Plumbing Connection 3-2015

23 / 132

PLUMBING CONNECTION SPRING 2015 23
While, as Andy freely admits, there’s no substitute for
experience, even an old hand at the estimating game can
easily run into trouble if they’re not working from a system.
A high quote will mean a lost job and a low quote will more
than likely mean a loss of income. And with the high levels of
competition and tight margins on jobs it can be easy to slip up.
“A lot of plumbers understandably want get their quote
in as fast as possible and move on. They’re reluctant to put
extra time into it. The thing is, once you use the system
a few times it actually makes the process quicker and
drastically reduces the margin for error.
“I encourage the standard rate system because once
you’ve got all the processes in place, you have confidence
in what you’re pricing and submitting, and you don’t have to
worry about what everybody else is doing,” says Andy.
“I’ve had feedback from builders and clients, and found
that on a job I’ve priced at $1 million for example, some
have come in at $600,000 and others have quoted $1.4
million. It makes you wonder how they come up with the
figures and also, how can there be so much variance on
a straightforward job. It’s really quite remarkable - and
downright scary.”
The Plumbing Pack consists of two main systems, one
focuses on large residential and commercial work, while the
other is designed to suit smaller residential and domestic
projects. Together they contain thousands of fully editable
standard rates with estimates broken down into labour,
material and plant costs.
The Plumbing pack also offers a Job Tracking System
that integrates with the Commercial Estimating System
and allows you to ensure a project is running to budget and
on schedule in real time, and which categories (if any) are
running at a loss. In addition to this, a Variation & Schedule
of Rates System, and Tendering Documents are available.
Andy Farrell has put a hell of a lot of work into developing
an estimating and management system to make running
a plumbing business as simple as possible. He’s also
made himself available to answer any questions readers
might have on estimating. We welcome Andy as a regular
contributing columnist to Plumbing Connection .
Contact: