Goldenseal Estimating Software Topics-- Historical Estimating

Making Historical Estimates

How do I use Goldenseal to make an historical estimate (based on the cost of previous projects)?

Here's how to use Goldenseal estimating software for historical estimating that is based on your past experience.

HINT-- Historical estimates are a great way to do very fast rough estimates. They are also a good starting point for more accurate finished bids, since you'll only need to enter the differences between the two projects.

Entering Past Jobs

If you have been in business a while and have time to enter your past jobs, follow these steps for each project:

Choose Estimates from the Income menu.
Click the New button.
Type in a brief description for the work, and the amount that it cost.
Enter the size of the project into the Project Size field.
Enter the project type into the Job Type field. HINT-- To add more job types, click on the popup button, and choose Edit Job Types from the bottom of the menu.
Enter details for the project. You can type a simple description into the Specifications field, or you can choose Category in the Breakdown field at left, and then enter a detailed listing of project tasks in the breakdown table.

If you don't have past jobs to draw on, you can still get historical estimates after you have used Goldenseal a while, since you will gradually build up a database of project estimates to use.

Finding Past Jobs

When you are ready to do an estimate that is similar to a past project, follow these steps to locate similar jobs:

Choose Estimates from the Income menu.
Choose Find from the Edit menu.
Enter details for the projects you'd like to find. You can use the Job Type field, or you can type a range into the Net Price or Project Size fields. If you remember a specific project that is similar, you can also search by name or other details.
Click the Find button.
Goldenseal will show you all similar projects. Click on the browser 'book' at upper left to view them.

Finding Ranges

To find items in a size range, click in the Project Size field and type the top and bottom of the range with two periods between them-- for example 1000..2000.

You can also find a range of prices in the Net Price field, or a range of dates in the Date field.

Using Past Jobs

If a past job uses a Category breakdown, follow these steps to use it for a similar project:

Choose Duplicate from the Edit menu.
Goldenseal will create a duplicate copy of the past job.
Enter a new name in the brief description field.
Change any items that are different for this project.
Goldenseal will recalculate the project cost after you make each change.

If a past job uses an Items breakdown, follow these steps:

Choose Duplicate from the Edit menu.
Goldenseal will create a duplicate copy of the past job.
Enter a new name in the brief description field.
Choose Estimate Dimensions from the Options menu, and choose the first dimension from the submenu.
Change any measurements that are different for this project.
Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each dimension.
Choose Estimate Dimensions from the Options menu, and choose Specifications from the submenu.
Click the Update Quantities button, and Goldenseal will recalculate all quantities.
Click the Update Prices button, and Goldenseal will use the most recent unit costs for each item.
Change any line items that are different for this project.

Creating Templates

If you do similar projects repeatedly, you can save time by making some of your 'historical' estimates into templates. To do that, follow these steps:

Use the Find command to locate an estimate that you can use frequently.
Choose Template this Item from the Options menu.
Give the template a name, then click OK.

To use a template, follow these steps:

Choose Estimates from the Income menu.
Click the Template button (to the right of the New button) and choose a template.

Click here to return to estimating topics .