HBXL Building Software celebrating entrepreneurs in Great Britain

Is estimating giving you a headache? Do you wish there was a cure for over work and under pay? Would love an easy to use construction estimating software that you can download for these ailments?

Every builder at some point gets sick – to the back teeth – of the business end of construction work. In fact, joking apart, it can literally make you unwell and often does. Marc our New Business Team Managerhas years of experience discussing the estimating problems builders face when running a building business whether it’s renovation work, extensions or new builds. Here he shares some of the symptoms described to him and the remedies he recommends.

The pressure’s just too great – I end up dropping my prices

Symptoms: I find myself reducing my costs in order to win the job and keep everyone working. I can’t risk my best subbies jumping ship to work for another builder. My heart tells me one thing, my head another. I know it’s a dangerous game and I’m not sure I can keep this up.

Remedy: It’s not surprising. And that way of life is never going to do you any good. With EstimatorXpressyou can be proud of your prices. The numbers are 100% accurate. The numbers are what they are. Your estimate will give you the courage of your convictions and the knowledge that anything less risks you making a loss. OK you could reduce your profit margin but stop there!

Prognosis: The professional quote, with as much detail as you want to share with the customer, will leave them in no doubt that you’ve thought of everything. A lower price from a competitor should fill them with doubt!

Estimating is a real headache – there’s no relief from it

Symptoms: Estimating takes too much time and on top of that, I end up making mistakes. It’s effecting my home life – I miss out on doing things with family and friends. What’s the cure?

Remedy: Working an 8-5 day and then late into the night on quotes is not much fun, it’s a wonder how anyone copes. There’s good news. It’s time to take a chill pill, and let EstimatorXpress speed up the estimating process. It really cuts through the time it takes to produce a comprehensive and accurate quote. And no more trying to hold loads of information in your head, which is only going to add to the pain.

Prognosis: You’ll be amazed by how quickly you produce your estimates and even beat the competition to the job.

The profit is so up and down I can’t make sense of it

Symptoms: I can’t keep track. I can’t see where the money is going and what’s causing the drop in profit. In fact there are times when I’m only breaking even. But I can’t work out where I’m losing out. Is it my subbie costs? Have materials gone up in price and which ones am I under-pricing? If my projects are running over, I can’t work out what stages of the job are taking too long. What can I do?

Remedy: That’s enough to give anyone palpitations. What you need is EstimatorXpress. It addresses all these issues and more. Once your project has been accurately costed in EstimatorXpress it will automatically give you a whole range of valuable reports. It’ll give you a cost breakdown, material schedules (with up-to-date material prices from national suppliers), cutting lists, cashflow information and close on 80 more documents. From that day forward you’ll be accurately quoting and properly managing the jobs you win.

Prognosis: Because of the detail in the quote you give the customer they can’t try on the ‘ah but I thought it was included in the price’ line. So no more absorbing their ‘extras’ – you’ll make the profit you deserve thanks to accurate calculations and detailed information. Profit leaks will be a thing of the past.

It feels like no one’s listening to the smaller building firms

Symptoms: I feel pretty lonely at times. When you’re a small business there’s not always anyone else on your wavelength to talk to or share the ups and downs. Mind you, sometimes I can’t hear myself think with so much going on.

Remedy: You heard it here first. HBXL is listening! Founder Adrian Wild and the whole team are on a mission to be a voice for hard-working building firms up and down the country. Your well-being matters! We listen to builders over the phone, via email, at webinars, demo days and shows. That’s how we hone our software to meet the needs of today’s building firms. And we don’t stop listening once when the software’s been bought. Far from it – the updates we make to our products are often on the back of suggestions provided by users who are putting the software through its paces day in day out.

Prognosis: If HBXL software is right for you we’ll tell you. If it isn’t we’ll tell you. When you have the software we’re here to help you every step of the way – not just in the first week, but every week.

To find out more about software that’s good for your health, the ‘surgery is open 9.00am – 5.00pm Monday to Friday. You can leave a message out of hours on the phone on 0117 916 7898 or via the website.

EstimatorXpress can now do even more work for you

EstimatorXpress is the multi award-winning, fast, accurate estimating software for domestic construction projects such as new builds, extensions and renovations. It has become the industry standard and thousands of building firms around the UK use the software day in day out. 

One of the reasons for its ongoing popularity is the regular addition of new features, whether in response to customer requests, or the result of the constant thinking that the sales, support and development teams give to the software in the name of busy, hard-working builders.

In the engine room of the software there’s a database packed with tens of thousands of live material prices from a number of our partner builder merchants. It’s called Price Tracker™. These costs are drawn on by the thousands of built-in estimating calculators that create the 100% accurate estimates.

We call these calculators ‘workbooks’ and there’s one for just about every aspect of domestic construction. In other words there are workbooks for every imaginable roof type, type of floor and so on.

New workbooks available now

Here’s the newest collection of workbooks which has just been made available to all users of EstimatorXpress (users of Quick Quote and EstimatorXpress Ultimate received it in an earlier release):

Plant for Internal Decoration
Plant for Large Decoration Project
Corner Structural Alterations
Extended Half Hip Roof
Sundry Plant
Extended Half Hip Truss Roof
Travel Costs
Full Hip Roof
Full Hip Truss Roof
Planning and Design Costs
Soil Pipe Boxing In
Universal Part L Beam and Block Floor
Universal Suspended Floor
Universal Suspended Timber Ground Floor
Valley Half Hip Roof
Valley Half Hip Truss Roof

And there’s more…

In the next few weeks users can look forward to yet more new workbooks, this time for renovations, plus a new ‘mini spec’ that enables you to choose between JCB, mini digger or manual excavation methods.

Internal Stripping Out workbook

This has been completely redesigned as a Dims Wizard with lots more options for renovation. Customer Lee G gave us a raft of great suggestions which prompted this redesign.

 New Domestic Carpeting workbook

This new workbook for domestic is useful for both buy to let refurb/new builds where carpeting is specified and is available in all building editions of EstimatorXpress.

New Plastered Ceiling Renovation workbook 

New Gutter & Fascia Renovation workbooks

As requested by Andrew B. One for a sloping roof and one for a flat roof. This new workbook aids with the pricing of the above as well as bargeboards and soffits. It utilises the mini specs for fascias and guttering systems e.g. PVCu, cast iron, zinc etc. and PVCu or timber fascias/ boardboards.

Excavation & Slab Mini Spec

Options for JCB, Mini Digger and manual dig (you choose depending on the project scale and access to site). If you don’t choose an option, like all the other mini specs, the software will default to the project type as per the main specification e.g. a new build default is a JCB. Sorted!

Workbooks improved and updated

The following workbooks have been updated to make use of the excavation mini spec to either swap between JCB, mini digger and hand dig or specify quantities required of the relevant plant:

Block and Concrete Retaining Walls
Brick Block and Concrete Retaining Walls
Hollow Block and Concrete Retaining Walls
Site strip
Demolition of walls
Removal of Concrete slab
Block Paving
Paving

Workbooks now with the new mini spec

The workbooks below will also receive the mini spec but have not been modified:

Brick and Block Cavity Wall
External Cavity Block Wall
Stone Cavity Wall
Stone Faced Cavity Block Wall
Multileaf Brick Wall
Brick and ICF Wall
Stone and ICF Wall
Rendered ICF Wall
Internal ICF Wall
Brick and SIPS Cavity Wall
Stone and SIPS Cavity Wall
Rendered SIPS Wall
Internal SIPS Wall
Block Wall (Internal)
All Slab workbooks

If you have the software already, then make sure your Support & Updates is valid, in order to get your software updated to the latest version of EstimatorXpress. And if you’ve yet to buy the software, can we point you in the direction of a free test drive, or may be straight to the shop! Or give us a call on 0117 916 7898. And let’s get to work for you.

Are you talking enough to everyone on site about health & safety?

Do you make sure everyone is fully aware of the hazards on site each day? What about when a new piece of kit arrives on site? Or when you reach a particularly hazardous stage in the build?

Do you explain what measures are being put in place to ensure everyone’s safety? Do you check that everyone understands their role in ensuring their safety and everyone around them? Do they know what to do to avoid accidents? Most importantly, are you keeping health and safety at the front of everyone’s minds?

If you can say yes, and are already giving your team safety briefings, that’s great. If you’re not then you need to start now. And rather than having to talk off the top of your head, or search the internet for relevant documents, we’re pleased to say that the new Health & Safety Xpert 2018 edition will come with over 60 valuable Toolbox Talk documents, recommended by our NEBOSH accredited Health & Safety Consultant, in line with what CITB and the HSE encourage.

What is a Toolbox Talk?

Essentially, each ‘toolbox talk’ is a short presentation to the workforce on a single aspect of health and safety, and takes place before a specific task is going to be carried out. Each one is designed to heighten awareness.

And even if there isn’t anything out of the ordinary happening that day you should still use one or more of the Toolbox Talks on a daily basis to promote a culture of health and safety, to prompt a discussion between you all, run through emergency procedures, explore the risks and think about ways of dealing with them.

Of course they don’t replace health and safety training, but they’re a good reminder and effectively there to reinforce what your workforce should know already. 10-15 minutes well spent.

How do you use a Toolbox Talk?

1. Simply print the document off (it’s probably worth have a read through beforehand).
2. If it relates to a piece of equipment, then have it to hand
3. Choose a quiet spot on site where there aren’t any distractions so that everyone can concentrate for those few minutes.
4. Read it out to everyone.
5. Use the prop to demonstrate your points either during or after the talk. For instance if the talk is on abrasive wheels, show the grinder and point to the relevant safety features
6. Open it up for discussion, encourage questions – however basic they might be.
7. Make a note of the date of the talk, the subject and who was in attendance. It’s good protocol and proof if needed for the HSE. Please note, Health & Safety Xpert provides a Toolbox Talks Register for recording who’s received what talk.

Make the Toolbox Talk part of the daily routine, and alongside the briefing, you could take the opportunity with everyone gathered round, to run through any housekeeping matters or issues with the job, be they material hold-ups, or changes to the plans.

How does Health & Safety Xpert help?

Anyone familiar with the Health & Safety Xpert software will know that it automatically identifies the risks a particular project faces. And now, as well as helping your business comply with CDM 2015, singling out all the risk and COSHH assessments, method statements and policiesassociated with the project, software users will also now be given the relevant Toolbox talk documents to read out to the workforce at the appropriate points in the job.

To see where the Toolbox Talks sit within the process of managing health and safety, as per the HSE’s ‘Managing for Health & Safety’ (HSG65) document, take a look at our guide. This useful pdf file matches the documents with the four stages within HSG65, ‘Plan, Do, Check, Act’. Anything you don’t understand, just talk to one of our team.

Are Toolbox Talks required by law?

As an employer you have a legal duty of care to everyone on site to make sure they are working safely without any risk to their health. It’s important to give them the right information and the right instructions to ensure they’re sufficiently competent to carry out the work.

What other actions should you be taking?

TRAINING As well as providing information that is easy to understand and instructions that are simple to follow, you also need to provide adequate health and safety training – during work hours – and made available without charge. (It’s something HBXL can help with by the way! See here.)

SUPERVISING This is particularly important if your workforce includes young workers, inexperienced people and anyone new to the site. You need to consider the level of supervision appropriate to the individual.

LEADING BY EXAMPLE! Of course you have to practice what you preach. Violating the rules yourself isn’t going to help you get the workforce on side.

Here’s the full list of HBXL’s Toolbox Talks

Health & Safety Xpert is your go-to software for all things safety related. The software is regularly checked, and any new legislation is quickly added – what builder has got time to do that themselves? And with more builders, contractors and trade sub-contractors using Health & Safety than any other health & safety software, you know you’re in safe hands. 

If you have the software already, then make sure your Support & Updates is valid, in order to get your software updated to Health & Safety Xpert 2018 60+ Toolbox Talk documents . And if you’re yet to buy the software, can we point you in the direction of a free test drive, or may be straight to the shop! It’s great value and can be learnt in a matter of minutes. Or give us a call on 0117 916 7898. Let’s talk!

At HBXL we know everybody is different and everybody has different preferences. This is why some may not have given us a try yet. So we’ve compiled a list of reasons why EstimatorXpress may not be the product for you. If you find that these 5 points match with you and your business then you probably don’t need EstimatorXpress. Firstly, we’re hoping you can look past our sarcasm and secondly, that you decide you have nothing to lose by giving us a free trial or booking a demo today.

You actually like spending your spare time working on estimates and quotes.

Why would you want to cut out those long nights and weekends spent producing quotes and estimates? You love missing out on quality time with the family or catching that big derby match.

Inaccuracy isn’t a problem in your world.

So you miscalculate every once in a while and end up cutting into your profit margin, again. Big deal. You don’t want to be one of those people that get everything right all the time, everyone knows you can’t trust someone that is perfect.

Calling up the merchants is the favourite part of your day!

You’d be gutted if you didn’t get to speak to the merchants every day. You wouldn’t want all your prices updated live. Where’s the fun in that? No, you’d rather guess it’ll be about the same last time you checked and find out different later. Life’s about all those little surprises.

You think hidden expenses are exciting and they keep you on your toes.

Not forgetting any of costs is a challenge you relish. And you love having to go back to the client to ask for money if you miss something. Or even better, forking out the cash yourself because you haven’t budgeted for it, that’s your fave.

Running over schedule is just part of life, you only wrote one up as a guideline anyway.

So a project takes longer to complete than you originally envisaged, you’re not stressing. Maybe you have the luxury no job lined up  after so you have plenty of time to spill into.

If you have read all this and still feel you don’t need EstimatorXpress and that it is not going to help your company and save you time, money and effort, then by all means don’t give us a go. Don’t worry, we’re not bitter (she chuckled uncomfortably). BUT, if you do like the sound of a software solution and an easy way to improve your business then here’s how to get started. You can get a free trial, book a demo or go straight to purchase right here. You may wonder why you hadn’t given us a try sooner!

Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon, is quoted as saying, “I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine.” Well whilst here on planet earth most of us aren’t planning space missions, we do all want to make the best use of our time.

And we think there could be something missing from your business that could save you even more hours and give you a better business outcome. If you don’t have any of our software then can we point you in the direction of this article, which will give you an insight on the whole kit? There’s lots you should know…

So here comes an important tip-off for owners of EstimatorXpress. You’ve made a brilliant purchase and one you’ll never regret. You have a truly powerful piece of kit at your fingertips. Loads of inbuilt calculators work out complex sums, using up-to-the-minute material price lists. Profit margins, and more, are factored in using your preferred percentages. The quotes produced are 100% accurate. Nothing is left out, not a screw, not a tube of glue. You simply answer drop-down questions, type dimensions into fields on onscreen drawings and in a short space of time out pop a comprehensive quote and supporting reports (all 80 of them!)

Input once and get twice the benefit

But… it’s possible to go one step further. You could turn EstimatorXpress into the most amazing calculator and source of accurate prices, which takes its instructions not from you, but from another HBXL product, PlansXpress. 

Many builders prefer to work out the cost of a job using the take-off process. And with PlansXpress you can do just that.

Scan a drawing and import it into PlansXpress, or import a CAD file (PDFs/DWGs/JPEGs etc) into PlansXpress.

Then simply point and click to trace your drawing, taking off areas, lengths and counts as you go and specifying your project with ease. Add doors, windows and other openings, and the software measures in negative, automatically netting off the areas.

For ease, it highlights what you have traced over to remind you what you have already taken off. Turn layers off to remove things you don’t need on the plan.

See what you have measured and counted in 3D to get a good feel for your take-off.

Then export your take-off into EstimatorXpress. The calculators will go to work and in a matter of minutes you’ll have the same estimate and all the reports you’ve come to know and love. We call it ‘Rapid Take-off’.

But what’s the advantage of having PlansXpress as well? Here’s what we think you’ll like about this clever partnership:

• Because of the speed of quoting you’ll be able to go for even more jobs and tenders with much less effort.
• The software produces 3D visuals directly from your plans – name a customer who doesn’t like a picture!? Go for the 3D Visualiser plug-in and you’ll get a photo-realistic render too.
• You’ll have a drawing file that you can update in the future – when you’re asked to add a window or discover the architect’s idea won’t quite work…
• By tracing the drawing and answering questions you are truly scrutinising the project. Every single wall traced turns red so there’s no chance of missing anything out. In fact it’s possibly even easier than EstimatorXpress in that respect.
• And if you feel inclined (and it’s a service in short supply across the UK) you can always start offering Design & Build. You can draw from scratch using PlansXpress without having any CAD skills whatsoever.

So how about using your EstimatorXpress in a new way and watch your business really take-off? Buying PlansXpress will give you more options and, dare we say it, you should be over the moon?

Talk to the team on 0117 916 7892 for more information, discuss the best price and ways to pay, ask for a demo or take it for a test drive. And until 30.9.17 PlansXpress has been reduced by a whopping 40% so don’t delay!

Five essential integrated business partners in the shape of construction software

They say teamwork makes the dream work and we’d have to agree. Wouldn’t you love to be surrounded by a team, totally integrated, working together in harmony, without the slightest disagreement, there for you 24 hours a day? Looking after your estimating, your plans, health and safety paperwork, contracts and project management? Making you as productive and profitable as possible.

Who wouldn’t want that kind of integrated support? And rather than five new people on the payroll wanting a bonus at Christmas, we’re talking about a suite of software performing these valuable roles.

Rapid data-sharing

So how do they pull off such a seamless, rapid service? Think of them as a relay team. With one team member passing the baton containing all the valuable, accurate data to the next team member who uses the same data to do their job and shares that exact same data for the next to do their thing. We call it X-connexdata-sharing technology, unique to HBXL Building Software. No chinese whispers, no duplicated errors, just 100% accurate information from start to finish.

Here’s your award-winning team…

Meet PlansXpress. An absolute mine of building information and extraordinarily precise. You yourself don’t require any CAD skills – PlansXpress does most of the leg-work, producing you plans, elevations and 3D models. Either start from scratch, or adapt an existing plan by importing a file or scanned plan, or simply use it with EstimatorXpress to create rapid take-offs!

Introducing EstimatorXpress. Calm under pressure. Never calculated anything incorrectly ever. You can either import a plan from PlansXpress which contains all the data about the project and request EstimatorXpress to crunch the numbers and give you a full quote and 80+ reports… or you can work together to create an estimate following simple instructions, be it a new build, extension or renovation.

And here’s Health & Safety Xpert. Bring this one on board and you’re in very safe hands. With the data from your estimate, you simply answer a few questions and then the Health & Safety Xpert in all things health and safety will select the relevant paperwork for CDM 2105 compliance and more. Nothing is missed out. Risk and COSHH Assessments, Method Statements, Construction Phase Plans, the lot.

Legal eagle ContractsXpert has got your back.Straightforward, dependable, and unswerving when it comes to making sure you get paid, on time, for the building work you’ve done. Again, the same data feeds the software, or you input the few pieces of information required. ContractsXpert will make sure you comply with the Consumer Contracts Regulations and CDM 2015. And relax.

And finally ProjectXpert, the extraordinary multi-tasker. One complex project or half a dozen – either way – sit back and watch your daily, weekly and monthly tasks and critical paths become clear in a matter of a couple of clicks. There’s nothing quite like ProjectXpert around when it comes to residential construction project management, especially when teamed up with EstimatorXpress. If anyone’s going to make you look good it’s this fella.

Impressed? Well it would be an expensive commitment if we were talking about employing this many people, but this is an amazing suite of software performing valuable roles that will really make your business fly. And the one-off cost involved in purchasing the HBXL Premium Project Toolkit is more like someone’s salary – but just one month. And that’s it. You’re paid up. And if you prefer, you can even pay in instalments interest-free.

Better still, until 30.9.17 there’s 40% off Premium Project Toolkit which is a massive saving. Call the team today on 0117 916 7898, arrange a demo or a test drive.

And unlike employment agencies we won’t be charging you commission!

The sensational EstimatorXpress 2017 summer software update

If there was ever a time to make sure your Support & Updates is active it’s now! EstimatorXpress, which earlier this year became the 2017 version, has undergone a very valuable update, although ‘update’ doesn’t really do it justice really. The really big news is the new ‘Estimate Wizard’. Starting a job is now just so much easier. Gone are the seven or eight steps to starting a job – now there’s just one instruction. Yes one! You’ll really notice the difference.

The new Estimate Wizard

You can now simply choose to ‘start from scratch using estimating calculators’ or ‘Import PlansXpress for Rapid Take-off’.

And then start filling in the detail of your job. You can check out the video here

Plus if you haven’t as yet purchased the Quick Quote plug-in, (great value at £299+VAT when you consider what it does) then this is what you’re missing out on…

With the Quick Quote plug-in installed you are also presented with a third option to choose your 3D model from a huge selection of whole-project 3D models.

You can select a range of finishes of an extension for instance (render, brick, stone) and then you enter your job variables to create your new estimate. And we’re talking an estimate that can be carried out in around four minutes! See the video that proves it here.

It’s also worth watching our new video on the Quick Quote templates here.

32 new and updated workbooks

A number of workbooks have been updated and new Quick Quote workbooks added. Take a look at some of the new Dims images.

The team has also put prices in for items that were previously described as “to be defined” e.g. for roof trusses you would normally get a supplier quote, but we have given you a ‘safe’ price to avoid making work for you! The full list of updates and new additions can be found further down the page.

The thing with Microsoft Office and Windows…

…is that they make changes to their software which effect the many smaller software companies out there. So when Office 2016 and Windows 10 underwent recent changes we, like many other companies, had to fix various problems that these changes created. And then the next time they add a new fix, we’ll tweak the software to accommodate it, and the next time…

In fact, outside of our quarterly EstimatorXpress updates we release fixes for anything new that occurs so that your software will work correctly. So as long as your annual Support & Updates fee is paid, you will receive all the updates and fixes to the software and your program will always work.

And of course we are already working on our next round of updates which will be released by the end of September. In the meantime if you have any questions on the Summer Update, give the team a call on 0117 916 7899.

And to renew your Support & Updates simply go to the online shop.

Changes and additions to EstimatorXpress workbooks

Quick Quote workbooks only – general release asap