EstimatorXpress
EstimatorXpress is the top estimating software programme for UK residential builders. It works quickly and accurately to give building firms professional estimates, quotations and automated reports. There is no other product on the market in the UK that offers the same features and a range of calculators for estimating renovations through to new builds.
EstimatorXpress produces estimates quickly, professionally and accurately. It is industry leading, award winning estimating software.
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Easy to use
EstimatorXpress is considered straightforward to use, with a lot of the features automated. It was developed to provide a practical solution for producing estimates and quotes fast. It’s Quote Templates are pre-loaded with typical projects to reduce estimating time to hours rather than days. Support is provided throughout the free 14-day trial stage and post-purchase or subscription.
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Good value
An annual subscriptions starts from just £649+VAT. You can buy outright as well. EstimatorXpress is feature-rich and regularly updated to introduce new features and enhancements. This combined with the savings made as a result of accurate costing and careful project management does appear to make the software cost-effective.
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Support for customers
The company is UK-based as is the technical support - over the phone (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm) , via email and web chat. Support is free in year 1. In year 2 onwards, to qualify for support users pay a small annual fee for a Support & Updates package. The Customer Support team aims to help the user get the most out of their software and provides a free Software Skills course. The HBXL website also has a library of help videos and FAQs.
To fast track estimating, EstimatorXpress uses whole project templates
The most versatile estimating software available
Software tools capable of producing estimates and quotes for the UK residential building sector are few and far between. Many are designed for individual trades rather than those dedicated to renovations, extensions and new homes. At the other end of the scale, there are highly complex products aimed at large developers and commercial works. EstimatorXpress sits squarely in the middle. This is a desktop tool that has been designed with the non IT proficient person to estimate a new build just as easily as they could a garage - without paying a fortune for it. For more information to help you make a decision take a look at the features below.
Templates for renovations, extensions and new builds
There are hundreds of templates, from a garage to a house, and from a lean-to single storey extension to an Apex roof double storey extension. The pre-loaded template is one of a number of options for estimating.
The software works out all the calculations
As you enter the dimensions, and tweak the specification preferences and resources on screen, the estimating calculators price up materials, labour, plant, wear and tear, and wastage, showing the total cost - live.
An intuitive dashboard
We’re not talking the Starship Enterprise here, but we think the mission-control style dashboard is very clever. You can check on the status of a job - such as what estimates need chasing up, what quotes need finishing, what jobs are starting soon and so on. Individual jobs can be analysed - like what is profitable, what’s not and therefore what kind of work should be dropped or pursued.
HBXL claim 100% accuracy
Live link to current material prices
Price Tracker+™ is exclusive to EstimatorXpress and links the user to thousands of the latest building material prices all sourced by the HBXL team. They use data from a cross-section of Builders Merchants around the UK. HBXL are not tied to any one particular builders merchant so they can offer a wide choice. Users can also link up to certain trade accounts (see the company’s website for the current options). Users can also customise their own rates for labour and plant.
Profit margins protected by Wastage, Overheads and Inflation calculator
EstimatorXpress also includes calculators for wastage, profit and inflation. There are default percentages included but you can adjust these figures to suit your needs. The inflation calculator is an option as far as the end customer is concerned. EstimatorXpress does the complex inflation calculations, you decide whether to add it to the final customer quote. The decision is whether to provide the ‘start date’ cost in the customer’s quote or the cost that reflects the prices on the day you break ground.
The Estimate is just the beginning…
Over 80 management reports are produced automatically by EstimatorXpress from the estimate data. You can assess profitability, cash flow implications on top of getting a full breakdown of costs, cutting lists, material schedules (Bill of quantities) and labour schedules.
Professional Quote
Build Programme
Cost by Build Phase
Cashflow Report
Profit Forecast
Material Order Report
Material Order Schedue
Stage Payment Schedule
Invoice Generation
And there’s more…
Integrating software
All the software in the HBXL Building Software suite can sync with each other and share data - which is all part of HBXL’s strategy to save time by avoiding unnecessary duplication. The technology is called X-Connex technology and it allows the user to put their estimate file, produced from the Take-off into its health and safety, contracts and project management software. Working the other way round, a full CAD drawing produced in HBXL’s CAD software PlansXpress can be dropped into EstimatorXpress. This then reads the drawing data to create an almost instant estimate in the same way as a traced existing drawing can be imported.
Project management
The software also has an integrated, onboard Build Programme which presents the build phase activity based on the estimated labour profile from your estimate. As you make changes to your build program this cascades through the software. Any delays created by material shortages for instance, if you apply these to your build program it will cascade through the rest of the project and update all your time based reports e.g. your labour schedules, stage payments and cashflow and profit forecasts will all update to reflect the change in the build program.
Award winning software
HBXL Building Software has won the award for the ‘SaaS Small to Medium Sized Business Solution of the Year’ at the European IT & Software Excellence 2021 Awards. 'UK Niche Technology Support Provider of the Year (Construction)' in the Gamechangers™ Buildings/ Infrastructure/Architectural/Construction Awards 2021. In the Corporate Vision 2020 Technology Innovator Awards HBXL won the ‘Best Building & Construction Software Developers – UK’. More awards can be found on their website here.