Construction professionals have increasingly computerized their operations. Estimating is a common process to put on the computer, but what software should you use? Many people start with Microsoft Excel -- they may already be familiar with it, it's inexpensive, and widely available. Whether it's really the right tool for you depends on the complexity of your jobs, and the degree to which your estimating tool must work with other software.

Construction estimating is a highly individualized process, one defined as much by self-taught techniques as it is by commonly accepted best practices. The results of a recent American Society of Professional Estimators survey highlighted this diversity of processes, as customization (along with ease of use) ranked highest when contractors of all types were asked to name the things they wanted most in their estimating software.

That's probably one reason why a 2008 survey by the Construction Financial Management Association found that Excel was the second most popular estimating software among construction professional. Fully 14% of the construction professionals who responded used it, second only to Sage Timberline Office.

Cost is the other great reason for Excel's popularity among estimators. Among firms with annual revenue of less than $5 million, Excel was the most popular tool.

Since home builders are, admittedly, better at building homes than construction estimating spreadsheets, Excel seems to be simpler for them to work with than free-standing programs that offer additional functionality but often lack versatility, says Bob Hall, president and CEO of Comprotex Software Inc., a Mesquite, Texas-based maker of Excel templates for estimating and scheduling. (A screenshot of one Comprotex product appears below.)

According to Jay Christofferson, founder of Constructionsoft.com, the Lehi, Utah-based maker of Estimator PRO software, the spreadsheet concept works really well for a lot of builders -- and he believes Excel is the most powerful and intuitive to use.

Christofferson, too, sees advantages to how Excel lets users tailor the application to the way they estimate, though some of that customization does require some knowledge of Visual Basic programming. For more extensive customization, builders can buy some of the many commercial construction estimating templates available that build on top of Excel.

Which version of Excel?

Last year Microsoft released a new version of its flagship Office product line. This, of course, included Excel 2007, which presents both opportunities and challenges to end users.

Excel 2007 adds the Office Fluent user interface and a Formula AutoComplete feature. Excel 2007 also supports significantly more rows and columns -- more than 1 million rows and more than 16,000 columns -- than Excel 2003, which supports 65,536 rows and 256 columns.

Additional information about Excel 2003 specifications and limits is available from Microsoft, as is a set of documents highlighting what's new in Excel 2007 and best practices for file conversion and compatibility in Excel 2007. The latter documents point out that Excel 2007 can import files from editions of Excel dating back to 1997; in addition, users can export files from Excel 2007 to older versions of Excel as well, according to Microsoft.

However, as Excel plug-in developer Add-Ins.com points out in a comparison of Excel 2003 and 2007, the new user interface of Excel 2007 takes some getting used to, and performance, particularly when it comes to macros, can be poor.

Ultimately, the decision on which Excel version to use is tied directly to the operating system you are using. If you are in the market for new hardware, chances are you will be getting Windows Vista and, thus, will be using Excel 2007. On the other hand, if you are using Windows XP and plan to do so for some time, then you'll be sticking with Excel 2003.

*** For all the advantages to using Microsoft Excel as a construction estimating too, there are some drawbacks. In Part 2 of this article series, Microsoft Excel for construction: Integration is a problem, we'll ask Excel experts what those challenges are.