Mike Delair, an estimator and project manager for Integrity Electric (www.integrity-electric.net/) in the Atlanta area, has to look at electrical construction from both sides -- standard electrical work and automated building systems. To get the job done, he uses both types of estimating software from McCormick Systems: Electrical and ABS.
"I manage most of the work we do in higher education", Delair explained; "And we do a lot of work in that area. McCormick's estimating approach helps me a lot with this work. There are just so many breakouts in this work. Before I came to Integrity, I worked as an estimator at another company, with a different system. When I came here and began working with this software, I was just blown away."
Where are the advantages? "The breakouts . . . the extensions . . . the reports you can do -- all of this is just so much better for project management. I can track employees from day to day, where they are supposed to be, and how much they are supposed to install", Delair said.
'We give prices on everything'
Integrity Electric, Inc. was founded in 2002 by a group with backgrounds in electrical consulting, low voltage contracting, as well as the traditional electrical contracting business. It is unique because of the in-house technical expertise and experience it possesses. As a result of this experience, Integrity Electric approaches projects as a full-service electrical contracting company. "We give prices on everything", Delair said. "We'll quote on all of the work, including data drops, systems, computer networks. We include installation of fiber coming into the building, or twisted pair."
This is one place where having two types of estimating software pays off. "I do the estimating using the labels -- on both the ABS and electrical estimating software. Any time I got into the data communication estimating side for these jobs -- not the conduit, but let's say the terminations -- I switched to ABS. I set it under a separate label and a different bid summary."
Where do Integrity and Delair gain here? "I can change the mark-up on the different types of work -- you know, the mark-ups can be higher on the data end and systems," he answered. "I can make changes in a specific estimate. It made us money in some places. For example, when we subbed some of those jobs out, we were able to track what the subcontractors were doing. We were able to find out whether one or another of the subcontractors was charging too much or too little."
How this works: "If I get a quote from a subcontractor on a fire alarm system," Delair explained, "I can take his bill of materials and put it into the ABS system. It's a simple task, a simple take-off based on his quote. I can look at the ABS estimate and it will tell me if he's included enough (or too much) labor, overhead, and profit."
Using software to boost productivity
"I find no difference between using the electrical software and the ABS program. It's the same set-up -- the summaries, the review column," Delair said. "I use the review column on both systems -- I use it a lot -- on the assemblies. The difference, for us, is that the ABS system has national labor values that are different from the electrical values.
"You can set up the assemblies to meet your needs. I've got using those assemblies down to nuts-and-bolts -- just a click, and I can input information. Plus, it's easy to copy and paste information. We do a lot of tenant spaces, generally for the same client. They built them all the same. All I need to do is take the previous bid, re-extend it, and get updated prices.
"With the McCormick software, I can get a price for them in 30 minutes or less, without even doing a take-off. That's something that other programs don't give you -- I've looked around."
While he's only 36 years old, Delair's background in estimating is old-fashioned. "I started estimating by hand," he laughed. "The gentleman that trained me was dead-set on doing take-offs by hand. There was no discussion. As a result, in the first few weeks that I used McCormick's software, it took me a little while to get used to it!"
Getting more out of the system
What's important with any tool or equipment is getting the most out of it. One way Integrity has done that recently is to enable Delair to estimate ahead. "I just bought three jobs out a few weeks ago," he said. "We saved about 17% on that purchase."
"But I'm still finding pieces of the system -- places I can make even better use of the software. Just last night, I found an extension report that broke it down by cost code. This is important for us, because we track our jobs by cost code. Now, I know how to easily track exactly how many hours I bid versus how many hours the guys used on specific items -- half-inch conduit, for example. This gives me historical data. I can adjust my estimating accordingly."
"Keeping up" also has meant adopting changes McCormick makes to its software. Delair noted that V8.2 adds an adjustment factor column in Audit Trail. "If you're putting conduit on a block wall, for example, it will take longer," he said. "You can use the adjustment factors to get the labor hours to be based on precisely what the guys in the field will actually be doing."
There's also the potential to extend the software's functionality. "We just purchased the Change Order software," Delair added. "In our work, we've found occasionally that the general contractors will forget change orders. We really like the software's Alert feature. You can tell it to alert you to what's coming up in the change orders -- as much as 30 or 60 days out.
"It's handy in our work for the state [on some of the education jobs]. Any time you are working for a governmental entity, they ask for all kinds of reports and breakouts -- especially including the change orders. Now, with the McCormick software, it will be easier for us to produce the reports they need."
Powerlink Partners
Over the course of the past few months we detailed the highlights of the conference including what's new in Version 9.0. In this issue of the newsletter we will cover the new PowerLink Partners program.
Another exciting development that was presented to the ‘07 Conference was PowerLink Partners. This handy program quickly and easily exports job data from our main estimating program into other major accounting packages. There is also a generic export that will export your critical data into a 'comma-delimited' format that should be acceptable for just about every other accounting package out there.
Exporting data from your bid might not be the biggest feature of the year, but run it by your accounting department and see what they think. Another new feature we have added is security to this part of the program allowing you to install PowerLinks on your accountant’s machine so they have limited access to jobs but are able to export the necessary data. This can be done without needing a McCormick key on their machine.
McCormick Standard Export –
McCormick Systems export allows you to export almost anything from any part of a job into a text file. This data can then be imported into several different software applications such as accounting software, word processor applications, and spreadsheet applications. The process of creating an export file is relatively simple, you just need to know what information you want to export. The most common data exported is extension data.
Quickbooks PowerLink -
The Win Products to QuickBooks PowerLink allows you to send McCormick Systems Bid Summary information to QuickBooks in the form of an estimate or invoice. Price and cost information contained in a Bid Summary can be sent to QuickBooks entirely or in select parts, with very general depth or broken down to even individual material.
Timberline Power Link-
With the McCormick PowerLink to Timberline, users can have the following information brought directly into their accounting system.
Jobs – Job ID, Name, Address, City, State and Zip Code
Extension Data – Extended Material, Cost Code and Description, Date Exported, and Sum of Extended Price for the Cost Code.
Extended Labor Hours – Cost Code and Description, Date Exported, Sum of Extended Hours for the Cost Code, Sum of Extended Hours for the Cost Code + Average Labor.
American Contractor PowerLink –
In the PowerLink with American Contractor, McCormick users can take such data from Extension as: Cost Code and Description, Sum of Quantity for each Cost Code, Sum of Extended Hours for each Cost Code, Labor Cost and the Sum of Extended Price for each Cost Code. In addition to information from Extension, users can bring additional data from the Bid Summary such as: Each Tab in Bid Summary (Except Labor), Each line, Tab Name, Line Description, Supplier, Multiplier and Dollars for the line.
ForeFront PowerLink –
ForeFront users can use the McCormick PowerLink option and bring information into their accounting software from the estimating package. The following data can be transferred:
Jobs – Name and Sell Price from Top Sheet.
Extension Data – Material, Cost Code, Quantity Total for each Cost Code, and the Sum of Extended Price fro each cost code
Labor – Cost Code and Description, Average Labor Rate * Sum of Extended Hours for each Cost Code, Sum of Extended Hours for each Cost Code.
Burden – Cost Code and Description, Average Labor Burden * Sum of Extended Hours for each Cost Code
Bid Summary – Each Tabor – except labor, Each Line, Other Costs, Tab and Line Name, Multiplier and Dollars for the line.
Guest Comment: Electrical Construction Employment
Preliminary Bureau of Labor Statistics data for April (one month behind the all-construction figures) show 715,300 production (field) workers employed in electrical construction in April. That's up from 704,500 one month earlier, and is up 3.43% from one year earlier.
First, some notes:
a. These are NOT all electricians. I've learned that the hard way, by looking at BLS data for skilled occupations. According to BLS, there are roughly 400,000 professional electricians working in the electrical construction industry.
b. What do the rest of these people (some 315K) do, then? They are helpers, apprentices, spear-carriers, etc.
c. Construction employment (all trades, production workers) was down marginally in April 2007, from April 2006. Electrical construction was up. That's not a call for celebration. I think it indicates the shift from one heck of a lot of residential construction (which absorbs relatively more non-electrical on-site labor) to a higher percentage of nonresidential building (which requires a higher level of electrical work). Dollar-wise, electrical makes up 4% to 5% of a house, and can account for 10% or 12% of an office building.
d. Note that the high figure for 2006 electrical worker employment was 725,900 (in September). We're just a stone's throw from there -- a 1.6% gain in electrical worker employment in the next month or months will take us over that recent high-water mark.
The all-time high reported by BLS was 784,100 electrical workers in the field, on average, in September 200.
EleBlog Take: I was kind of stunned that electrical worker employment held up so well in 2004-2005 (relatively speaking). Here are the annual averages for electrical worker employment, as provided by BLS:
. . . as you can see, there is no "fall off a cliff" here. Yes, the 2005 figure is 100,000 below the peak annual average, but it's not a sharp reduction. And last year's average figure is 93% of the peak year (2001) . . . a thing I did not think a shift from nonresidential construction to heavy residential building could sustain.
Obviously, I'm missing something (or I am just flat-out WRONG).
What's needed is a detailed analysis of whether productivity in electrical construction work (and construction overall) is holding even-- or falling like a stone. Unfortunately, the BLS data cannot be further parsed -- to figure out how many of these electrical construction workers were doing nonresidential and residential work, how many were illegal aliens (if they are indeed included in these numbers -- or not), and so forth
Where You Can See Us In 2007
Here are our scheduled appearances at industry events this
year:
Sept. 10-13, Las Vegas, NV -- BICSI Fall Conference
Oct. 6-8, San Francisco, CA -- NECA Convention & Show
Oct. 24-27, Houston, TX -- IEC Convention & Expo.
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