6 Ways to Reduce Stress for Your Construction Estimators

Construction Estimator Smiling

As estimators, your team is responsible for procuring new work for your construction company. It’s a lot of responsibility and pressure, and as every estimator knows, the job can be stressful. 

But estimating doesn’t have to be as stressful as you think. Construction estimating software can help simplify your work and provide a safeguard against costly errors. Keep reading to learn more about how you can make your job easier for you and your team — all through the use of estimating software. 

1. Eliminate the responsibility of human errors in spreadsheets

One simple mistake in a spreadsheet can throw off an entire estimate, and an inaccurate estimate can cost you a job. That’s a lot of pressure to put on yourself or your estimators.  

Eliminate some of that responsibility with construction estimating software that creates estimates, performs digital takeoffs, and generates proposals and reports with much less risk of human error. If the data you entered is correct, your estimates will be too — no need to worry about calculation errors or lost data. 

2. Make it easier to work from anywhere

Use cloud-based software to enable your team to work or view project data from any device while in the office, on a job site, or at home, without having to worry about not having the right files. 

If you (or one of your estimators) can’t come into the office one day — due to car trouble, bad weather, kids being home from school, or any other reason — you don’t have to worry about falling behind on deadlines or taking an entire day of paid time off. You can just log in from your home computer and pick up your work where you left off. 

3. Keep all your files securely stored in one place

Construction estimating software is a great way to keep your projects organized and easily accessible. No more searching through .xls files for the one you need, no more misfiling issues, no more multiple saved versions of files with contradictory edits. All of your projects will be stored in one central location. 

If the software is cloud-based, your estimators also don’t have to worry about losing data due to computer crashes or other mishaps. Your data is automatically backed up and ready for anything. 

Construction Estimator Collaborating

4. Reduce collaboration headaches

Collaborating on an estimate is hard with Excel spreadsheets. You need to save and send your files to another estimator so they can view the data on their own computer. If they make any changes, they must also save a new version of the file before sending it back to you. With cloud-based estimating software, there’s no need to send files back and forth; everything is stored in one place and accessible by any authorized user. 

The more people involved in editing a spreadsheet, the more chances there are for human error as well — one wrong move and someone could set you behind schedule or (even worse) create a costly error you don’t catch before submitting your bid. With software, the risk of human error is greatly reduced. 

5. Increase revenue without working longer hours

Overworked, overwhelmed employees are less productive and more stressed. Construction estimating software streamlines your estimating process and allows you to get more work done in less time, with less effort. In fact, many ProEst users have been able to cut the time it takes them to generate a bid by about 50%. 

That means you can create twice the amount of estimates in the same amount of time, all while increasing, not sacrificing, your bid accuracy. The result? More winning bids and more revenue for your company. 

6. Feel confident knowing the job’s done right

It’s a well-known fact: we enjoy working on what we’re good at doing. And the more we enjoy our work, the better we are at it. 

When you and your team are confident that your bids are accurate, you’ll take more pride in your work. That confidence will propel you forward as you create more bids than ever before and will help you put your company’s best foot forward. 

These are only a few of the ways construction estimating software can make your job easier and less stressful. Making the switch to estimating software can be a stressful experience itself — but it doesn’t have to be. Check out our free Executive Report, 7 Tips To Get Your Estimators On Board