We are all concerned about pricing, if we are charging too much or not enough. Every one is asking how much do you charge for this and how much you are charging for that. All cities have different labor rates. What about the average hours to do the jobs? When asking about how to estimate jobs, most people say figure how much time it will take and then add your materials. Well what if you are not sure on how long it will take you to do the job? What are some average hours (I know we all work at differnt paces) to do the most common jobs. Like cutting in a can light, new ceiling opening, 100/200 amp new or upgrade, etc.... Also say if you work with pipe or rope, this makes a difference in time. Hopefully this will help some of us who still second guess the time when we estimate. Thanks.

My estimating software had labor units set up in it for the time to install electrical items such as conduit fittigs, boxes etc.
It has 3 different labor times for each item. The 3rd labor column is NECA labor units. I would estimate a job and the software breaks the labor down by catagories such as conduit & racways, boxes, wire etc.
When doing the job I would track how much time was spent on each catagory and compare the actual time to the estimate time.
I would then make adjustments to the labor units in the software so the next time I estimated a job it would be more accurate.

You can purchase Means Electrical Cost Data book. www.rsmeans.com It has labor units in it for installing electrical items. You can start out using the labor units in the book, track your actual time and adjust your labor units up or down if necessary. Write your labor units down in a book so the next time you estimate you can look up your labor units.
If you have estimating software its much easier to adjust and keep track of your labor units.
I'm using Vision Infosoft software for estimating large jobs.
Small jobs & service work I use Flat Rate Plus.
http://visioninfosoft.com/ http://flatratesystems.com/

[This message has been edited by A-Line (edited 12-20-2004).]

I'm getting close to buying the flat rate system software, A-Line. I have a commercial job wiring 3000 sq. ft. commercial condominiums with services and interior EMT. Is this the kind of work you'd use the vision infosoft product for? Are you also saying the flat rate system software wouldn't be good for this commercial work?

Dave

Dave55,

I've only been using the flat rate software for about 3 months but it looks like to me it's primarily for small jobs and service work. I think if I used it to bid the condo's my price would be too high to compete against other bids. I believe the vision software is better for this. The Vision software is better for doing takeoffs from a print. With the vision software I would be able to do the estimate for the condo's quicker and more efficiently.
Their website has a free demo. I have the basic version. The cost was about $900 and it works great for the size of job you are talking about.