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Many Types of Alternates

HeavyBid includes programming to allow you to handle alternates in several different ways, depending on the type of work you are bidding. You may group alternates to include or exclude cost from the bid, add or leave out activities to compare methods of completing work, or even include or exclude activities to compare subcontracting to self performed work. This change between including or excluding cost is handled by a single click of a checkbox in the program that will toggle between “additive” or “non-additive” cost.

The Package Alternates feature allows you to group selected biditems into different alternate groups during setup. You can then see the total for these groups in a single screen and toggle their cost to bid between additive and non-additive. This is useful in situations where you want to bid the same work but want to compare different methods of production. It can also be used if the owner of the project wants to see the job broken out into the base bid and different potential alternates or additional portions of work.

HeavyBid also allows you to toggle between additive and non-additive cost at the activity level. This can be useful when comparing the prices of two different methods for completing an activity. An example of this would be if you wanted to see the cost of hauling with a truck compared to hauling with a scraper. The example below shows how a non-additive item is indicated on the entry screen in the activity portion of the screen and the tree portion of the screen so that you can quickly recognize it.

Another useful feature is comparing the cost of self performed work to the cost of subcontracting the work out in the quotes system. . The setup is simple and allows you to quickly enter quotes from subcontractors, compare the cost, and select to complete the work yourself or hire a subcontractor.

These different methods of handling alternates give you more options, and help make it easier to compare work and bid more efficiently.