What Is an Accubid Anywhere Database?
The Accubid Anywhere database is much more than a material list.
It is the foundation that determines what an estimator can take off, how quickly that takeoff can be performed, what labor and material information is carried into the estimate, and how consistently different estimators can work.
What’s in the Database?
An Accubid Anywhere database can contain individual material items along with the information associated with those items, but its real value comes from how those items are organized and combined.
A developed database can include:
· Material items
· Labor information
· Assemblies
· Intelligent assemblies
· Specifications
· Designations
· Takeoff pads and systems
· Common installation configurations
For example, an estimator shouldn’t necessarily have to individually take off every component associated with a typical conduit installation.
A properly developed assembly can bring those components together into a repeatable installation yet be flexible to maneuver changes
Why Database Development Matters
There is an enormous difference between having electrical materials in a database and having a database designed around how electrical estimators actually estimate.
The database should reduce decisions during takeoff.
When an estimator selects an assembly, the appropriate variables should already be there whenever practical.
That produces faster takeoff while also reducing the opportunity to forget components.
The Database Becomes a Company Standard
For companies with multiple estimators, the database can also establish a common estimating methodology.
Instead of every estimator maintaining their own collection of assemblies and methods, the company can establish repeatable standards.
That makes estimates easier to review, easier to transfer between estimators, and easier to maintain over time.
Default Database vs. Developed Database
The database provided with estimating software gives you somewhere to begin.
That does not necessarily mean it represents how your company estimates.
Developing the database is where material information becomes an estimating system.
And that development can represent hundreds or thousands of hours of work depending on the depth of the finished database.
Keystone’s Accubid Anywhere Database was developed specifically to eliminate much of that starting-from-scratch process and provide contractors with a production-ready foundation.
