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Running a construction job is a lot of work – and not just in using
a nail gun or running a bandsaw. Managing your construction jobs is
just as much work, and one of the places where most small and medium
sized contractors need the most help. It's easy to learn how hold a
level, and practice and apprenticeship programs can show you how to
frame up a house and meet code…but a lot of contractors are left on
their own when it comes to construction estimating. While there are
software packages for estimating commercial and residential
construction options, a lot of them are just a pain to use. They
either offer so much customization that you have to learn to program
to use them, or they're so simplistic that you find you're
constantly running into things and job expenses they don't cover.
The key to running a residential construction business is keeping
track of costs and estimates, and that means doing bookkeeping and
being hard-nosed about getting the numbers right. Not doing this
results in contracting jobs where you get nickeled and dimed to
death, as, in the day to day press of running the business, you say
"yes" to things without thinking. To learn how to manage your
business, you need good residential construction estimating software
that will help you keep track of the expenses as they accrue, and
give you annual reports.
Now, if you're a small business owner, you probably already use
QuickBooks or something like it to manage your company's finances.
Good estimating software for residential construction should not
only help you take square footage and local code requirements and
turn that into an estimate that actually pays you enough profit to
live off of, but it should integrate and coordinate with QuickBooks.
It should help you budget your job, and walk you through the
QuickBooks reports – including telling you the ones you don't need.
It should be easy to use, because any software that you have to
fight to do your data entry with won't be used by the end of the
day, when you come back to the office from the job site with the
day's receipts. You need software that's designed for real working
contractors, not computer geniuses. (No offense to the computer
geniuses out there…)
Construction estimating residential software packages need to be
affordably priced, and they need to make it dead simple to use them.
You need to be able to start from the finished project and work your
way back, step by step, through all the construction processes, from
laying up the drywall and putting on the exterior paint back to
framing joists, and running wiring, even to tilling and grading out
the ground before the slab, and you need to know what things are
supposed to cost, so that when the job is done you've got a solid
profit backing you up for your effort. That package of construction
estimating software for residential packages exists; in fact,
several competing packages exist. You need to evaluate the software
for your needs, based on a number of criteria.
First of all, how easy is your construction estimating residential
software to learn, and how easy is to use? Was it designed for a
small construction company or a large one where there's a dedicated
office worker to do all that for the guys who wear the hard hats?
Is your residential construction estimating software documented in
clear, simple, concise English? How about step by step
illustrations? If you can follow a floor plan and set of blueprints,
the software package you use to run your business should be at least
as clear. Even better, it should have a step by step video tutorial,
one that you can watch while you follow along to make sure you
understand everything.
In addition to keeping your cost factors under control, a good
construction estimating software package for residential
construction should let you run several jobs concurrently – it
should point out cases where you can have different parts of the job
run at the same time – this helps you finish them faster (giving you
time for more business and more jobs), and leaves you free to have a
life outside your work. Stop working 60 hours a week, and start
working smarter, and get some professional construction estimating
software for residential construction jobs today.
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