Mechanical Take-off Options

Dashboard

Welcome to the Emjay Systems Dashboard!  From this screen you have many options available to you.  On this page we are going to go over a few options that you can manipulate for your project estimate.

The center of the Dashboard keeps your current project cost data as a running total as you progress through your bid, it's always nice to see what your bid is amounting to as you go.  Have you ever had your boss ask you ... how's it coming?  How much is worth so far? I always loved that one!  You can now give him a snapshot of your progress!

We will give you an idea of some of the things that you can do, not all!

Take-off Pads

From the Dashboard, you navigate your way through our entire program.  The center of the screen is surrounded by buttons that you can click on to get where you want to go!

You can get to ALL the Take-off Pads, Grooved, Aquatherm, Welded Systems, Large and Small Bore Piping, Specials, Equipment, Clean Systems, Hangers, Steel Supports, and the list goes on.

Once you go to a take-off pad, you work on your take-off for that system, and then you return to the Dashboard to make another selection.

This is also where you will find the program set-ups, and the reporting screen.  You don't have to figure our which menu to use, where exactly you have to go in the program to make something work, none of that!

It's a very simple user experience, you will love it!

Specials and Equipment

As was mentioned, we offer a way for you to add items to your take-off through the use of Specials and Equipment.  If you have a water heater, all you need to do is add it to your job Equipment List with all the details like description, labor, material cost, weight, whether is needs insulation, total square foot, etc. and you are set to take if off as many times as it occurs on the project.

This gives you a chance to set it up once and now it is just like having it in the database, it is consistently taken every time it occurs in the project take-off.  This also helps you keep your take-off item consistent and the same!

You also have the ability to keep it in the database for future projects, so if it is an item you use often, just set it up and you will have it for future use.  We are constantly trying to make this process as easy as possible!

Rental Equipment Needs

There is rental equipment needs on every project.  You may own the equipment, but most contractors include equipment costs in their project.  In fact, this is one of the largest areas that get forgotten in mechanical bids.

We have 2 options, one is for smaller items like duct hoists, chainfalls, com-a-longs, gang boxes, safety equipment, etc.  This equipment is used on every project, but it is not always acknowledged in your bid.  It does sometimes show up in the changes depending on your contract for the project.  It's there if it is needed.

The other one more frequently used is for major equipment, things that generally get rented like welders, orbitals, manlifts, cranes, lift trucks, forklifts, cutting outfits, trailers, etc.  These are things that need to be part of your bid in some way, and this is just one way that we help you do that within out system.

Estimating the way we build!

We have compiled and designed a system that gets built in logical manner, and can be taken off the way we build it.  We have included 7 different definable splits in our take-off pads and each definable split has 500 levels of split-outs that can report to 50 different bid summaries.

So if you have a building with different systems, different floors, different phases, different areas, and different job specific items, you can do all of those splits in a manner that could help you budget your project when it comes time to offer splits at bid time!

We don't anticipate you ever needing 3500 different splits but if you do they are there for the taking!

Efficiencies

Too often we all go ahead with our bid and don't think about all the "hidden" costs that we sometimes forget to address.  Hidden Costs you might ask?  Let's discuss this ...

What if the job is scheduled to work overtime?  Does this increase your cost in some way?  Absolutely!  Your labor inefficiency is affected in a huge way, the productivity of the project goes down substantially in some cases.  We always remember to add the overtime premium but almost always forget to add the productivity loss.

What about "short" schedules?  Does this affect your labor costs? How?  Too many times these days the engineering is lacking and the schedule is too aggressive, and the end result is the schedule gets crammed down the contractors throat at bid time and the job is a marginal effort, or worse losses money.

This is just two examples of how you should have addressed your "efficiencies" to make sure you have accounted to these in your bid. 

Our systems has many of these options with predetermined factors to help you address these as is needed.  You can even choose to use them or not, but at least you have them to consider.

Safety Costs?

We wouldn't want to sound like safety should be discouraged due to the cost of it, and that would never be our message.  We are a safety training organization and truly believe in striving for "zero" incident rates on every project!

However, with that said, safety does carry a cost on your projects.  It is hoped that every woman and man goes home every night the exact way they came in, in one piece. 

These days contractor safety trainings, site safety trainings, daily reports, safety equipment training and use, site permitting, fire watch activities, elevated spotting, and on and on.  These things are all legitimate items that carry a cost that are sometimes hard to quantify.

What about confined space?  What about excavation productivity?  Thee are things that we generally don't give much thought to even though we know they are time killers and need to be addressed.

Our estimating system, has safety efficiency factors assigned to them and are available for use during your bid.  They are also quantified on the final recap so you can see what they are to make sure they make sense.

Take-off Options

As you start your project bid, you will be asked to fill out the Project Information Form, it is very easy and quick, and it becomes the information that will get entered on to your bid register and on your reports.

After this, you will go to your take-off form, and you will see a Take-off Options Page.  This will allow you to choose things like the type of take-off it is, digital or not?

You will also choose whether you want the program to add hangers and couplings for you?  You don't always want this, in some cases you want to do this yourself but the option is there to make it easy.

You can also choose excavation if it is needed, hanger types and you can also choose the insulation types that you want this particular line to have included with it's take-off.  You can also included paint if you want and it will cost this out for you including labor if that is the way you want it!

There are many options that help you include all the things in your bid that you will need later to the install completely.  We try to take some of the typical mistakes out of this process for you!

Subcontractors Handling

Mechanical Contractors, most of them, have large equipment suppliers and subcontractors involved in every bid.  They are the life blood in our business, but it does become a challenge at bid time.  We do understand that there is no good solution, but we believe we offer a good system for including these cost into the bid in an effective manner.

We can't promise you that we will solve all your problems, but we will try as best we can to develop a solution that eases your complexities of your bid time hustle.  The last thing we want you to do is make a mistake at bid time, and we have all done it, if you have been in this business as long as we have, you have done more than once!

Let's get together and find the right solution for your needs and we will make it part of the overall package.  We are here to help!

Labor Choices

Where do we win or loose our project bids?  Where do we win or loose on our projects?  We all have to use the same subs, we all have to buy the same equipment, we all have run the exact same amount of pipe, but labor is the true variable and how we manage it!

In our program, you have several opportunities to adjust your labor cost the way you want them and in a manner that makes sense for the project.

In one location after the take-off is complete, you can make adjustments to the efficiencies, labor multipliers, perdiems, crew size and make up, and work schedule. 

Expendables

There are many things and materials that are required for a proper installation, and our program in many ways tries to address these things in  a manner that quantifies the cost during the bid process.  We have all used programs that try to count every little piece, nut and screw but in reality this information does not get utilized the way the developer meant it yo be used.  Our approach is trying to give you "real world" costs so you can make the right decisions at bid time and get to a "real" cost!

Quick Bid Option!!

This is truly one of the greatest options for our programs use!  We have designed this program in a way that with all the proper defaults like crew size, wage rates, set markups and overhead costs, GC percentages, expendables percentages, perdiems if they apply, and anything else that you want to include, you can literally do a project bid in minutes!  Do a quick take-off and go directly to the Recap Page and you bid is done!  If you can do that any where else, we have not seen it!

Project Schedules and Completions

If you have done a detailed scheduled project in the last 10 years, then you have run across a customer that wants you to develop a plan going in that is loaded.  A "loaded" project schedule is one that not only shows the project schedule with dates, but it also shows resources and on some projects this becomes part of your progress billing as well.

Our Total Mechanical Estimating System allows you to consider this going in and take-off your project with this in mind.  Once that has been accomplished, it's a simple report within our program that will give you all the information you need to make it work easily and seamlessly.

Anyone who has ever had to suffer through doing this the hard way, gets what we are talking about.  This activity, if not done properly, can also have a huge affect on your project cash flow as well!  Let us help you make this an easy effort!