Latest / Contractor Business Builder Podcast / Estimating Mastery: Build Templates Once, Reuse Forever

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Estimating Mastery: Build Templates Once, Reuse Forever · Contractor Business Builder Podcast

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  Still building every estimate from scratch or just copying
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  past projects? You do not need to do this.
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  This one reusable template makes your bits faster, cleaner, and
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  way more accurate. I'm gonna walk you through how
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  it works and how it's changed the game for many contractors
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  just like you. Alright, you've taken a big step
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  forward in building out an amazing estimating system.
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  This. Getting your first template or
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  templates installed in your estimating system is going to be
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  a game changer. As I mentioned, it just really
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  saves so much time, makes things so much easier.
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  So to get your first template in place, you want it to be your
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  biggest type of project that you do.
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  So if you do new home builds, you want it to be a, you know, a
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  large luxury project with all the bells and whistles.
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  If you're a renovator, maybe it's a full home remodel or
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  whatever it may be, but you want to have the, the template be a
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  really big template because it's easy to delete stuff out of the
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  template, then to, you know, add pieces in and have something too
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  basic and then have to always add more stuff in as you go
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  through. And that's, so pick a big
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  project and that's what you want your first template on.
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  Then pull whatever large project you may have had in the past.
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  You use that as a starting point.
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  So pull, pull up past project and, and just you'll be
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  modifying that to create your first template.
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  And if you want to get something that's already built out at a
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  very high level, you can get the template that we use.
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  We've got a full home build estimating template with all the
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  line items sold, phased out and in order with cost codes and all
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  the, you know, everything's in there.
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  Check out the links in the description.
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  Go go grab our free template for estimating.
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  It'll get you your first template in place within
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  seconds. And you can upload it to any
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  project management software or using a spreadsheet, however you
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  want to use it. So that'll get your, that's the
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  first thing is get that first template in place and figure out
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  what it's going to be. Second one is your structure.
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  So you've got your template, now you need to structure it and you
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  wanna be very thoughtful about how the pieces are coming
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  together, not just for you having to run through this or if
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  you're gonna, you know, hand this off one day to another
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  estimator or if you have an estimator already, but also how
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  your clients going to view it. Because really you're preparing
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  this estimate for your client. So it needs to make sense to
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  them and it needs to have a good structure to it.
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  So the way to get this in place is first of all, consistency.
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  And you're doing that by having the template, but there's
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  whatever structure you pick, it needs to be consistent.
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  Second thing is chronological. So I like to have chronological
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  estimates. You know, we start with
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  preconstruction and then you're going to move into, you know,
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  your site work demo, if you're doing demo foundation framing,
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  so on and so forth. 88OZ start to finish and and final handover
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  to the client. Chronological.
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  It just, it makes sense when you're running through a project
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  like that. And that's the way that I like
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  to see it. There are other ways you could
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  do it by like rooms. If you're doing a remodel and
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  you know, they want a kitchen and then they wanna do a sunroom
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  or something, you could maybe break it out.
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  But generally speaking, even with inside that structure,
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  you're gonna, you're your smaller structure is gonna be
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  chronological beyond that, in those big chronological steps I
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  mentioned, you'll divide it into either divisions by like Costco,
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  which I'm going to get to in a second, or phases of the
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  project. So if you've got, you know,
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  certain phases that are happening in the project, those
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  would be like the big blocks. Then within that you've got your
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  divisions, framing, finishing, electrical, plumbing,
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  mechanical, whatever, right? Those are your kind of
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  divisions. And then with inside that you
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  usually have a similar structure as far as like first you list, I
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  like to list labour and then materials and then equipment,
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  you know, inside that division. But pick what makes sense to you
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  and just keep it consistent throughout the, the template
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  that you're that you're creating here, right #3 is cost codes.
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  Even if you're not planning on getting into cost codes and like
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  coding everything and doing job costing right now because it's,
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  you know, a big, it's a big thing to take on and get into
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  place. But if you're building out a
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  template, you may as well get Costcos in place so that later
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  on you can always refer back to these estimates that you're
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  doing. It helps keeps things more
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  structured. Typically speaking, if you're
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  using project management software, they already have
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  these codes in there, hopefully, or you can load them in.
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  Reach out to us if you need help with any of this or
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  extracurricular type of stuff to to get done in your business.
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  Again, links in the description. So once you have those Costcos
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  in place, you need to pretty much delete a bunch of stuff off
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  the list. So you wanna simplify your cost
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  code structure. You definitely don't need all of
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  them. And when you're going through
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  them, you're like, oh, I might use that, I might use that.
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  Don't worry about it. You can always add more later.
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  But essentially the big thing is you're kind of divisions.
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  You should have maybe a labour and a materials and that's
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  probably about it per division. Maybe equipment, you might break
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  it down to subcontractors, but typically speaking, you only
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  need 20 to 30 Costcos to get started as, as a general
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  contractor. And that's probably enough.
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  You don't need extra ones, even though it might feel good to be
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  more detailed with it. The cost codes aren't about
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  getting detailed with the scope of work.
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  It's about doing job costing later.
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  And you don't need to know job costing down to the plywood
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  sheet or the nail or, or anything as specific as that.
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  You you really just need the big division.
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  Do we go over on framing materials, you know, or were we
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  under, were we over on framing labour under right.
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  That's that's the kind of things that you need and the cost goes,
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  you don't need to know all the little, you know, minor details
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  that that you can get with all these different Costcos.
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  So making sense so far. Alright, moving on to #4 is
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  pricing. So pricing super essentially
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  essential important to get on a template.
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  And you may be thinking that I want a template that just has
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  all the pricing in there. So I can just, you know, do my
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  takeoffs, throw my numbers in and just, you know, have it all
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  done within very short period of time.
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  That is great. And you can kind of get partway
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  there, But I would suggest not putting in too much detailed
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  pricing because prices will change and it'll get outdated
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  overtime. So things like labour pricing,
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  any kind of like really standard kind of stuff if you can, if you
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  have a project management platform that has dynamic
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  pricing, so it's always pulling from your cost database or from
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  live pricing from suppliers and things like that.
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  Fantastic. Put your pricing in there.
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  It's pulling in live pricing. You know what's going to be
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  accurate typically speaking. I know a lot of the time this
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  isn't typically possible. And if it's not, then just be a
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  little bit limited with the pricing so that whoever is
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  running these, even if it's yourself, you kind of force
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  yourself to go and check the pricing as needed or check the
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  cost database to make sure the pricing is accurate.
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  I also like to put in pricing as like a rough or you know,
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  standard type pricing. So things like per plumbing
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  fixture for labour, that kind of pricing, you put it in there or
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  electrical per display pot light, whatever you want to call
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  it, things like that, where it's a very sort of standard price.
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  And then have something later. I'm going to talk about notes
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  and disclaimers, but have something in there so that
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  people are realize that, you know, this may not be the final
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  price or whatever it may be. As I mentioned, if you want to
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  know how like kind of we don't have like super amounts of
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  pricing because it's going to vary by, you know, state,
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  location, all this stuff, but check out the, the estimating
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  templates we have in the description.
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  It's a great basis. It's going to save you tons of
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  hours getting this first template set up.
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  And because it's a full home build template, you can pair it
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  down to whatever essentially you need.
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  And it's already got the structure.
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  If you're doing remodels, even if you're doing commercial
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  projects, you'll take a lot from that to then turn into a
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  commercial project type template.
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  Alright, moving on to a point #5 and getting amazing templates
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  set up. And this is notes.
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  So you're going to need notes. You're going to need some sort
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  of description. And this is the one of the most
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  time saving things because you don't need to be typing in, you
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  know, all these descriptions for different parts of the projects.
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  There should be some basic descriptions are there, and the
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  kind of things you want to be thinking as as far as
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  descriptions go is any sort of calculations.
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  So if you have a certain type of calculation that needs to get
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  done, let's say for putting in insulation or whatever it may
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  be, put the calculation in the internal notes.
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  So usually you got an internal note and then you've got a
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  description. So description the client's
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  going to see that internal notes is just for internal people who
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  are running the estimate. But any kind of calculations are
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  super handy in there when you've got to run them a bunch of times
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  or so that people know how to calculate that part of the
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  project, especially for people starting out new.
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  If you're training someone to estimate and they're putting in
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  like how do I calculate framing labour for this, you know,
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  remodel or whatever, right? So in that internal note you can
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  put in there, this is how you would calculate it.
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  We've got, you know, typically a crew of this many people and you
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  wanna times it by this and make sure you're counting for set up
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  and takedown and clean up at the end of the day and how many days
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  is going to take. And if it lands on 1/2 day, make
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  it a full day or whatever, right?
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  So put your internal notes in there for sure.
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  And then have any risks in the description as well.
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  So things like excavation, you never know kind of how much fuel
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  you're going to possibly need or you may run into stuff
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  underground make you, if you haven't done any sort of, you
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  know, geotech engineering yet or anything like that, put in the
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  description risk factor until you know this time or this may
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  change, whatever it may be. If you're running like a
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  iterative estimating process where you've got like a rough
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  budget that you give to the client, which I highly suggest
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  you gonna give them kind of quick and fast numbers.
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  And that's what you want in your template.
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  So you can just plug and play a lot of your takeoffs or, or just
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  counts and stuff like that, send it over to the client and it's
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  like pretty detailed. And then from there you run, you
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  turn into a preconstruction agreement.
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  And then you sort of do a detailed where you're getting
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  quotes from suppliers, you're doing selections, you're
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  getting, you know, putting out for tender bids with
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  subcontractors and, and that kind of stuff.
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  But essentially have good notes and have that all in the
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  document so that every estimate is the same.
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  We're not the point number six here.
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  That is protection. So at the end of the day, you
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  wanna make sure every proposal that goes out, every budget that
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  you send is protected and that you are protected as a business.
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  So have this in your template. You should have like a templated
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  cover photo and and proposal. And I talked about proposals and
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  other videos. Not gonna go over here, but it's
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  actually for protection. You wanna mention the terms of
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  the the estimate, the proposal have whatever you want to call
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  it. So how long is it good for what
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  you know, standards and and different things Are you using
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  and mention all the terms then you want inclusion.
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  So what doesn't included labour materials, the warranty, all
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  this kind of stuff, right. So have a list of inclusions.
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  And then one of the most important parts is exclusions.
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  You need the client to be very clear what's included, what's
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  not included in the estimate. So that's not coming up later
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  when you get into the project and they're saying like, well,
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  you didn't write anything about this.
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  I was assuming that it was included.
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  And now it's kind of like you're, you're at odds and you
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  know, who's gonna foot the bill for this thing that that wasn't
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  discussed or wasn't, it wasn't specified in in the estimate.
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  So exclusions can be things like permits if you're not including
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  permit pricing, it could be city, you know, hookups and, and
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  upgrades, things like that. Whole number of things could go
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  in here and kind of remediation for asbestos or environmental
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  concerns, whatever it may be, right?
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  You wanna have a pretty good list.
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  You'll have a contract later that's gonna be more built out,
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  but you should have all your bases covered in the estimate
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  and have that in your template. Alright, moving on to point #7
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  here. This is the big one.
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  This is how do we make it better, right?
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  This first one you're gonna get in place is going to be great.
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  It's gonna save a bunch of time, but it's, it's probably going to
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  be, you know, 8080% to where it should be, right.
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  So as far as improvement, every time you run an estimate, you
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  should always be thinking in the back of your mind if something
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  on the estimate on the template when you're making an estimate
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  is out or should be worded differently.
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  If you're changing something on the estimate before it goes to
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  the client, things like should I be changing this on the
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  template? Is this a change that should
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  happen for every future estimate that we're putting out?
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  If it is, take the 5-10 minutes to go back to your template and
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  modify your template so that every time you're running an
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  estimate, you can improve your template and slowly it'll, it'll
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  upgrade overtime and really be an amazing asset to your
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  company. Another thing is we've talked
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  about getting, you know, that one big template, massive
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  template for the biggest project that you have.
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  You can now, let's say you've done a new home build and that's
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  your, your big template and your standard, but you also do
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  remodels and someone wants, you know, their whole first floor of
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  their house remodeled or they want their kitchen remodeled.
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  Well, you're gonna have to build that estimate.
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  So now take that template and create kitchen template.
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  So take out all the things that dark to do with kitchens and
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  pair it down and, and create a kitchen template and then use
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  that template to estimate that project for the client.
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  Yes, it's, it's a little bit more work, but the next time
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  someone ask, can you do a kitchen estimate for me?
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  No problem. You've got it sitting on the
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  shelf. Now you take that kitchen
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  estimate and you just run your kitchen template and you just
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  run with it to to create the estimate.
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  And I would say any project that you consider you may do a couple
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  of during a year, you probably want a pretty good build
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  template fork. And then finally do price
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  checks. I would create a reoccurring
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  task maybe every three months or so and just kind of revisit the
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  template and do a price check or the prices are accurate.
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  How we raise our labour rates. Have we, you know, does the cost
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  of lumber now 10% higher or 5% or whatever?
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  And then just kind of make sure you're always updating the
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  numbers and checking them every three months so that you're not
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  stuck with old pricing and, you know, not being profitable.
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  So now that you know how to create amazing templates for the
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  next step is to check out this other video kind of guy coming
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  up next. This is a series of, you know,
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  estimating mastery on doing takeoffs.
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  So how do you do high level, quick, accurate, great takeoffs
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  using takeoff software and what software to use?
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  Go check out this other video now.