TurboBid

One day, while visiting Mike Holt’s website, I read about TurboBid and decided to download a demo. What I found was soon to be the best estimating software out there; reasonably priced, user friendly, along with the best technical support I have ever received. It almost seemed too good to be true.

A mapping feature would be nice to have.

Being in business since 1974, I have purchased almost every estimating program out there. I simply wanted a software program that my electricians could easily use and understand. On May 13th, 2008 I started emailing TurboBid support with every question I could think of; the ""what ifs”, ""hidden costs”, ""training”, ""licensing”, etc. Within hours, TurboBid would respond to my emails truthfully answering any questions I had. I knew that for the time and effort the company spent communicating with its customers that they would stand behind their product 100%. Aside from the company’s service, the most amazing part about the software is its extremely reasonable cost that includes automatic updates on new features and improvements. I would highly recommend TurboBid for any electrical contractor. This is a program created for electrical contractors by an electrical contractor. Once you experience the software and how user friendly it is, you will walk away with the best estimating program out there.

Following are some of the things I like about your program: All of the material items and assemblies in the database and the fact that I can add my own, the auto upgrades, the changeable labor units, the overhead wizard, the labor burden wizard, TurboBid is a totally flexible system that I can tailor to my business and it's expenses, the bid package reports that TurboBid generates are completely customizable to suit my needs and wants, the price that I paid was way less than the other programs I looked at and I didn't have to take a course somewhere to use it, the software is not complicated or hard to use. I'm a simple man and if this was a complicated system, I wouldn't still be using it.

The ability to select vendor quotes that are automatically added to the estimate.

Thanks Bill. Is there a place on your website that I could log in or go to to leave a testimonial? As much as you've helped me it's the least I can do. I know you feel like it's your obligation to help, but it's also your selling point and a big one for someone like me, who is somewhat computer illiterate.

I’ve tried several estimating programs ranging in price from free to a couple thousand dollars. I wasn’t satisfied with any of these. TurboBid simplifies and automates the whole process from the take-off to submitting the bid proposal. TurboBid is an excellent program at a very affordable price that will more than pay for itself in time. It will save time estimating jobs and produce profitable bids.

If you visit electrical forums on the internet you’ll find the same two questions keep getting asked over and over again. How long will it take to complete the electrical for a type of home and how much should I charge to wire this house. Having good estimating software and using it means you’ll know how long the job will take. You won’t have to ask this question on a forum and get twenty different answers from twenty different people. Electrical contractors starting out will spend thousands of dollars on tools and equipment but are reluctant to spend anything on estimating and accounting software. In my opinion these are the most important tools an electrical contractor can own. I highly recommend TurboBid combined with Mike Holt’s Illustrated Guide to Electrical Estimating.

It is exactly what I have been looking for to estimate our single, custom, town homes, Multifamily and commercial projects with. The detail & flexibility in this program is excellent.

I purchased TurboBid 10 minutes after I had reviewed it! I have used Accubid, Timberline which is Sage now, EBM, and about every estimating software there is on the market but, nothing I have used worked for residential applications. I expected to pay a heck of alot more for a program that does this much, I got a bargain and a excellent product that fits our needs. My Son and I were very impressed with the labor section, especially the Labor Burden that so many people forget to add in to their labor cost. Another fine product in our arsenal to succeed.

I spent quite some time looking at software before I bought Turbobid and almost everything I looked at was more expensive, but more importantly there just wasn't anything that was set up as well.

I bought Turbobid a few months ago. I know sometimes, when you're starting out, buying an estimating program can seem like a luxury, but you have to remember it's a tool, just like an electric screwdriver. Can you get your job done without it? Yes. Is it better for your business to have an electric screwdriver even though a manual one is cheaper...sure it is.

Very little work on my end. Everything is setup, all you have to do is compute the information.

I would like to see a Quickbooks interface.

The Estimating Software Turbobid is a user friendly program. Thousands of assemblies and single items are available and everything can be edited or changed for up-to-date material cost.

I like the ease of use, and was up and running in an afternoon. They have great customer service, everyone at TurboBid is great and they care about their customers, always available for good advice and a great learning experience. They really go the extra mile to help with a problem you may have encountered.

We are able to turn out the most professional proposals in the least amount of time. You can give your customer anything from just a plain bid price to an extensive proposal that includes all of the equipment being used, and all of the labor being supplied. Even a room by room breakdown of the items included for your customers review.

I got information of competitor bids on projects. I have never been the highest and sometimes was the lowest. The bid price has mostly landed in the middle. This makes us competitive with the other contractors out there who are probably using ConEst (Which we did not like). To me this proves you offer a great program.

I wanted to give you a little update on my turbo bid experience. I have really enjoyed using it. I have found it easy to learn. I am not a full expert on it yet, but learn something new about it often. It really has been a helpful tool for my contracting division.

TurboBid is definitely able to do both residential and commercial estimating; but it is much more than a estimating program. I am able to let my customers see exactly what they are getting with room by room take-offs, option pricing, proposal inclusions and a defined contract pricing print out. TurboBid has allowed me to show the customer a very personable and professional image of our company. I do enjoy the continued support of the TurboBid Team taking the time to incorporate my ideas on the forum to make the program and material database even better.

I am a new contractor, but not new to the electrical business. I knew when I went into business for myself I needed an estimating program that would work for ""residential"". I shopped the ""other"" big name estimating programs and I found that they were mainly commercial material database programs. 6/5/08 - Follow-up message received from Craig: My business has really taken off the last three months and I have to credit that to TurboBid as my customers like my thoroughness as well as a detailed estimate. I know I have won bids against some of my local competitors by being able to present a great proposal.

TurboCloud updates material prices every week. I have used Trade Service and NetPricer in the past, but TurboCloud’s price updates seem to be way more accurate. I also use TurboPricer to update my vendor material pricing. A big benefit to me is the exception report that lists alternate items that my vendor carries. I can add these alternate items easily into my database. When doing so, the vendor’s name and pricing is added to the alternate items with the price source set to use lowest vendor price. This means that my estimates always use the lowest priced vendor. When ordering material for the job, the items are displayed in a material screen, complete with pictures. The material includes the package size, for example, #14 THHN wires comes in a spool of 500 feet. The material screen shows the quantity required per the estimate, as well as the order quantity. If there is a minimum package size, I receive a warning to adjust the order quantity. I can even assign the extra cost to the estimate if it’s for material that I probably won’t use on a future project.

TurboBid’s software is amazing, and it keeps getting better with each new version!