General Contractor Estimates

How do I use Goldenseal for estimates that are mostly subcontractor bids?

If you are a general contractor that subcontracts most or all of your contract work, your project estimates will consist almost entirely of Bids.

Setup for Subcontractor Bids

When you put together an Estimate, start by creating bids for each work area. To do that in Goldenseal estimating software, follow these steps:

1. Choose Bids from the Income menu.
2. Click the New button.
3. To start with a 'ballpark' price, turn on the Rough Estimate checkbox. Otherwise skip to step 6.
4. To itemize costs for the work, click in the Breakdown popup field and choose Items. Then enter detailed unit costs for this bid. You can also just type in a rough estimate price.
5. Click the New button to enter an actual subcontractor quote.
6. Enter a subcontractor into the Account field.
7. Enter their current price into the Amount field. If you haven't received a quote yet, leave it at zero.
8. Repeat steps 5 to 7 for each subcontractor or material supplier who will be bidding on the work.

Creating a Master Estimate

Now you can put the bids into a master Estimate that you'll give to your client. To do that, follow these steps:

1. Choose Estimates from the Income menu.
2. Click the New button.
3. Check the Breakdown popup field on the left side of the window. If it's not already Items, change it to that.
4. Click in the first row of the breakdown table.
5. Enter Bid into the Cost Area column.
6. Click in the Cost Item column, and enter a bid.
7. Hit the Enter key (Windows) or the Return key (Mac) to add a new row.
8. Repeat steps 5 to 7 until you have entered all of the bids.
9. Also enter line items for project management costs, overhead, profit, and any work that you are doing with your own employees.

HINT-- You can use the Assembly Labor and Assembly Materials options if you provide part of the work yourself, and subcontract the rest.

Collecting Bids

As you receive subcontractor prices, enter them into the Bid records. Goldenseal will automatically update the master estimate for the entire project.

NOTE-- When you have a Rough Estimate price, Goldenseal will use that at first. As soon as you receive bids from subcontractors, Goldenseal will start using the lowest subcontractor bid instead.

You can use the Status field in each Bid record to track the progress of collecting prices from each supplier or subcontractor. If you have a formal bid collection process, you might also want to use the Document Log to record your transmittals and communications on the project.

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