Simpro Tools: Takeoffs

In this episode of Trades, Tools & Talks, we talk Simpro Takeoffs for time saving estimating with our special guest, Steve Frame, a Senior Estimator at AJB Electrical Services in the greater Sydney area of Australia and Simpro’s Senior Product Marketing Specialist, Bonita Reck.

Follow AJB Electrical on Facebook Follow Bonita on LinkedIn Follow Karlie on Linkedin

AJB electrical has been serving customers in the greater Sydney area for 15 years. And when Steve Frame joined the team two years ago, the business had already undergone a major transformation to streamline operations. Seven years prior, they brought on a business manager who put Simpro in place. Recently, they also added Simpro’s Takeoffs tool to simplify their quoting process and estimate faster.

“95% of our business is run on Simpro. Since Simpro has come on board for the company it's changed everything- it's just streamlined the business so much better,” Frame says.

Steve is the AJB Electrical Senior Estimator, where he works with material estimate lists and markup drawings to build quotes and takeoffs for different projects within the business. Before Simpro’s construction take off software, this meant he needed to generate take offs in one software, and then transfer it across to other software. This resulted in a mind-numbing back and forth process going in and out of different estimating software, which wasted time and stalled the estimating process.

With Simpro Takeoffs, Steve no longer has to move between programs, allowing him to generate quotes faster and save time.

“One of the best things about Takeoffs is you're in the quote and you're in the take off at the same time. And that's so important. It generates the quotation on the back of the take off rather than the take off generating the quotation. So before it was two separate things, but now with Takeoffs, it’s all within the same program,” Frame explains.

Another game-changing feature of Takeoffs that Steve can’t work without? The symbol recognition tool, which is vital when working with job site drawings. The symbol recognition tool is even included with the Takeoffs add on, at no additional charge.

“I think the thing that is most important about the recognition tool in Simpro Takeoffs, is that the orientation of the symbol is irrelevant. That's the key because very few symbols are always in the same orientation on any plan.

It really is the feature of the whole takeoff tool on and above everything else. The symbol recognition tool within Simpro Takeoffs doesn't worry about the orientation. It focuses on the symbol that you're trying to find. And that makes it so much better.”

Steve agrees that Takeoffs is the time saving estimator tool that every trade business can use to speed up their quoting and win more jobs.

“No one's ever got enough time to do all of their work. But this certainly helps us save a lot more time and it's a lot quicker and more efficient.

It can be used for anything that you're doing in any industry. If you've got a set of plans that you have been asked to do a quote on- Takeoffs is the is the tool.”

Listen to the rest of the conversation in the podcast episode above, or check out the full transcript below to hear more from Steve on saving time with Simpro Takeoffs.

Want to learn more about how to estimate better in your business? Check out our blog for 5 ways to improve your estimating skills.

Or to see how Simpro Takeoffs can transform your construction takeoff process, request a demo with our Takeoff experts here.