What makes ProjectPAK special? The main advantage ProjectPAK has over other estimating packages, and certainly over spreadsheets, is flexibility and ease of use. And we’re not just talking about bidding ‘static’ products from a catalog. On the contrary, ProjectPAK is specially designed to handle one-off, custom items. In fact, the majority of our customers only produce ‘make-to-order’ and ‘engineer-to-order’ products, and thus, need a very flexible and powerful estimating package. With ProjectPAK, they can bid whatever comes their way. "Build as you go" architecture gets you up to speed fast. ProjectPAK is built with powerful database technology that enables users to construct extensive libraries of re-usable material, labor, sub-assemblies, and assemblies to maximize re-use, improve accuracy, and speed estimating. But unlike other database oriented packages, you don’t have to pre-define every catalog element before you can start estimating a job. When pressed for time, you can quickly ‘stick build’ custom items, right on the estimate sheet, by simply typing in elements or pulling re-usable materials and labor from the library. This kind of flexibility is why new users can implement ProjectPAK so quickly. Our unique ‘build as you go’ architecture can have you up and running fast. And since you can easily save off and catalog re-usable elements, the more you use ProjectPAK the more your productivity grows. More than an estimating package. ProjectPAK is much more than an estimating tool. Its powerful database stores customers, vendors, sub-contractors, contacts, notes, reminders, and project specifications. Since ProjectPAK comes in both a single-user and concurrent user network version, it is a great way of standardizing and sharing customer, vendor, and contact data across the entire organization.
The heart of ProjectPAK The customizable library is the heart of ProjectPAK. When bidding, you can quickly copy common elements into an estimate from the library. This speeds take off and ensures consistent pricing when creating custom items.
The library is organized into a two-level hierarchy of user defined ‘Divisions’, and within each ‘Division’, user defined ‘Sub-Divisions’. Located in each ‘Sub-Division’ are the actual library items that you copy into estimates when taking off jobs.
We recommend that you list the vendors, along with vendor specific information, that supply each library item. This speeds purchasing should you win the job, since information from the estimate automatically flows into ShopPAK. This is an example of how ProjectPAK and ShopPAK work together, sharing the same data to improve consistency, promote synergy, and speed job execution….all important elements of a lean manufacturing environment. Conforms to any estimating style Use ProjectPAK to produce high-level budget quotes, unit of measure estimates (lineal foot, lineal meter, cubic yard, etc.), detailed material and labor take off per item, or exacting parametric estimates that dynamically calculate material and labor based on product attributes like width, height, depth, etc. You can easily mix and match different estimating techniques in the same job, choosing the approach that makes the most sense for the item you’re bidding! We also support material / labor factor pricing, margin pricing, and job specification sheet estimating styles. As you can see, we’ve designed ProjectPAK so it can bid anything….any way you want. You won’t find a more powerful or flexible estimating package.
Above is an example of ProjectPAK’s Job Specification Sheet. This powerful estimating tool uses ProjectPAK’s built-in Product Configurator. Totally user driven, you can define, configure, and bid any product within ProjectPAK. Turbo-charge estimating by using assemblies An assembly is any grouping of related elements, complete with description, quantity, cost, pricing, and notes…that you reuse over and over again. Estimating with assemblies saves time, improves consistency and increases accuracy. Template Assembly If you find yourself typing the same elements over and over again, or going to the library and copying in the same elements more than once, then it’s time to create a template assembly. An example of a template assembly would be a list of common labor operations that you reuse when estimating custom, one-off products. Product Assembly If you bid semi-custom or catalog items, then building parametric product assemblies is the way to go. Quickly drop product assemblies on to the estimate sheet, put in quantity and whatever parameters you’ve defined for the product, and you’re done. The great thing about using product assemblies is all of the underlying material, hardware, and labor are dynamically calculated based on product attributes and quantity. If you win the job, having the material and labor defined ahead of time gives you a head start on scheduling labor and purchasing materials. When you define a product assembly, you can categorize it and even associate a graphic with it, making it easy to find the correct product assembly when taking off a job.
Let’s take a look inside the ‘Tall Cabinet’ product assembly shown above. Sometimes customers simply list all of the underlying material, hardware, and labor needed to build the product. Another technique is to embed a secondary level of child sub-assemblies as we’ve done in the example below.
Notice the gray rows. Each row is actually a collapsed sub-assembly that has all of the detailed material and labor needed to address a particular section of the product. For example, the second row à ‘Tall Cab Case’ – is a sub-assembly that has all of the material and labor needed to build the basic carcass of a tall cabinet. Other sub-assemblies handle other aspects of the ‘Tall Cabinet’ like doors, shelves, roll-out drawers, and the toe kick. Embedding child sub-assemblies makes it easy to keep your product catalog up to date. Instead of editing each product assembly when something changes, you simply edit at the sub-assembly level and let ProjectPAK automatically propagate changes upward throughout the entire catalog.
Not only does ProjectPAK keep product assemblies in sync with embedded sub-assemblies, it always ensures that assembly rows match corresponding library item details and costs. Sub-Assembly Let’s take a closer look at the ‘Tall Cabinet Case’ sub-assembly by expanding it. It contains all of the material and labor needed to build the carcass of a tall cabinet.
This sub-assembly happens to be parametric which means the estimator enters product level attributes like width, height, depth, number of adjustable shelves, etc. once for each product, and ProjectPAK dynamically calculates the underlying quantity and cost of labor and materials throughout the product. Estimating was never this easy ProjectPAK makes it easy to find and re-use prior work. Even if you didn’t win a job, you can take advantage of the time you spent breaking down items and/or configuring semi-custom catalog items. The more jobs you bid, the faster you build up your estimating catalogs. You can copy an entire estimate into a new estimate, or copy, cut, and paste rows within an estimate or between estimates. Then you can ‘tweak’ the information based on the specifications for the job you’re currently bidding. You can copy library items and assemblies into estimates. As shown earlier, this is a fantastic way to speed take off and improve consistency.
The above estimate was built by copying reusable product assemblies on to the estimate sheet. Each product assembly is currently collapsed, hiding the underlying details. Once copied on to the estimate sheet, the estimator simply fills in takeoff quantity and any parametric attributes necessary to properly configure the product. ProjectPAK automatically calculates the underlying labor and material with each change you make. Our unique "Ignore Row" checkbox is ProjectPAK's version of the line item veto, allowing you to temporarily exclude a row from being calculated or printed. Great for experimenting with different "what if" scenarios or presenting quick revisions. "Fixed" line types accurately reflect set up time and economies of scale. As quantity increases, unit cost falls accordingly. Formulas can be set up for labor curving. This is useful when you are bidding a job that is smaller, or larger, than you typically bid and you want to ‘curve’ labor accordingly. Automatically generate reports and documents from the estimate ProjectPAK produces analysis and breakout reports so you can quickly analyze costs by material, labor, library item usage, and vendor assignments. Check profitability and adjust markups where needed. The analysis report that follows was generated from the estimate shown immediately above.
This gives you a sense for how much detail is ‘hidden’ within the collapsed product assemblies Not only does ProjectPAK generate analysis reports for checking the estimate, it produces quotations, change orders, revisions, etc. directly from the estimate sheet. No re-typing in a word processor! Imagine the time you’ll save. No other estimating package comes close to matching ProjectPAK's quick, professional looking documents. You can define up to 20 custom documents. Each document lets you choose the estimate rows and columns you want to print, as well as, a number of other printing options that define the look, feel, and content of the generated document.
ProjectPAK’s powerful document generation capability really saves time when you have to revise the bid and produce additional proposals and change orders. Your customer will be amazed at how fast you can churn out requested changes. |
What people are saying about ProjectPAK and ShopPAK:
Doug Chisholm - Chisholm Architectural Millwork - Indianapolis, IN: “ProjectPAK has been integral to our growth. I spend about 40% of my time bidding and I have been consistently bidding $1.5-$2 million per month. Previously, I would be lucky to bid $1 million per month... and that's bidding 100% of my entire time. For example, I recently won a job by being able to break item out by level and change different materials as specs changed on the bid documents. It was a seven figure job that took me a couple days to handle... sort of the perfect storm job for ProjectPAK.” |
