claims for your maintenance projects is made easy with Benchmark Estimating Software. You can generate progress claims directly from the Benchmark system. Our software gives you the ability to handle Retentions and also gives you the option to do your progress claims by percentage or Quantity complete.

You can also generate multiple progress claim reports including a one-page Summary or cover sheet, detailed reports Item by Item, a Claim Report with Options (so you can customise the format of the report), and a report showing summary data for the last four claims.

Subcontractor Manager

You can increase the accuracy of your maintenance estimates while still saving time with Benchmark Estimating Software’s Subcontractor Manager. This feature allows you to import electronic quotations from Subcontractors and Suppliers and compare them on your screen. You can also update your estimate with your selected Subcontractor or Supplier.

Export to Microsoft Project

You can automatically create a gannt chart for your project using Benchmark Estimating Software’s export to Microsoft Project. This powerful export automatically calculates the duration of each Item or activity in your Project and exports the Resources and along with its associated costs. This ensures the smooth operation of your project and on time delivery of all maintenance tasks.