Take-off & Estimate Kit
If you’re used to using a scale ruler or a plan wheel to take-off your projects and arrive at a price - this kit could be for you. You trace the drawings and provide spec details in the ‘take-off’ product and then transfer it to EstimatorXpress, the UK’s leading estimating software, where it will provide an automatic estimate - from the measured data you’ve traced in the plan software.
Instead of a two-step estimating process of taking-off then costing, you can now quote directly from a plan
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Easy to use
Ease of use is assured as the software estimates the costs and quantities directly from the traced drawing. As the user measures areas, lengths and counts on screen, the software is gathering data ready for the estimate. The price is produced automatically once a few questions are answered on importing the measured data into EstimatorXpress.
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Good value
An annual subscription starts from just £899+VAT. For this price you get a take-off function for measuring renovations and extensions, plus the estimating software itself, plus 12 months of support and updates including uncapped telephone support and regular price checks.
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Support for customers
The company is UK-based as is the technical support - over the phone (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm) , via email and web chat. A free Software Skills course is also available to users. Full support requires an in-date Support & Updates package. The website has help videos and FAQs.
Get an instant, accurate estimate and quotation of your traced plan
No more building up all the rates and prices yourself
Not only is it unnecessary to be IT savvy to use the Take-off & Estimating Kit software, you don’t have to take responsibility for keeping on top of material prices. It’s also unnecessary to have to remember everything that needs to go into an estimate for an extension, conversion or new build. The Take-off & Estimate Kit does it all - and importantly makes it easy and fast for all abilities to use. For more information to help you make a decision find more features below.
Intelligent tracing tools
The imported plan (PDF/DWG/DXF) is scaled, then the measuring can begin. Using simple tools you trace over walls, roofs, doors and windows for example, measuring and specifying construction types as you go. Every item you trace is highlighted so you can monitor what still needs doing.
3D model for checking the trace
As you trace, a handy 3D model builds as you go. This visualisation helps you cross-check that you’ve captured all the details of the underlying drawing. Once it’s complete you import the file into EstimatorXpress for estimating where all the measurements and counts are priced and quantified.
Live dashboard
Once you’ve completed your tracing and imported it into EstimatorXpress, you’ll have access to a mission-control style dashboard. You can check on the status of a job - what estimates need chasing up, what quotes need finishing, what jobs are starting soon. You can also analyse individual jobs and all of them collectively. You can assess what jobs pay well and which ones should be avoided in the future.
100% accurate estimates
Latest building material prices are linked and labour and plant rates are fully customisable
Price Tracker+™ is the self-designed system HBXL use to monitor the latest material prices. It links the users of the Take-Off & Estimate kit to thousands of live building material prices which are sourced by the company using data from a cross-section of Builders Merchants around the UK. One point to make - HBXL are not tied to any one particular builders merchant - so there is a wide range of materials across the UK. Users can also link up to some trade accounts (see the company’s website for the current options). They also provide ‘out of the box’ rates for labour and plant so you can get started straight away or you can edit them to suit your business.
Includes a calculator for Profit, Wastage and Inflation
Default percentages for wastage, business overheads, profit and inflation are included with the Take-off & Estimate Kit download. The user can adjust these figures to suit their needs. This makes sure users don’t under quote by missing critical costs. EstimatorXpress undertakes the complex inflation number crunching, but it doesn’t automatically add inflation to the final customer quote. It’s for the builder to decide whether to provide the job ‘start date’ cost in the customer’s quote or the cost that reflects the prices on the day of estimate creation - or give them both.
An estimate is just the beginning…
Using the data that the tracing and the calculators in EstimatorXpress produce, the clever software package automatically produces 80 plus management reports. As well as a full breakdown of costs, you get a material schedule and order reports great for negotiating with your suppliers and making things happen fast, plus labour and plant schedules. It also gives you profit forecasts and cashflow analysis, stage payment profiles and invoices.
Professional Quote
Build Programme
Cost by Build Phase
Cashflow Report
Profit Forecast
Material Order Report
Material Order Schedue
Stage Payment Schedule
Invoice Generation
As well as…
Integrating software
All the software in the HBXL Building Software suite can sync with each other and share data - which is all part of HBXL’s strategy to save time by avoiding unnecessary duplication. The technology is called X-Connex technology and it allows the user to put their estimate file, produced from the Take-off into its health and safety, contracts and project management software. Working the other way round, a full CAD drawing produced in HBXL’s CAD software PlansXpress can be dropped into EstimatorXpress. This then reads the drawing data to create an almost instant estimate in the same way as a traced drawing can be imported.
Project management
The software also has an integrated, onboard Build Programme which presents the build phase activity based on the estimated labour profile from your estimate. As you make changes to your build program this cascades through the software. For example any delays created by material shortages for instance, if you apply these to your build program it will cascade through the rest of the project and update all your time based reports e.g. your labour schedules, stage payments and cashflow and profit forecasts will all update to reflect the change in build program.
Award winning software
HBXL Building Software has won the award for the ‘SaaS Small to Medium Sized Business Solution of the Year’ at the European IT & Software Excellence 2021 Awards. 'UK Niche Technology Support Provider of the Year (Construction)' in the Gamechangers™ Buildings/ Infrastructure/Architectural/Construction Awards 2021. In the Corporate Vision 2020 Technology Innovator Awards HBXL won the ‘Best Building & Construction Software Developers – UK’. More awards can be found on their website here.