EstimatorXpress 2017 Enterprise edition provides a range of essential collaboration tools for estimating departments. The powerful Manager & Collaborator feature set, synchronises company “settings” to ensure everyone in the team is using latest Price Books, Specifications, Quote templates, Custom Workbooks (Estimating calculators) and more…It also allows estimators to save their work to either Server or the Cloud from where other team members can locate an estimate and collaborate on it before saving it back to the same location.

Ensure everyone in the estimating team is using the same company data

EstimatorXpress 2017 Enterprise edition comes with smart Manager/Collaborator tools.

The “Manager” licence synchronises settings with the “Collaborator” licences to ensure all estimators are working with the same data:

• Price Book (prices and who your suppliers/contractors are)
• Typical specifications
• Report styles
• Company quote templates
• Custom workbooks (estimating calculators)

“Collaborators” save their estimates to the Cloud or Server so that they are backed up and secure. Furthermore other team members can be invited to contribute to the estimate. Don’t worry, if an estimator has the file already open, another can’t open it, which avoids the unnecessary hassle of version control.

This easy accessibility to estimates, simplifies a managers difficulties with holidays and time off as jobs can easily be picked up by anyone in the team.

How much does EstimatorXpress 2017 Enterprise edition cost?

The primary computer; the “Manager” is £1,699+VAT for EstimatorXpress 2017 Enterprise edition.

For each of the “collaborators” you will need an EstimatorXpress 2017 Enterprise LIVE additional licence who will be working on different computers. These are priced £349+VAT each.

And finally there is a small monthly subscription fee of £9.99+VAT per user/per month.

Do call us to discuss your options on 0117 9167898 and we can best advise on the package you need.

What can it do?

Give us a call

If you want to know more about how the server/cloud connection and manager collaboration features can help your business give us a call on 0117 9167898 and we can talk you through the advantages specific to you and your company.

Store, share and locate all your estimate files easily and securely in the Cloud or Server. All the advantages of working on your estimates offline on your desktop, combined with the benefits of multi-device, multi-location and collaboration features of cloud estimation software. No version conflicts! Empower your business to get organised.

The Evolution of estimating. Cloud connected estimation software.

HBXL estimating software EstimatorXpress provides a range of powerful back-up and collaboration tools, which even the smallest of building firms will benefit from.

The latest update to EstimatorXpress 2017, includes tools to ensure estimates are always safe and secured to the back-up system of choice; either in the Cloud or Server. Combine this with the brand new EstimatorXpress 2017 LIVE additional licence and the real power is unleashed!

Smaller building companies will appreciate being able to save to Cloud from one device, and then continue working on a second device (which is running an EstimatorXpress LIVE additional licence) before saving back to Cloud.

Medium sized building companies will profit from the ability to save estimates to either their Server or Cloud from where other team members can locate an estimate and collaborate on it.

And for larger firms with bigger estimating teams, we’re proud to introduce the all new EstimatorXpress Enterprise edition and its powerful Manager & Collaborator feature set, which synchronises the company “settings” to ensure everyone in the team is using latest Price Books, Specifications, Quote templates, Custom Workbooks (Estimating calculators) and more…

Estimate, share and collaborate as standard! It’s what you asked for…

1. Would you like to be able to save / back-up your estimates to the Cloud?

Now you have the power. All versions of EstimatorXpress 2017 onwards can now save your estimates to a Cloud Drive of your choice (such as Dropbox, Google Drive or One Drive).

2. Would you like to be able to save / back-up your estimates to a server?

Well now you can! All versions of EstimatorXpress 2017 onwards can now save estimates to a server.

3. Would you like to continue working on estimates on a different device? For example starting a job at work on your office PC and finish it at home on your laptop?

Totally doable! Once saved to cloud or USB drive, if you’re running EstimatorXpress 2017 LIVE additional licence on a secondary device you can access your estimate, continue working on it and save it back to the same location without the hassle.

4. Do you need to collaborate with others on an estimate that you commenced?

Now possible – thanks to some nifty work by our development team. Once estimates are saved to the Cloud Drive or Server, if your colleague is running EstimatorXpress 2017 LIVE additional licence on their machine, they can access the estimate, continue working on it, then save it back to the same location ready for you to review it. And don’t worry, if either of you have the file already open, you can’t both open it, which avoids the unnecessary hassle of version control.

5. Is it essential for everyone in your estimating department to all be estimating using the same company data?

Our developers have got this nailed too! Enter EstimatorXpress 2017 Enterprise edition with smart Manager/Collaborator tools. To make management of your whole team even easier, you can now synchronise settings between different versions of EstimatorXpress. Ensure everyone is working with the same:

• Price Book data (prices and who your suppliers/contractors are)
• Typical specifications
• Report styles
• Company quote templates
• Custom workbooks (estimating calculators)

Every member of the team (“the Collaborators”) will be in synch with the “Manager” licence. Combine this with the ability to save estimates to the Cloud or Server, and EstimatorXpress 2017 LIVE licences for each estimator, and the result is uniform service across the business with the team able to work more efficiently through smart collaboration. This simplifies a managers difficulties with holidays and time off as jobs can easily be picked up by anyone in the team.

What’s in it for me?

Whether you want to back-up securely, simply carry on working on a job on a different device or invite others within your business to contribute to putting quotes together you’ll see that EstimatorXpress 2017 really is the best connected software on the market.

Give us a call

If you want to know more about how the server / cloud connection and manager collaboration features can help your business give us a call on 0117 9167898 and we can talk you through the advantages specific to you and your company.

At HBXL we pride ourselves on providing the best quality Support from the moment you begin speaking with us which is why we’re very pleased to have received an award for Excellence in Customer Service. Read on to find out more about the award, how our Support separates us from the competition and the most recent results of our regular Support Team survey…

Softech Award for Excellence in Customer Service UK 2016

Softech are a tech publication read by over 43,000 software industry personnel. They have carefully scrutinised HBXL over the past 12 months, and rigorously compared us to our competitors to discover that we are worthy of an award for excellence in customer service!

Recognition like this and the positive responses of our users, makes all the work worthwhile. Our Support Team tirelessly strive to help ensure every user of any IT capability is able to get the most out of the software. Whether it is providing a helpful, friendly voice 9-5 every working day, walk-through videos, remote login or one of the many other resources we provide, we’re always happy to help. Having looked at our competitors we know the level of support we provide is another thing that makes HBXL Building Software stand out from the rest as no one else offers the level of assistance and the commitment we do on a daily basis. This is why we are extra happy to have received this Support service award!

Support Service results

Since we began asking for feedback on every Support query, we have consistently been rated above 9/10 for customer satisfaction. It is nice to be able to back up our customer satisfaction results with a customer service award to really demonstrate the level of Support we provide. But we’re not going to let it get to our heads! Take a look at our recent support results.

Support Service testimonials

Another way to work out whether our award winning Support service really cuts the mustard is by reading what some of our users have said about us. All of the statements below are from real builders responding to a short questionnaire after their Support query has been dealt with. We of course wouldn’t want users to feel pressure to respond positively so some have chosen to remain anonymous.

It’s a service I would not like to be without. Time is money for me & speed of response keeps me earning. Andrew Johns. AJ Design

I have been using the software for many years now and I know for a fact that you won’t get a better support service from any of the similar branded estimating software companies, as keenly priced and as helpful as the staff at HBXL. They are patient and do there upmost best at all times to help. After all said and done, this software is aimed at people in the building industry and they understand we’re not all computer programmers!!! Keep up the good service HBXL. Neil Kenah, Millbrook Building Solutions Ltd

Excellent customer service…akin to John Lewis! Steve Wright

Gentleman was very polite and talked through everything they were doing in simple terms so that I could understand as I’m no tech expert and didn’t feel patronised.

Very professional and polite. Thank You 10/10.

Give us a call!

If you have any issue, big or small, don’t hesitate to give us a call! We’re always happy to help. The Support line is 0117 916 7899. If want to make the most of our award winning Support service and you need to get your Support & Updates back in line, give us a call on 0117 916 7892 or if you need to talk about purchasing any of our software call us on 0117 9167898. We look forward to hearing from you!

EstimatorXpress is the multi award winning construction cost calculating software with more than just powerful, accurate estimating built in. The software is packed full of features to help builders manage profitable building projects, save time and win more work. Having produced comfortably over 500,000 estimates and used by over 12,000 builders and developers nationwide, we think it is safe to say the software has been well and truly Tried & Tested! Read on to hear why the ‘best estimation software 2016’ is recommended by 94% of our customers and how to get our new 30 day free trial…

The fastest, most accurate construction calculator – Try it free!

If you’re looking for a faster way to produce accurate and professional estimates then EstimatorXpress is your guy! The software has hundreds of in-built estimating calculators that take you through step by step, on-screen drawings with areas to input dimensions and simple yes/no questions. The construction calculators then costs and itemises the work for you in a matter of minutes. PLUS, we have now added an extra estimating navigation ribbon and a new ‘fast-track’ Estimating Wizard to further increase time saved. In our last survey (before these speed additions) the average builder saved 468 hours estimating time each year!

Calculate for all types of domestic construction projects and combine scopes.

EstimatorXpress makes light work of complex projects and is perfect for a whole range of domestic construction projects whilst remaining straightforward. The software has been designed by builders, for builders so it has intelligent construction knowledge built in but also retains a user friendly experience to make it accessible to IT novices. You can use EstimatorXpress to estimate new builds, extensions, loft conversions, renovations and more with over 350 construction calculators designed specifically for purpose.

EstimatorXpress – part of the award winning HBXL family

HBXL Building Software is a family business with MD and Father Adrian Wild at the top working alongside brothers, sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and in-laws throughout the years. This family ethic is brought right through our company and even into our software! The whole of HBXL’s range is related and connected allowing users to quickly and easily import files to save even more time estimating or producing other construction docs. Follow this link to see how they all link together for a fast, accurate and professional end-to-end experience.

Family doesn’t end there with HBXL. We extend our affections out to all our builder users with our award winning Support Team and wide range of training and resources to help make sure every user gets the most out of their software.

Join the family!

We’re a big family but there’s always room for more! We like making it easy for builders and developers (which is why we created the software!) but we also make it easy to see it. Give us a call on 0117 9167898 to get a free 30 day trial of all our software – no credit card details required! Plus, we’ll set up a live demonstration to run you through it and get you on your way. Give it a try today!

With the HSE rolling out more inspections and the number of prosecutions on the rise now is a very important time to talk to us about our health and safety software.

Why now?

Clearly health and safety is not something to mess around with. Nor are the unlimited fines, fees for intervention and potentially company closing prosecutions that can come from not just accidents but having the appropriate paperwork to hand when a HSE inspector shows up nor being able to demonstrate to them a thorough awareness of the legislation, even if no breach has actually occurred.

There are many examples of recent notices where firms simply didn’t have a Construction Phase Plan in place or didn’t have suitable hand washing facilities in place. All offences are saved to the online public register where prosecutions are saved for at least 5 years! For example;

“Contractor – Failed as a contractor to plan, manage and monitor construction work – Regulation 15(2) of Construction, Design and Management Regulations 2015 Employer – Failed to discharge its duty under Regulation 7(1) of Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 – Did not control exposure of employees to Respirable Crystaline Silica – fine £16,000, Total Costs Awarded to HSE £1,377.45.

Check out the Prosecutions database and see for yourself. http://www.hse.gov.uk/prosecutions/

Other than a rather larger number of inspections (which you may well have avoided so far) and a clear focus on small to medium building firms, there has also been a large rise in the number of fees for interventions as well as a rise in the number of prosecutions so it appears the HSE has a rigorous regime of inspections in place.

Why health and safety software?

Health & Safety Xpert is the easiest and fastest way to ensure that you have everything in place to meet your health and safety requirements. This is because the software automatically lines up all the paperwork and health and safety precautions that you should be completing based on your job specification. Every document you could possibly need including Risk Assessments, Method Statements, COSHH Assessments, Construction Phase Plan and more. Then it’s simply a matter of filling in the finer details to complete and printing off ready to inform your site actions and/or saving to your preferred cloud storage provider so they can be on hand whenever needed.

Why the urgency?

The HSE have announced that their aim is to complete at least 20,000 inspections in their 2016 – 2017 annual service plan with the intention of repeating or growing this in the following year. Given that there are approximately 50,000 VAT registered building firms in the UK (ONS, 2016), firms have for a fairly high chance of being randomly spot checked. So best to be sure you’ve got everything in place!

I’ve never needed health and safety software before, why would I now?

HBXL have been doing some research into the common reasons that firms failed on inspection. We found that many, seemingly small things like a access to a loo, lack of a Construction Phase health and safety plan, or  failure to ensure that pedestrians and vehicles could move wit
hout risk has caused fines and failures. Take a look at the full article here.

What happens to my software if health and safety regulations change?

You’re thinking that having all your health and safety sorted for you, automatically, based on your job specs would be great. The peace of mind that, when asked, you can provide all required docs with no hassle would be amazing but what happens to the software if there are regulation changes?

Health & Safety Xpert is regularly reviewed to ensure that it is up to date with the latest regulations and all you need to do is download an update any time there are changes. As long as you have Support and Updates in place (which are free for the first year and include our award winning support service) then your software is futureproof. Never get caught out by regulation changes again!

Health and safety software from award winning building software providers

Want to know more about Health & Safety Xpert? We haven’t even told you the best bit! All HBXL Building Software products are integrated with X-Connex connectivity! That means that if you own EstimatorXpress you can import all the information from your estimate to automatically produce your health and safety documentation! Almost no typing required! Don’t believe us? Give us a call on 0117 9167898 and we’ll be happy to show you how and set you up with a free 30 day demo on all of our software. We look forward to your call.

You may already be benefiting from EstimatorXpress so you probably already know the time, money and effort saving possibilities of embracing a software solution. BUT, the real clever stuff begins when you combine HBXL software products. Read on to find out why and give us a call to discuss our December deals…

Beyond award winning estimating software

EstimatorXpress as a standalone product is still something to be valued as suggested by the number of estimating software awards it has picked up this year alone. This being said, the benefit of using software to prepare and manage your construction projects extends beyond estimating.

Our building software helps with every stage of the building process, enabling efficiency savings which in turn improves your profitability. It’s an essential toolkit for anyone wanting to run a more productive construction site. As Aristotle said “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” and the same can be said for our software range. So extend your suite and start seeing the bigger benefits.

Integrated software from end-to-end

All HBXL products are fully integrated for a complete end-to-end experience to reduce the amount of time and effort required by you. If you are already using more than one of our products, you’ll know how easy it is to share information between the programs so that you don’t have to enter details more than once. If you have been using EstimatorXpress on its own, you’ll be amazed what the software range can do with almost no extra effort! PLUS, because all the information is shared across the package, you can be sure that everything matches up to reduce errors and omissions.

Starting with PlansXpress, simple drag and drop tools will help you draft architect quality plans, 2D elevations and 3D models. (Or if you have been given plans from your client, simply scan and trace them to make alterations and capture essential construction information such as dimensions and specification).

Then, for an almost instant quote, import your building plan into EstimatorXpress to get a
complete cost break down of the project. Now that’s efficiency savings – save on architect and QS fees and your time.

Next, import your estimate into Health & Safety Xpert and it will use your job specifications to automatically generate all hethe required health and safety documents you need including Risk Assessments, Construction Phase Plans, site checklists and audits to ensure that you meet required HSE compliance including CDM 2015 and CHAS. There are whole host of site management documents automatically produced – all the quicker still for using Health & Safety Xpert in conjunction with EstimatorXpress.

Afterward, import your EstimatorXpress estimate into ContractsXpert and it will use your estimate details to directly prepare a watertight customer building contract and ensure you meet Doorstep Selling regulations, as well as properly contracting with your subcontractors. So much better than clients defaulting on payment and causing you cashflow issues, and subcontractors walking off site when a better offer comes along.

Five, use ProjectXpert to ensure you run the most productive construction project possible. Simply import one or multiple jobs from EstimatorXpress to manage single or multiple, simultaneous jobs and keep track of how your whole week, month or year is panning out at any point, not just at the end! If you’re thinking you don’t normally have more than one job at once, then you really need to try the software to see how it improves the management of the individual projects you have on the go. You don’t know what you’re missing out on! (The import is worth focusing on as not only does it bring across your build program, but also your resources and costings…this means you can manage planned build program versus actual, resource allocation and costs versus actual too…

To sum it up…

• Win more business by offering a ‘design & build’ service that makes you stand out (only 14% of UK building firms currently offer this service).
• Encourage customer confidence and repeat business with professional contracts and health and safety documents.
• Return a higher profit on every job and manage your time more efficiently
• And save yourself a huge amount of time and stress…

Add to your software with existing user discounts!

HBXL reward our existing customers too… we offer exclusive user discounts for anyone who already owns any of our software range. Give us a call on 0117 9167898 to discuss your own deal today!

HBXL have had a great 2016 filled with regular construction software updates and a whole heap of awards for our estimating software – EstimatorXpress, our company as a whole and our fantastic support team. Read on to be reminded of all the improvements we’ve made to our range of market leading construction software products for builders and developers so you can check if you are bang up to date with the latest features and regulations.

EstimatorXpress– The best estimating software 2016.

Winner of three awards in 2016, EstimatorXpress has just undergone a major transformation to EstimatorXpress 2017 as well as two previous, updates to the 2015 version. You certainly get your money’s worth with a year’s Support & Updates!

EstimatorXpress 2017 comes with new estimating ribbon navigation and a new ‘quick start’ estimating wizard , which remembers your preferences on how you work. This dramatically speeds up the time it takes to get an estimate and also furthers the benefits of the Spring and Summer updates including a whole host of new features such as new drainage and sewage workbooks, improved integration with Health & Safety Xpert, new mini specs for guttering and “no decoration”, updated PlansXpress integration of the Notes Wizard in partnership with Assure Building Control, new build phases for internal renovation and improvements to existing Workbooks.

For existing users of EstimatorXpress 2015, all these updates plus access to our very helpful support team 9-5, Monday to Friday is just £179+VAT. Absolute bargain, I’m sure you’ll agree! Make sure your Support & Updates are in place here. Head’s up…there are LOADS of new EstimatorXpress features and Workbooks planned for launch in 2017. Watch this space.

PlansXpress – Straightforward CAD software for builders and developers.

Our fully integrated construction software range starts with PlansXpress, the easy building plans software which has again had some major improvements this year with the release of a PlansXpress spring update.

This huge development took four people around 300 hours or eight man weeks to produce. Included in this major development was an update building regs as part of our partnership with Assure Building Control and improved connectivity with the EstimatorXpress Notes Wizard to intelligently analyse the drawing and identify the relevant Building Regulation clauses required to pass building regulation plans inspection, often reducing the process to a single mouse click! Find out more here

Health & Safety Xpert – Ensure CDM 2015 compliance painlessly.

Our construction health and safety software has had two significant developments this year seeing the release of Health & Safety Xpert 2016 and our autumn update just recently. These both included a health and safety regulations review to ensure the software is up to date with all the latest changes in legislation. As part of this we developed 91 additional COSHH Assessments, 15 new or updated Risk Assessments and a new Simple Construction Phase Plan to address the requirement for a CPP for jobs of any size. This helps gets boots on the ground quicker, helps your company avoid unwanted attention from the HSE and work towards a safer construction industry. To find out more about the latest additions to Health & Safety Xpertread the full article.

ContractsXpert – Protect your business and assure your client.

Back in January we released ContractsXpert 2016 which has been completely revamped and was written (and updated) in conjunction with a leading construction lawyer to ensure all our contracts are watertight yet straightforward so that both customer and builder are on the same page. Payment is made simple and it is easy to make alterations to match changes in the work. All documentation required for Door Step Selling compliance is produced within minutes requiring minimal effort. For more information please read the full article.

Ongoing commitment to research and development ensures best construction software.

We think you’ll agree that we’ve had a busy year and in our eyes it’s all made worth it when you hear back from happy, successful users and receive such great awards. At HBXL we attribute this success to our ongoing commitment to research and development of all our construction software. We reinvest 25% of our turnover back into product development to make sure our users get the most out of their Support & Updates. In order to benefit from all the investment and work we do, AND to be able to use our award winning Support Team, make sure you keep your Support & Updates in place here.

Take a look at the figures and find out which areas are the best and worst for fatalities in construction.

Hopefully I don’t have to explain to you how construction sites can be dangerous places if not treated with appropriate respect and caution. Statistics consistently prove that builders and developers are at a higher risk of work related fatalities than other, non-manual work. This is also the case for occupational sicknesses which you can read about in our article on work related illness. At HBXL we are dedicated to helping builders and developers reduce the dangers on site and therefore reduce incidents, accidents, illness and fatalities in construction.

Fatalities in construction – Total fatalities and sector comparisons.

According to the HSE, construction fatalities remain at the five year average of 43 with around 2 deaths per 100,000 workers. This compares to the UK average rate for all workplace fatalities which is currently at 0.46 per 100,000 *. Obviously we would expect construction to have a higher rate than the average due to the nature of the work but more than four times higher is a shocking statistic and at HBXL we would like to see that figure improve.  This is why we created Health & Safety Xpert.

The software is designed to make it easier for builders and developers to meet health and safety requirements and in turn make construction sites safer places to work. We also keep a close eye on the HSEstatistics to make sure our software is helping to cut down on the most common causes of fatality and injury on site. Read on to find out which areas of the country are the best and worst performing .

Which area has the worst rating for fatalities?

Taking industry wide fatality statistics for 2015-16, Wales had a fatality rating of 0.93 per 100,000 which was 0.33 more than the next highest mortality rate of 0.60 per 100,000 in Scotland with England’s average at 0.42 and the overall average for Great Britain 0.46*. If you take a look at the table you’ll be able to see industry wide the breakdown of fatalities by regions of England. Notably, the worst and best for 2015-16 were Yorkshire & The Humber at 0.58 and the South East at 0.25 respectively. London was a close second best with 0.34 per 100,000.

Whether you’re looking at your area fondly or shamefully, everyone should be feeling that they can do better. Shouldn’t we be aiming for a situation where there are no fatalities in construction at all? Read on to find out common causes of fatalities and injuries and how to prevent them.

Common causes of injuries and fatalities in construction.

Looking at data from RIDDOR**, the most common cause of fatality in construction is still a fall from height with 14 deaths in Great Britain in 2014-15 which was more than half of all work related fatalities in construction for that year. Falls from height also caused a high number of work related injuries with 643 specified injuries recorded in 2014-15. The second highest cause of fatalities in construction was joint between ‘struck by a moving vehicle’ and ‘trapped by something collapsing/ overturning’ which both caused 4 deaths in 2014-15. The highest cause of over-7-day injuries was ‘Injured while handling, lifting or carrying’ with 1,036 cases reported. Health & Safety Xpert can help you tackle these risks head on by providing you with safer systems of work.

Health & Safety Xpert helps ensure site safety

Health & Safety Xpert has been designed to help builders and developers produce all the necessary health and safety documentation for work on site and therefore help improve site safety. Users quickly enter what type of project they are working on and all the required documents are automatically loaded and prepopulated. With minimal additional effort builders add finer details and are ready to print and share easily with staff and clients.

Regular updates keep builders on top of legislation changes

Health & Safety Xpert is regularly updated to help ensure all the documents produced correspond to the latest regulations including CDM 2015. On top of this, regular updates allow us to keep improving the speed of the software and ease of use so that builders can have no excuse for not producing their H&S paperwork!

Get a free trial

See how easy it is with a free trial using fully licenced software for 14 days, a complimentary 1-2-1 demonstration and full access to the highly ratedsupport service. Follow the link to fill in a quick form and get started or give us a call on 0117 9167898.

*https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/pdf/fatalinjuries.pdf

** Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulationshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/

The fastest estimating software, EstimatorXpress, is now even faster with the release of a new update. We have developed EstimatorXpress 2017 to be even more user friendly and fast than it was before. Plus, it can now read minds!

Before we discuss what’s new, let’s see why EstimatorXpress is already a winner!

EstimatorXpress recently won the title of ‘best estimation software 2016’ from Corporate Vision in their Technology Innovator Awards. HBXL also received nominations for other awards including Vonage Business Enabler of the Year in the Lloyds National Business Awards. But, as the forward thinking company we are, HBXL are already looking ahead to 2017. The new update to be released soon will be the fastest estimating software yet!

Plus, this all comes only months after the improvements and additions in the EstimatorXpress Summer Update. At HBXL Building Software we are committed to providing the most advanced software for our users. We continually re-invest and listen to our users’ requests and improvement suggestions. We want our users to rest assured that the software will be continually kept up to date.

What does the best and fastest estimating software do?

EstimatorXpress allows builders and developers to produce 100% accurate estimates, professional quotes and an array of reports in a matter of minutes!

Our experienced construction specialists have designed the software specifically for builders and the construction industry which is why it is not only extremely fast, accurate and able to estimate for any domestic construction jobs but also incredibly easy to use!

This emphasis on speed and usability is two of the top reasons that thousands of builders have chosen our estimating software and now we have made it even faster and even easier! Read on to find out how…

Did you say read minds? Exclusive wizards that remembers how you work?

Sadly EstimatorXpress 2017 cannot remember how you like your tea, BUT it can remember how you like to work to save you even more time estimating in the future! We’ve made improvements to our intelligent software and the New Estimate Wizard – which is HBXL’s unique system that helps builders set up estimates ready for estimating. We have truncated the Wizard with a ‘quick start’ ability to remember your preferences for even faster and even more user friendly estimating.

The software remembers the details you’ve used previously when you’re estimating for a ‘house’ or ‘extension’ for example and will stop you having to re-select them each time and saving you more time in the future. This includes;

• Specification – type of work you estimate.
• Group of Workbooks – the estimating calculators that make EstimatorXpress so fast.
• Price Book – the library of materials, labour and plant prices updated live over the internet.
• Mini-Specs – the pick ‘n’ mix options that make it easy and faster choosing and changing the commonly different materials such as brick and roof tile types.
• Build programme chart – To help keep the project on track.

The improvements we’ve made to the Estimate Wizard are also aimed at letting users set things up when they’re ready to i.e. you can chose when you want to review profit and enter a customer’s details – for example you might want to set your Profit level when you’re deciding what price you want to come in at and customer details only when you’re ready to produce a quote.

New navigation for faster and easier estimating.

We have also increased usability by adding a new ribbon feature to the top of the screen for easier navigation to all the estimating workbooks that make EstimatorXpress so fast and accurate. Once you’re done in one Workbook you can easily get started with the next Workbook. It’s just a single click on the ribbon. This also brings in a common interface from PlansXpress to further improve the ease of using the combination of EstimatorXpress and PlansXpress to create a design and build process (which we call 3D Visual Estimating).

Automation – EstimatorXpress does the work so you don’t have to!

We’ve already packed EstimatorXpress with automatic tricks to help builders win jobs and run them successfully. Automatically produced build programmes and other reports is just one example, and now we have more! We’ve added automatic naming of worksheets and workbooks so that users have even less typing to do. Used with the New Estimating Ribbon, users can get straight into the dimensions wizard for even quicker access to estimating.

 Why should your building firm use our estimating software?

EstimatorXpress estimating software has already helped over 12,000 building firms in the UK win more work, improve their efficiency and bring home a bigger profit whilst saving them time and effort.

Grab a free trial to see what you’re missing.

Not yet used the software? Try it free for 14 days and see just how your building firm can profit from a software solution.

The real impact of work related illness in construction

Work related ill health is something that affects every industry sector adversely but it is an even bigger problem for manual labour industries such as construction. Not only is it bad for workers health but illness also has negative implications for businesses and the economy as a whole. Read on to find out the important figures taken straight from the HSE and how you can help protect your building firm from these detrimental factors…

Negative effects of work related illness in construction

Construction, like other manual labour sectors, sees a higher rate of work related illness, injury and fatalities and therefore also shoulders a higher cost. In Britain, a total of 1.2 million working days were lost last year to construction firms due to work related ill health at a cost of £0.4 billion. Last year, 69,000 construction workers suffered from work-related illness with around 2 in 3 of these cases being due to musculoskeletal disorders and 1 in 5 cases due to stress or depression.

Workers in construction also face a higher risk of common illnesses than the rest of society. Construction is linked to more than half of all work related cancer fatalities in Britain and workers in the construction industry have been found to be more likely to suffer from work related breathing or lung problems than across all industries.

Not only are construction workers chances of illness higher than that of the majority of the working population but their chances of work related fatalities are also higher having been on an average of 43 per year for the past 5 years which is a fatality rate of 1.94 per 100,000 workers. This is significantly higher than the average work place fatality rate across the board which is more than four times lower at 0.46 per 100,000.

These figures are enough to worry anyone working, or with friends and family, in the construction industry but there are measures that builders and developers can take to help reduce the risk.

What can you do to help reduce work related illness?

The simple answer to reducing work related illness in construction is for employers to carry out Risk Assessments and COSHH Assessments for your work activities. Employers must also control workplace exposures, providing appropriate health surveillance and encouraging employees to report symptoms at an early stage such as back pain, dermatitis and Asthma, and then seeking early appropriate treatment or support.

There are various legal obligations that the employer must meet:

Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires that employers assess the risks to health and safety of their employees while at work

Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (as amended) requires that employers carry out Risk Assessments on the manual handling tasks that pose a risk of injury

Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 (as amended) set out what employers need to do if their employees are habitual users of DSE.

Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 require an employer to take actions to protect persons against risks to their health and safety arising from exposure to vibration at work. Regular long-term exposure to Whole Body Vibration (WBV) is associated with back pain.

Health & Safety Xpert – The easy way to ensure safety

Health & Safety Xpert from HBXL is the easy way to reduce health and safety issues and help ensure workers are working to the appropriate health and safety practices. The software automatically generates the documents required for your business including your Company Health & Safety Policy, which sets out your company approach to health and safety, and also project specific documentation based on the job specifications (e.g. what is being built, and how and with what materials) and prepopulates them so that minimal typing is required. It also covers accident reporting so that ‘responsible persons’ can record and report certain incidents, injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences involving employees, self-employed workers and members of the public to the HSE. Although near misses are not part of an employer’s legal duty, it is also good practice to record non-reportable ‘near-miss’ incidents, workplace accidents and occurrences where no-one has actually been hurt or become ill, so that the company can learn from such incidents, using the old adage ‘prevention is better than cure’.

PLUS, the latest version of Health & Safety Xpert is out now with 8 new Risk Assessments covering areas recommended by our by our health and safety specialists. The issues addressed in these new Risk Assessments directly tackle on going health issues that affect lots builders such as dermatitis.

On top of this it includes our regulations review and update that ensures all documents are complying with the latest developments.

Combined with EstimatorXpress, Health & Safety Xpert automatically produces health and safety documentation to make sure that your project has all the correct documentation.

Try it free today!

We’re confident that you and your building firm will see the benefit of easy, fast and efficient software to help ensure site safety and prevent intervention from the HSE. That is why we give away free trials for 14 days. Try it free today and get access to the full software, combine with the rest of the integrated range, a free demonstration to get you started as well as full access to our highly rated support team and range of resources…all for free! Give us a call on 0117 9167898 or follow the link below to fill in the trial request form.

**https://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/causdis/index.htm**