When it comes to estimating, Excel tends to be a company’s first flinch – it’s comfortable, powerful, and employees rarely need training for it. While this may be true, Excel is often the source of many headaches and unnecessary office hours due to costly mistakes. A simple hidden cell or overlooked formula can end up costing your company greatly. Here are a few reasons that switching to Sage Estimating will be beneficial for your company:
1. Reduce time spent estimating by 50% or more
Filling Excel templates can consume both time and energy in the office. Each cell has to be filled out perfectly to create accurate estimates. Inserting rows or the slightest typo can break formulas which could cost your company thousands. Switching to Sage Estimating takes care of these problems for you, leaving you with more time to focus on strengthening your business. The new Move and Copy function allows users to simply drag and drop items into new Work Breakdown Structure(WBS), or even to simply copy these items into new WBS values. The ability to make copies of previous statements can save reports from duplicate entries. With the hours of saved time, your employee can be redirected towards other channels of productivity without compromising the quality of their estimates.
2. Access to previous reports and historical data
Sage Estimating makes data sharing and viewing easier than ever before. Instead of hunting down old reports and Excel sheets, Sage Estimating provides a complete view of all aspects of your business, both past and present. This includes previous data from not only estimating but accounting and job cost tracking as well. Being able to compare past data with your real time estimates will help keep your whole team on the same page, eliminate repetitive data entries, and improve your profit margins in an ever competitive market.
3. Easy to learn spreadsheet UI
Switching to new software systems typically brings about a host of employee complaints concerning difficulty. Sage Estimating has an incredibly intuitive user interface that mirrors the spreadsheet look of Excel. The modern user interface feels fresh and highly functional. This familiarity creates a smooth, enjoyable transition that will leave users at ease.
Taking your company from Excel to Sage Estimating will produce countless benefits. Cory McFarlane, Chief Visionary as Pinnacle/CSG, Inc. speaks of Sage Estimating’s efficiency, stating that “It allows us to have quicker turnaround… We can probably do a full on estimate in 2 days on a 30,000 square foot building.”
