Feature Set:  

Bid4Build has many of the same features found in more expensive programs and even several features those programs don't support.

General features include both a Customer Maintenance database and a Supplier Database, a project phase tool to break down your estimate into phases, a Create Area section that allows you to divide your estimate into specific areas or rooms—useful for remodeling bids and a Create Assemblies section that helps you group together specific line items that are used together for a specific job. The Area Database allows you to automatically calculate area dimensions and the built-in Calculator and Conversion Programs allow you to automatically calculate various aspects of the bid. Also included are Change Order forms, Job Costing and Tracking forms.

Unique features not commonly found in most estimating programs include a Scheduling System that generates a timeline schedule for your subcontractors and clients so that everyone involved will know exactly what work is scheduled on any given day. There is also a Calendar Management feature which is independent of the Scheduling System that is available for every date entry field. Also included is a Project Photo Database to store digital photos documenting phases of projects and a Map Generator that allows you to create a detailed map and directions to a work location.

Ease of Use:  

With this intuitive design, Bid4Build has made a successful effort to minimize the learning curve for their program. We found Bid4Build to be quite logical and instinctive. This program will be easier to learn than most; you will be able to jump in and produce bids faster. The navigation is straightforward and presented in a step by step process to create an estimate. Each step also includes a helpful accompanying video.

Bid4Build is organized in a hierarchal structure with the customer at the highest level. You need to have a least one customer to create an estimate, but you can create multiple projects for each customer.

At the project level, you define your profit and overhead markup values, tax and reporting defaults. Once the project is defined you are ready to build the estimate. The estimate has a hierarchal design as well, with "phase" at the top. Phase simply defines an aggregation of work that includes one or more areas to be estimated. Areas can be physical—such as a room—or logical—such as the installation of cabinets.

When you create an estimate using physical area dimensions, the dimensions allow you to calculate the extended area in order to define the quantities for your items. If you supply the length, width and height of a room, Bid4Build will calculate all perimeters and surface areas of roof, ceiling, walls and floors.

At the bottom of the hierarchy is the item. Individual items are identified in a database that can be integrated with other data sources. When you create an estimate, you can modify the item if you need to or add new ones, define the quantity of the item based on its usage, and then automatically calculate the total costs and man-hours needed to install the item.

Ease of Installation:  

Bid4Build is easy to install; we encountered no problems.

Help/Documentation:  

Bid4Build does contain a context sensitive help function which contains 14 chapters including Introduction and Getting Started sections. On each screen there is a question mark icon where you can click and drag over an item to view help concering that item or the current screen your on. There is also available a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) database as well as an Interactive Training Tutorial. And as already mentioned, Bid4Build's interface has several videos integrated for in-program assistance.

Bid4Build is a well-designed, user-friendly software package. The program has many of the same features and capabilities that more expensive programs offer as well as a few unique features. For the price, Bid4Build is an attractive package, especially for small to medium-sized companies that don't employ a staff of full-time estimators.