It’s very easy to write January off when the weather lets you down, customers too - and the odd subbie. It’s dark, wet and there’s no money around… But all is not lost, far from it – the quieter period presents a great opportunity to review your business and decide how to take it forward. So we’ve listed here 10 goals to construction success in 2017 to set you on your way.
|
Review your business direction - Starting with the biggie! What projects do you want and like to take on. Consider the 80/20 rule – could you concentrate on the 20 percent of the work that generates 80 percent of your revenue? And say no to the less profitable work? Do you want to diversify? What about Design & Build ? Walking is a good activity for clearing your mind and thinking afresh. Yes even builders can take an afternoon walk! Then break down your big ideas into daily, weekly or monthly actionable goals that you can measure. |
 |
Improve your bottom line - This usually involves 1) Raising your rates 2) Doing more work 3) Reducing your expenses. Look at the figures for last year and see how you could trim some overheads. Did your profit margins drop unnecessarily? Do you keep reducing your profit margin because of oversights? Find the leaks in your bucket. |
 |
Stop being busy and be more productive - Busy isn’t necessarily productive. ‘What’s the point of spending your days climbing a mountain, only to realise at the end of this new year, you’ve climbed the wrong one?’ (Quote courtesy of Robin Sharma, leadership expert). Do you enter the same data into multiple documents? Put systems in place that will streamline various processes. |
 |
Learn to delegate - Have a good long look at your role. Do you really have to do it all? Perhaps it’s time to stop being pulled in different directions and concentrate on the bigger issues. Make a list identifying the things that someone else could do. Estimating? Speaking to suppliers? Booking subbies? |
 |
Review your approach to health and safety - How confident are you that you have a handle on health and safety? Are your employees and the public properly protected? Do you know what the HSE expect from you – have you properly sussed out CDM 2015? How about putting some time in the diary to gen up on it, do an online health and safety course and get others onto it as well. |
 |
Review your customer service - Remember the customers pay the bills. If you want good reviews, if you want them to recommend you then make sure they stay happy. A single A4 sheet with your expectations of your employees and subbies will make sure everyone knows the policy. What about giving customers the opportunity to feedback at the end of a job – you could come up with a short questionnaire? At least make sure to ask them to give you a review. |
 |
Research cloud computing - If you’re not already using Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive or another cloud storage application, then consider the benefits they could bring you. Saving and accessing files such as estimates in the cloud are really easy, and using cloud over physical file storage can save money as well. And of course you can be anywhere and still access your files remotely. But possibly most important of all is backing up - a must if you don’t want to lose something important following a systems failure or malfunction. |
 |
Promote your business better - It needn’t be anything grand. What about updating your website (you have got one haven’t you?)? How out of date are the projects on there? What about a Facebook page? Perhaps it’s time for new livery for the vehicles, new polo shirts, some better signs? Sponsor a team or event. Whatever, put together a list, add some time frames and make them happen. And why not book in a bit of marketing training on this – some short courses are available to do from home or office. |
 |
Become a tiny little bit of a geek - You don’t have to know your Bytes from your RAM but technology really will help you work more effectively, which means faster computers and clever software. Make a point of keeping up with new and changing technology that would impact you directly. Don’t just think about power drills and the latest plasterboard. What IT could you invest in to make your business run more smoothly? |
 |
Commit to new learning - Your business has to stay safe and compliant. Put some remote online health and safety training on the calendar. And why not think about learning a new skill. Find out about software for designing your own extensions and loft conversions for instance. |
Want more advice on construction success?
We hope our 10 goals to construction success in 2017 proves helpful. If you would like any more advice on streamlining your processes, tightening up on admin and improving your profit margins, give one of the team here at HBXL a call on 0117 916 7898. Our suite of software is aimed exclusively at the builder and developer and was founded by a builder who knows only too well about the pressures of running a successful business. Have a great 2017!
Want to make a higher profit by managing your construction company better? Follow our tips to improve your building company by making your projects work for you. Bringing estimation software on board to help your building firm can provide more benefit than just faster and more accurate estimating. Read on to find out about one of the many hidden advantages of investing in estimating software.
Why estimating software?
It’s written all over our website. EstimatorXpress will save you time, money and effort producing estimates and can guarantee 100% accuracy. But, EstimatorXpress is way more than just an award winning estimation program as it provides trades, builders and developers with a range of reports and charts to help them manage their projects once the job has been won (and EstimatorXpress users win up to 230% more business!).
Hidden benefits of the best estimation software
Firstly, EstimatorXpress helps protect your profit through calculating likely wastage, inflation and wear and tear costs on your plant. It is often easy to forget to factor in the wear and tear of a shovel, wheelbarrow or perhaps the use of a tube of mastic lying in the van. All these items erode your profit if they aren’t accounted for properly, and EstimatorXpress calculates these for you automatically.
Secondly all the reports and charts EstimatorXpress produces directly (and instantly!) from your estimate are enough reason alone to invest in the software. It automatically produces over 80 plus helpful management reports automatically from your estimate data (no typing required!). These include detailed cost breakdowns so you can see where your money is going exactly, cutting lists, material schedules (Bill of quantities) and labour schedules and tonne more – check them out here. Not to mention profit forecasts, stage payment profiles and cashflow to keep you in the black on your jobs.
Thirdly a really important toolset for business-savvy builders is “My Projects”. ‘My Projects’ is a module found in EstimatorXpress Total Toolkit versions and above that can multiply the benefits of the reports outlined above by allowing trades, builders and developers to manage all their jobs with ease. By linking individual jobs together as a Workload Project you can see total cost reports, complete schedules of materials, build programmes, order schedules, cashflow and profit for your entire company’s workload as a whole. Plus you can see exactly how much money the company is proposed to make over the next X months. This can help you make informed business decisions about expansion, taking on staff, or purchasing new equipment such as a van. Watch the video to see My Projects in action.
What is ‘My Projects’?
As we mentioned above, My Projects allows you to take a combined view of all your projects together in order to enhance the overall management of workload, cashflow, materials, labour and more. Looking at all your work together, whether simultaneous jobs or back-to-back, allows for further time, effort and cost cutting advantages.
Tips to improve your building company
Tip 1)
Use the detailed cost reports of your combined workload together with cashflow reports (instantly produced off the back of your estimates) to show the outflow of money from your business, which highlights when you’ll need to see stage payments from clients or finance/bank lending coming in.
Tip 2)
If you’re looking for development finance the cost and cashflow reports in My Projects will help secure you finance. The software allows you to instantly produce a multi-unit/site cashflow combined with total detailed costs for the bank or lender showing exactly where the money is going.
Tip 3)
Every building firm will find the Gantt chart of all the projects you have underway and forecast useful. See exactly where your jobs or projects are, how they overlap or gaps you have in workload. Plan your projects to perfection!
Tip 4)
Use the labour schedules and Gantt chart together to know what labour you need and when. Avoid over-stretching your company and schedule your preferred subcontractors in advance.
Tip 5)
Improve your bargaining power with builders merchants by supplying them with a more complete, forward view of your material requirements. That way you can increase discounts and avoid endless (expensive!) trips to the merchants. One trip to agree a good deal on the entire job with delivery to suit your build program.
Tip 6)
What about a profit forecast based on all your projects? See how much money you’re making and from which projects – and do more of those!
There are over 80 reports in My Projects to help your business. The above is a shortlist of just 6. The potential money and time saving benefits of properly managing and analysing the way you work is what separates a good building firm from a great building firm.
Combine EstimatorXpress with ProjectXpert and you’ve got super-powers…
How My Projects can help Trades, Builders and Developers
Trades who have many small projects on can benefit by being able to see their continuous workflow.
Small-scale builders can use My Projects to move seamlessly from one project to the next. This avoids costly gaps in workload.
Large-scale builders can use My Projects to manage multiple, simultaneous projects. This prevents companies over extending themselves financially or in terms of labour.
Developers can use My Projects to keep an eye on all work for an entire site or even multiple sites, being able to order materials in bulk, shift labour around for optimal efficiency and stay on top of cash flow.
Didn’t realise EstimatorXpress did all that? Want to know what else it can do?
All that is just one of the many hidden benefits of choosing EstimatorXpress as your estimating software. If you want to know any more about the My Projects module or anything else that EstimatorXpress can do, give us a call on 0117 9167898. We’d love to chat.
Do you ever feel like you’re wasting time? Even if you’re meeting your targets, do you wonder whether there is a better way? Thousands of building firms have found a way to spend less time estimating, win more work, stick to deadlines and budget and all with considerably less effort. How? By embracing a software solution. Read on to discover how HBXL’s Productivity Bundle could help your building firm improve construction productivity and return a higher profit.
Building software to manage every stage of your project efficiently
All HBXL products are integrated for a complete end-to-end experience and designed with ease of use in mind. Start with plans and share the information across the range to produce everything you need to run a project from start to finish effectively. Let us take you through the steps.
One, draft an architect quality building plan effortlessly in PlansXpress using simple drag and drop tools. No CAD knowledge needed! (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).
Two, using these details imported directly into EstimatorXpress, the software does an almost instant take-off of the plan, producing a 100% accurate estimate of your build costs as well as many handy documents to help you run your project more efficiently and impress your customer. Including Gantt chart, schedules of works (JIT labour, plant and materials), cashflow forecasts, stage payments and a customer quote – all produced automatically off the back of your estimate. Just print!
Three, import your estimate into Health & Safety Xpert and it will use your job specifications to automatically generate all the 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.
Four, import your 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.
Five, use ProjectXpert to ensure you run the most productive construction project possible. Plus, manage multiple, simultaneous jobs and keep track of how your whole 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. You don’t know what you’re missing out on!
Too much to talk about!
The Productivity Bundle has so many features that will help you run a more effective, efficient and ultimately profitable business that there is no way we could fit it all in this short article so give us a call on 0117 9167898 to see what it can do for your business.
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!
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.