Feature Set:  

The National Estimator program offers an electronic index to aid in finding the correct costs for the specific area of the United States on which you wish to bid. The estimating form is located in the lower window and the cost book can be found above. The process of using the cost book is very simple. It requires you to select the item in the cost book that you wish to copy, enter a quantity and click the item to paste it. If you click on the item again, you can add the markup and the entire process is complete.

National Estimator includes dozens of additional cost books free of charge. These books cover the labor and material costs of all major construction trades and specialties. You may use the costs from several of the offered cost books in a single estimate. All Craftsman cost books are updated quarterly and are free of charge. The updates are located on the website and are automatically installed on your computer.

To attain job cost tracking and reporting facilities, you must download the Job Cost Wizard program. This program generates reports which allow you to export to QuickBooks version 5.0 and higher to allow you to perform progress billing and track job costs.

National Estimator offers some customization options as part of its software package. You can alter any price or description in your estimate and create template estimates featuring your own prices and most common bid items. You may add any items you wish to the database, including, costs, notes about quotations, favorite suppliers, phone numbers, etc. Any changes will be highlighted in red, for easy reference.

Ease of Use:  

Upon completion of a brief introduction to the program and the available ShowMe video, the software is very simple to navigate. The only difficulty is in locating the exact line item that you wish to copy from the comprehensive cost book. There are no bells or whistles with this program. It is a very basic estimating program.

Ease of Installation:  

This software program was simple to install. We encountered no problems in the process.

Help/Documentation:  

We were unable to access the help in the demo product. We did, however, find helpful interactive tutorials and electronic help files which simplified the estimation process. There was also a FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) segment located on the website to address any unanswered questions that we had.

If you are searching for the most basic, cost-efficient estimating program on the market, National Estimator is the product for you. It lacks the frills of more competitive software packages, but includes massive databases of cost information relating to every possible item pertaining to the construction industry. In using this product, you must assume that the information and research offered in the database is correct. Although it is a handy feature to have access to cost information from around the United States, we are unsure if this information actually contributes to a more competitive bid. However, if you are employed in an out-of-state job, it does save the time that would be spent gathering the information yourself. As an information database, this software ranks near the top.

If you are looking for an estimating program for your medium to large construction company, this program is probably too basic, but the comprehensive cost databse could be useful as a resource for regional costs. For the small construction company and subcontractor, the cost database is virtually useless due to the fact that most jobs are locally located and you will want to get local exact costs.

Overall, even though the price is virtually nothing compared to most estimating programs, a program offering more convenient features and customizing options would be a much more practical selection.