ELECTRIMATE
ELECTRICAL
ESTIMATING
SOFTWARE
TUTORIAL
Electrimate Electrical Estimating Software
Electrimate is a powerful, yet easy to use spreadsheet for electrical
estimating. It is designed for use with Microsoft™ Excel™ 97 or 2000.
Disclaimer
It is not the purpose of Electrimate or this tutorial to teach anyone how to estimate. It is assumed that the user of Electrimate is a professional electrical estimator. Electrimate does not warrant the profitability or accuracy of any estimate prepared with Electrimate.
Installing Electrimate
The
ElectrimateInstall program will create the directory: C:\Program
Files\Electrimate. An entry will be made in the Start Menu/Programs as well as
an icon on your desktop.
Using Electrimate
Select
the Electrimate icon from the Start Menu or desktop. This will start Microsoft
Excel with Electrimate loaded.
Customizing your Electrimate spreadsheet
The first step in customizing Electrimate is to
enter your company information. This is done on the settings page. Note that
all items in blue font can be changed. You can
enter your default labor rates on this page also. These can always be modified
on any bid at any time. If you wish to use your company letterhead on RFQ’s and
Bids, delete the fields as needed. After entering your company information,
select File, Save As and browse to C:\Program Files\Electrimate
and replace Electrimate.xls. Do this at any time that you want to modify your
master spreadsheet.
You should check your pricing level and labor units
for all items in Electrimate. Update and change them as needed, then save the
master spreadsheet.
Estimating a new job
Please
note that as this point we will be skipping around the spreadsheet in order to
detail the process of creating a bid.
Open
Electrimate from the start menu or desktop. Enter the Estimate # (if desired)
and job name, notes, and bid date. Any of the items in blue can be edited to
suit. Go to File, Save As and save your new estimate to
whatever folder you want to use. I save mine to My Documents\Bids. Give the
file a name that lets you know what job it is for. Such as: New Building for
Entergy.xls. Now you are ready to start your estimate.
Note
that in Excel the F2 key allows you to edit any field. In Electrimate
Transition Formula Evaluation is turned on in the Tools, Options
menu. This allows you to hit F2 then use +, -, *, / to modify the contents of a
cell with out putting = in front of it. So rather than having to totally change
a cell to add to it you can use F2, + to add to it. This lets you see each
quantity entered from different take-off sections.
Note
that bid items and added on the fly in any of the blank cells at the bottom of
each sheet. Enter Qty, Cost, Labor and the cost and labor will be extended and
entered into the estimate automatically. As you use Electrimate more, you will
see that some items need to added permanently. To do this start a new estimate,
enter the items, then Save As a Template and replace your Master Template.
Backup this template often. I use a Zip disk for this. The Electrimate template
will compress to about .5 meg if you wish to pkzip it and back it up to floppy
disk.
A note
about Protection:
All of
the sheets in the template are protected to insure against casual mistakes.
Protection can be turned off in the Tools, Protection menu. There
are no passwords on any of the sheets. Care should be taken once Protection is
turned off. It can be turned back on just as easily after making modifications.
Once
you have modified all the items necessary, SAVE your estimate! Give it a unique
name or number and save it. I save all my estimates to My Documents\Bids. Use
whatever works best for you. SAVE YOUR ESTIMATE OFTEN when taking off the job.
I cannot stress this enough. A power outage can ruin your day!
Summary Sheet
The
Summary sheet shows the totals of all the items in your bid. All the fields in
blue can be changed as needed at any time during the bid process. The quoted
price field is taken from the Quotes sheet. Changing the Labor Rate must be
done on the Settings page. All information needed in the RFQ sheets comes from
the Summary sheet.
Settings Sheet
Change the labor makeup and rates as needed. The Crew makeup section is for evaluating the job after completing the estimate. The square foot section is also for use after completing the estimate. If you did not use the square foot formulas in the Pwr page, enter the square footage of the building for comparison purposes. Clicking the Links field on any page of the estimate will bring you back to this page. Then you can click any of the page names in blue to be taken directly to that page. Clicking the page tabs at the bottom of the screen do that as well. You can also use Control-Page Up and Control-Page Down to move around the pages.
Bid Take-Off
It is
important to send out a list of quoted items to suppliers as early in the bid
process as possible. This gives them time to get the best prices. I start by
taking off the lights. Change the names of the lights as needed and change the
number of boxes, whips, and labor as needed. All items from the Lighting sheet
will be available on the Lighting RFQ sheet for printing out and sending to the
suppliers.
Follow
the directions on the RFQ Lighting sheet and then print and fax to suppliers as
needed. Change the Page 1 of 1 as needed
to add schedules, specifications, etc.
Gear Take-off
Next I take off all the gear that needs to be quoted. Do this on the DISC sheet. Note that all fields in yellow will be automatically entered into the RFQ Gear sheet. Any items not in yellow will still be entered into the RFQ Gear sheet, but must be manually added to the Panel or other sheets.
Follow
the directions on the RFQ Gear sheet and then print and fax to suppliers as
needed. Change the Page 1 of 1 as needed to add schedules, specifications, etc.
Miscellaneous
Take-off
Enter devices and miscellaneous items as needed
throughout the estimate. Enter quantity in the Qty cell. Change Cost and Labor
cells as needed. Do not change any of the Total or From cells. These cells are
protected so that casual changes are not allowed. Look at the sheets in the
sample bid to see how items are entered.
Pwr
sheet
The Pwr sheet contains a square foot calculator that
will figure all branch circuits for an AVERAGE office building. By this I mean an
office building that is all normal sized offices. The square footage of any
open areas should not be figured when calculating square footage. Lighting
branch circuits are figured by dividing the building square footage by 4.5 to
get pipe footage and then multiplying by 4 for #12 wire. Receptacle branch
circuits are figured by dividing by 4. Entering the square footage on the Pwr
sheet is all that is needed to enter all the pipe and wire into the estimate. I
caution you to only use this if you absolutely sure it will work in your
particular estimate. Use your normal method of taking off branch circuits as
needed.
FEEDER
sheet
Branch and any other circuits can be entered into
the FEEDER sheet. All quantities of conduit, wire, boxes, etc. are automatically
entered into the appropriate sheets from the Feeder Worksheet which is a hidden
sheet that sums the items entered on the FEEDER sheet. Any of the yellow field
at the top with a red top right corner have comments that detail how to use the
sheet. Note that as in the DISC sheet, only items in the yellow field can be
used on the FEEDER sheet. Any other items must be entered into the appropriate
sheets manually.
Site
sheet
The Site sheet is for entering quantities and amounts for costs related to site work, etc. Add or modify items as needed.
Finishing
your estimate
After entering all the take-off items into your estimate, enter the quotes from your suppliers in the Quotes sheet. Modify items as needed in the Summary sheet and enter the Quoted price in the field at the bottom. This amount is transferred to the Quote sheet.
Quote
sheet
Enter inclusions and exclusions as needed and print
the sheet for faxing your bid.
Contact
Info
If
you have any questions regarding Electrimate send email to electrimate@cox.net or call 225-291-3757.
Good luck and I hope Electrimate fills your
estimating needs.
Additional
Info
This is an original copy of Electrimate.exe on CD. To keep prices down, I do not spend money on fancy printed discs. I sell most copies as direct downloads.
Please take a few minutes to go through the Tutorial. It answers most questions that new users ask. There are a couple of undocumented features that are not in the tutorial.
The method of updating prices for conduit, wire, and other common commodities, has been revised. Instead of having to determine the unit prices, you can enter the price per each, 100, or 1000 in the columns at the right. This is how supply houses usually provide pricing and it will work with services such as Trade Service, but not automatically - you will have to cut and paste from their system. You can also use retail pricing and set the markup factor according to your discount level.
The additional database that is provided is very out of date. The labor units should be ok, but the prices are not at all current.
All prices should be updated often. I have no way to know what you actually pay for materials. Each supply house sets their own pricing per customer. Get with your supply houses’ outside salesmen and they will provide you with current pricing. That is an ongoing process and you will have to keep up with it in order to stay up to date.
A couple of links that will help with pricing are:
http://www.southwire.com they have current retail pricing of wire online. Your wholesale pricing with be different, so set the markup factors accordingly.
http://dale-electric.com they have an online catalog and are a full line electrical distributor with very good prices. I highly recommend them.
Thanks.