ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area paper work. How far do you go?

Hello from South Dakota!

It has been a while since I have made a post, but I am still here in the shadows.

I have been an electrician for 14yrs now, and have worked for several different companies. When it comes to wiring a house in romex their seems to be no brain activity needed anymore.

When I get done with a house, I count every opening, box, list all material used, and write down how many hours it took to do the job. That has been good for most of my employers.

My new boss has just given me take off sheets that looks like a supply house inventory list. It is very confusing, hard to read, and a real pain in my neck.

A house take-off used to take me a half hour to an hour depending on how large the house. This new paper takes me almost an hour and a half for a small house.

So what do you do, and does anyone have something I can offer my boss as an alternative?
HELP IM CONFUSED!!!

Thanks
Jon

I've started using a Pocket PC (HP iPAQ) with an excel spreadsheet when I do takeoffs. It's my illegitimate version of some of the "high end" estimator software tha's out there. Took a few days to get all the parts & cost data in, but it's a lot easier than the old paper method.

Of course, I modifeid the arrangement of items, so my most used are at the top of the sheet... it sounds like that might be your problem. If you have to dig for something you use all the time, it's not very efficient. See if you can re-engineer the forms to fit your method.

(Example for your boss - would you store your Kliens under your 4" hydraulic conduit punch box? How about keeping your sawzall behind the rolls of 2" Flex? Keep the things you use handy - saves time, keeps everybody happy)

Of course you boss still reserves the right to tell you to grab a buss, but at least you tried.