I'm expecting to have to do a lot of configuring to any software to customize it to our needs. We have enjoyed a very busy building sector here for years and it is still chugging away for now. We are a small
shop and I prefer to be out on service calls instead of spending hours trying to put quotes together. My quotes are not as accurate as I would like and the bigger jobs take me days to quote. I often make simple
mistakes as well, often forget things, and do not have the ability to break out certain tasks for change orders etc.
Some kind of software that will allow me instant access to consistent costs for all the tasks and assemblies we normally use from a database that I can easily import updated material costs to would be ideal.
I am now turning work away because I can't afford the time required to bid, which is not good. If I can speed things up and improve accuracy
I will be able to easily double my sales making this our best year ever.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a slowdown in Q4 when a lot of US debt comes due for payment with money that isn't there. We will feel this in western canada probably in Q1 of 2012 so i want to grab the work when we can. Its not good to turn new business away but there is not enough time to bid when it takes as long as it takes me manually.
We are not seeing bankruptcies yet but expect a drop in consumer confidence after the US treasury cannot water the dollar down any further and interest rates become normal again. This should slow our housing boom somewhat. We will probably see some of the insolvencies you describe especially in the east and will need to be careful. I expect our ratio of bids quoted to bids won will increase creating even more of a need to get our bids out quickly and with a high degree of accuracy.
I will continue to search for a less than $2000 solution that will
save me time and appreciate everybodies input so far
