Using Production History While Estimating

Hey, I'm Josh over at HCSS. Today what we're going to look at is the Production History feature inside of HeavyBid. Now, what this feature does for you is it helps you become more precise when you're estimating because it's using your true operating production rates. So whatever your field can do, your estimate can do, right? Now, what we're gonna look at from the start is our prep right of way bit item with our clearing and grubbing. On the right hand side, you'll notice that there are a lot of details as far as the clearing and grubbing goes. But the thing that I really wanna focus on is the rate. So it looks like we can perform this at a rate of about 2.5 units per shift. That's what I'm saying right now. And you can see all of the different resources I have down low. And what we're going to do is we're gonna see how long do I need those resources normally? Now on the right hand side, you're going to see at the top, there is a binocular button that says Production History. Whenever I hit that, it's going to take me to the production history panel. In the top left hand side of the screen, what you're going to notice is there is a number there. And this is a number that we have now from our standardization, right? You can also just type in a clearing grub or any keyword that you really want or just search for all of the times you perform that work. Now, what it's doing for me is in the top left hand side, I can see where it says estimated data and the production rate that I have in my current estimate, which is about 2.5. Now, historically, it calculates on average out of all the times that I have performed this work in the past, that I can perform this at about six units per shift. Down low, it's showing me all of the results that it pulled up of the clearing and grubbing work that I've done in the past. If there's anything that looks like an outlier, for example, this one has a higher quantity than we're actually performing on this job, I might exclude that from the average. What that's going to do is it's going to recalculate my historical data and it says that I can perform this at 3.16 units per shift, which is way better than I thought I could do whenever I was first estimating. So using that, I'm going to copy the past five recent times that I've performed this work in the past, as well as the production rate that it's calculated for me. And whenever I hit return history, it's going to update that rate for me. So instead of 2.5 units per shift, I now have 3.16 with some extra numbers here. So down low, it's also going to recalculate how long I need each one of the guys and the pieces of equipment in my crew. In the top right-hand side, what you'll notice is that last change made a difference of around $8,200, which is some more wiggle room whenever I am calculating my estimate. Now, if you ever want to come back and you want to review or see why did I estimate it that way, you have this notes panel and what it's done for me, it's pulled in and timestamped the five different jobs that I'm using and the rates for production that I've used in those past five jobs as well. If I ever want to see why I estimated something in that particular way, I can go to the notes section here and in the notes section, it's giving me a timestamp and the name of the jobs that I'm using to average out my current production rate in this estimate. That way I can very, very easily tell why did I estimate it like this in the past. So to recap, using the Production History feature inside of HeavyBid will help you estimate way more accurately because you're using your field's actual production rates. That in turn will make you more competitive when creating your estimate and also make sure you're covering all of your bases as far as your true costs go. If you have any questions about this feature or about how we can help you take better control of your workflow, give us a call, chat with us, or submit a request for a custom demo on our website.