PriceBuilder is designed to take the pain out of paperwork with an efficient and easy to use estimating system. Professional Builder’s Lee Jones finds out more.
That PriceBuilder is the product of a time-served tradesman should be evident from first contact with the system. Its developer, Mark Feldman, is acutely aware that builders want to be building, not doing paperwork, and it is upon that principle that this estimation tool is founded.
Mark’s son, Ricky Feldman, who now runs the family’s Hertfordshire-based firm, Mars Building Group, explains the history of this cloud-based solution. “My dad had more than 30 years’ experience in the industry and found many of the estimating products that were out there were either very expensive, difficult to use, or both. Initially he created his own version based on spreadsheets and it was refined and improved over many years of use on our jobs.”
PriceBuilder has now been in available on the market in for nearly three years, and its benefits have already gained many converts. “It offers the ability to provide a detailed and professional quote of a single storey extension in 15 minutes,” continues Ricky, “and that’s game-changing in pricing jobs. Depending on the complexity of the projects, you could sit in the office for an hour and turn out five or six quotes. As a child I can remember my Dad would be coming home from work and sitting at a computer until 8 or 9 in the evening. That’s time you can win back with PriceBuilder.”
So just how does it work? At its very simplest level if you’re quoting for a brick wall, for example, then start by entering the dimensions. From there simply work your way through a list that would include every component part. Inner and outer leaf? Will it be plastered inside and with dot and dab or float and set? Will that wall be decorated? Working from top to bottom of the screen, you’ll be prompted at every stage. The system will then calculate cost of bricks, insulation, plastering & decorating, and everything else you’d need, all with one click. Every line item is editable so that the spec can be changed – from a standard plasterboard to soundboard, for instance – and every individual rate can also be adjusted. That’s a process that can then be repeated for every part of the build process, from foundations to roof. “Its simplicity provides a level of reassurance that you haven’t missed anything out – which can be a costly mistake. Every variable is included, from site supervision and setting up the job, to welfare hire, muck away and grab lorries.”
Labour costs can be preset on the user’s dashboard, along with profit margin, whilst quotes can be customised to determine exactly what information is ultimately provided to the client in the finished document. In an age of rising inflation materials prices are also monitored and amended regularly. At the same time, if the builder is getting a better deal from their supplier and feels they can make a quote more competitive by lowering the existing values, these can also be changed. If the client’s not sure exactly what they want – they know they want bi-folds but are not sure of the brand – this can be entered as a provisional sum, which will then appear as such on the quote and then adjusted accordingly.
“A landscaper friend of mine enquired about PriceBuilder and I gave him a very quick and graphic demonstration of its speed and accuracy. We had a quick chat on the phone about a patio job he was pricing and within five minutes I had prepared a quote for the job. Without asking for his rates, profit margin or materials costs, my quote – compiled in just that short space of time – was pretty much bang on an estimate he’d taken several hours to put together himself.”
Anyone with basic computer skills can navigate their way around the system, and the end result is a professional PDF document that can be emailed to the client, complete with any company specific notes and clauses. Ricky reveals just why PriceBuilder is the right solution for the trades: “The initial cost of many of the estimating packages that are out there actually makes them quite expensive Not only that but they’re often designed by quantity surveyors rather than builders, and that’s reflected in their complexity.”
Because it’s could-based, PriceBuilder can be accessed on any mobile device on site, whether that’s phone, tablet or laptop. There’s no contract required, with five packages available, starting from a Basic plan of £19.00 per month for 5 quotes in that period, up to the Enterprise level of 50 quotes for £79.00 a month, where multiple users can have access to one account. Once you’ve paid for an individual month there’s no obligation to continue beyond that.
“Clients of Mars Building Group have always complemented us on the level of detail in our quotes because they can then be confident that we’re not going to hit them with hidden costs and extras halfway through the job,” conclude Ricky. “If the quote includes four radiators, but the client then wants six, everyone can agree that’s an additional item, because every particular is clearly listed on the original estimate. It works both ways, of course, because if we quote for twenty downlights and only 15 are installed, that will then come off the invoiced price.” On any job the first thing you need to build is trust, and the developers of PriceBuilder believe its cloud-based estimating tool will do just that.
For further information on PriceBuilder visit https://www.pricebuilder.co.uk/