The post-bid activities are different for jobs for which the contractor is the low bidder than they are for jobs for which the contractor is not. Here are some of the activities that may occur after the submission of the bid.
Bid Review: After completing the bid, the estimator should review the bid and the bidding process to identify any mistakes that were made and try to find ways to avoid these mistakes in the future. Besides identifying mistakes, the estimator should look at what works and identify ways to make sure
that he or she does the same things on future bids. One of the characteristics of a successful estimator is that he or she is committed to continuous im- provement. To do this, estimators must learn from their mistakes and repeat those actions that made them successful.
Project Buyout: If the estimator wins the bid, the esti- mator must buyout the project. The project buyout is the process of hiring subcontractors and procuring materials and equipment for the construction pro- ject. During the buyout the estimator must prepare contracts for the subcontractor’s work and purchase orders for the materials used on the project and com- municate this information to the subcontractors, suppliers, and the general contractor’s project man- agement team (the superintendent, project manager, and so forth). During the buyout process the estima- tor should identify any errors in the estimate and identify ways to avoid the errors in the future. The es- timator should also update the pricing in the pricing
database as needed at this time. The project buyout is discussed in Chapter 29.
Close-Out Audit: The project close-out audit consists of reviewing all activities completed during the con- struction process, including the estimating process, after the project is complete. As part of this audit, the estimator should review the actual costs to complete the project and compare the costs against the original estimate. The goal is to find ways to improve the accu- racy of the estimate. The estimator should look at areas where his or her pricing is too high or low so that his or her future estimates will reflect the actual costs, updat- ing the pricing in the pricing database as needed. For the close-out audit to be useful, the actual costs must be accounted for in the same cost categories as they were included in the estimate. For this to happen a company must have a set of standardized job cost codes that identifies the job cost and spells out what is included in each cost code. This needs to be done in a formal docu- ment. Sample job cost codes are found in Appendix B.
CONCLUSION
There are a number of activities that must be completed to complete the bid. The first group of activities comprises planning the bid. This includes defining the scope of work, scheduling the bidding activities, and assigning the activities to the members of the estimating team. The second group of activities comprises the pre–bid-day activities. These include ordering the bond; requesting subcontractor quotes; prepar- ing the quantity takeoff; pricing materials, equipment, and labor; preparing an overhead budget; and preparing the bid documents. The third group of activities comprises the bid- day activities. These include selecting the subcontractors, combining all of the prices together into the bid, adding the markups, reviewing the bid for errors, and submitting the bid. The fourth group of activities comprises the post-bid activities. These include reviewing the bid and, if one is suc- cessful in winning the bid, buying the project out and per- forming a project close-out audit at the end of the project.
PROBLEMS
1. What are some of the things you can do if there is insuffi-
cient time to complete the estimate before the bid is due?
2. Why should the bond be ordered early in the bid
process?
3. Why should subcontractor quotes be requested early in
the bidding process?
4. Why should you get one bid in each area you are going
to subcontract out before getting a second bid?
5. Why should you get a bid on the high-dollar subcon-
tractor items first?
6. Why should you prepare a quantity takeoff for mate-
rials even when the supplier is preparing a quantity takeoff?
7. What is one way you can prevent the possibility of for-
getting to fill in a blank on the bid forms that needs to be filled in on bid day?
8. Why is it important for an estimator to verify that a sub-
contractor’s bid has a complete scope of work?
9. What are some of the criteria that may be used to select
subcontractors?
10. What should be recorded when taking a telephone
quote from a subcontractor or material supplier?
11. Why should you use phone quote sheets? 12. Identify five different types of markups. 13. What is the overhead markup used for? 14. Define the term buyout.
15. At what two points in a project should an estimator up-
18
In this chapter you will be introduced to the basic operation of Excel. This includes managing workbooks and worksheets, enter- ing data, formatting spreadsheets, writing formulas, using a few of the basic functions, printing, and testing worksheets. Those who are just learning Excel should carefully read this chapter and complete all of the exercises, whereas those who are experienced with Excel are encouraged to quickly skim this chapter and work the exercises to pick up additional knowledge on how to get the most out of Excel. Exercises 3-1 through 3-5, 3-8, and 3-9 are used as the starting point for the exercises in Chapter 32.
E
xcel is a powerful spreadsheet program that can be used to perform mathematical calculations. An Excel file is known as a workbook and has an .xlsx or .xlsm (for files that contain macros) extension at the end of the file name indicating its file type. Files created with Excel 2003 or older have an .xls extension. The Windows operating system has the option not to display the file type, therefore, you may not see the file type on your computer display.The screenshot figures in this book are based on Excel 2010 running on Windows 7 with the Windows 7 Basic theme. Figure 3-1 shows the typical layout for Excel 2010. Your layout may look different based on the selected theme, version of the operating system, version of Excel, width of your screen, and settings used on your computer. As the width of excel de- creases, large buttons are replaced with smaller buttons, which are stacked on the ribbon; therefore, your ribbon may not look the same as the screenshots used in this book. If you have customized the ribbon it will look different.