There are three main components to Estimating Link. These components are the basics needed for putting together a job.

Rate Tables - contains resources such as labor, equipment, rental, material, subcontractor, miscellaneous, as well as crews which can be a combination of any of the resource categories.

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Item Sheets - Also called phases or tasks, the Item Sheets allow you to group together any combination of resources, including other items. Items also allow you to specify a quantity and a duration (in days or hours). All the information will then give you your total, and unit cost for that item.

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Bid Sheet - This is where the proposal will be put together. Items will be placed onto the Bid Sheet where total cost and markup can be seen, and where the final bid unit can be entered. Based on actual cost and desired markup, the desired bid unit will be calculated for you. In many cases you can simply bid the job without doing anything more than specifying your cost.

All of the above components offer import capabilities. So you only need to setup resource and items once, and they can be re-used at any time on another project.

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There are several additional features that will assist you and simplify the process of putting your bids together.

Sub/Material Comparison - Where vendor prices can be entered for specified item sheets, and easily compared (with the lowest vendor prices automatically calculated). A vendor's prices can then be placed into the corresponding items at the quantities specified with a simple click of the mouse. Works great for getting those last minute quotes worked into a bid.

Rate Table Comparison - Which is very similar to Sub/Material Comparison, compares vendor prices for resources in the Rate Tables, such as equipment, rental equipment, materials and subcontractor resources. Once again, this works great for getting those last minute vendor quotes into the bid.

Digitizer Take-off - We have our own simple take-off program included with the Estimating Link system that will allow you to perform Linear, Area, Simple Volume (Area x Depth), Sloped Area, Trench and Counted. You can save A LOT of time with this component when compared to trying to manually calculate the area of a new parking lot based on blueprints. This component will interface with most digitizer boards, although GTCO boards are highly recommended.

Trench Calculator - If you have to dig trenches for pipe, then this tool will save you the headaches of calculating total excavation volume and tonnage by hand. Simply enter the trench dimensions such as height, top width, slope, length, and the pipe dimensions. The totals are automatically calculated for you. You can even specify up to 4 layers of bedding that will be used to refill the trench. You specify the height of the bedding layers, everything else is calculated for you. Once you're all done, you can save any of the total values directly back to the quantity for an Item Sheet cost, or an item's take-off quantity.

State DOT Modules - If you bid state work, then nothing can be more frustrating and time consuming than re-typing all the item numbers and descriptions into a spreadsheet. For many states that have their bid data in electronic format, you can import that information directly into the Estimating Link system, as well as export the finished bid, or print a state accepted proposal.