Build More Accurate Bids

Every estimate any team member creates in InEight Estimate becomes part of an every-growing knowledge library that provides a reference point for quickly validating future estimate. You can even add as-built data from completed projects when you connect to other InEight software. Use benchmarks for new estimates by simply specifying which historical projects to include. InEight Estimate then continually checks every line item in the estimate against the historical benchmarks. You’ll see high-low average graphs, and get color coding per line based on plus-minus ranges.

Transition seamlessly from top-down estimates created from rough parameters or conceptual plans to fully built out estimates. InEight Estimate gives you the tools to create high-level estimates in seconds; estimators or planners can input basic project parameters (such as square footage of a building or the megawatt capacity of a power plant) and instantly get an order of magnitude estimate with default assumptions. As scope and design details emerge, you can update the assumptions and provide additional inputs to evolve the conceptual estimate into a detailed estimate.

When you need a high degree of accuracy, use the unlimited breakdown structures in InEight Estimate. Detail out each line with crews, productivity rates, shift arrangements for overtime pay, resources such as materials and equipment, work hour factors, quotes from subs and vendors, and even varying fuel consumption rates and prices. InEight Estimate lets you create true cost models, not just cost estimates for easy adjustments to current assumptions.

If your estimators rely on extensive estimating spreadsheets with customized calculations and they’re not willing to give them up, you can use dynamic linking. That way, users can use their Excel spreadsheets, but still get the benefits of a database system. You can import data from Excel into an estimate in the aggregate, or link individual values in the InEight estimate to specific Excel cells, for updates in a single click.