Daniel Niedens, a principal at Colvin Kitchen & Bath, said the $3,000 to $5,000 investment in Smart Contractor has been well worth it -- time is saved, fewer mistakes are made and stress is reduced when it comes time to prepare construction bids under pressure.

Before using Smart Contractor, Niedens and his staff relied on spreadsheets, price books and copy and paste to first calculate quotes and then to prepare purchase orders. A quote took one or two hours to prepare, and then a purchase order took another two hours. (Additional information on the "old school" methodology Niedens used to calculate construction bids can be found in our Construction Software Blog entry, Life with construction software: Faster, more accurate bids.)

With the software, on the other hand, Colvin Kitchen & Bath inputs the customer's personal information into the system using a split screen with windows for the project and catalog information. The system then writes the proposal straight from the construction bids so there is no double work. If a customer makes a change, such as a faucet selection, Niedens can change the cost and proposal description in seconds. After the order is approved, the software can automatically generate the purchase orders. Smart Contractor has reduced the time to prepare a quote to only 15 minutes and a purchase order to only 30 minutes, Niedens said.

Smart Contractor also lets Niedens create groups of items that are commonly ordered together. For example, when ordering a bathtub, it can include the tub, the correct waste and overflow assembly, and the setting materials. Every time they copy a tub, all those items are ordered with it. Then each item can be ordered separately and tracked easily.

The only challenge Niedens has found is that the catalog information has to be manually entered. However, other programs come with nationally advertised prices that don't always match local costs for lumber and plumbing and electrical services. With Smart Contractor, all the data matches the pricing Colvin uses. Niedens said it can take a lot of time to enter -- but it can be done without the pressure of a customer breathing over his shoulder.

Niedens rated Smart Contractor a perfect 10 out of 10 for preparing construction bids and purchase orders.