time-saving and very efficient

easy of estimating on time and efficiently

Pros

by using active take-off myself and my team have saved a large amount of time in doing take offs for small to large projects which means we are able to send out for quoting at a faster rate than usual. by using active take-off it takes away from miscounting any items on the plans and produces a table of quantities on the top of your plans, so when you're ready you can send it straight away to the client or wholesalers.

Cons

I cannot fault any feature on this programme. it a great simple & easy programme to use and you can make it suit your needs.

From Takeoff to Quote Within 5 Minutes

Overall, the need for adding pricing manually (one time only and quickly done) is far outweighed by how quickly I can return a quote, the ease of .pdf reports I can pass to our purchaser, and the intuitiveness of entering basic information. For a smaller electrical contractor without a dedicated staff of estimators, Active Takeoff had dramatically increased my productivity.

Pros

The ease of importing plans from .pdf into the software is extremely intuitive. Active Takeoff allows a user to QUICKLY begin the process of plan takeoff. I am literally able to take a bid set from a prime contractor and return a price quote in half the time some of the more robust and expensive "industry standard" software takes.

Cons

The pricing for materials needs to be manually input . There is an import function but none of my material suppliers support the format Active Takeoff uses. It can take a few extra minutes to update prices or add a new device.

It does the job, but with some changes and updates, it could be a lot better. I will continute to use it, mostly based on price.

Pros

Price. Obviously you can spend a lot more on similar products. We only do countertops so it gets detailed enough for us and is all we need to spend to do the job.

Cons

Unable to read the font on the main plan sheet page below the pages. There is no way to search for keywords like adobe. Measurements don't show up on small items even after zooming. The report pages are't that easy to read.

Great software for the little guys

Good experience so far. I did have to call once to learn a bit more about some updated features. I was pleased to find that help was readily available and they where willing to train me on some new items over the phone. However, it is a Canadian based company and the lovely man that was assisting me (I believe one of the founders actually) is French Canadian and it was terribly hard to understand him over the phone. he was so nice and willing to help teach me how to use the product correctly. Even with him taking control of the computer to show how to do everything though, the language barrier made retaining the info difficult. Other than that, I love the product despite needing to grow a bit. Even though I do not use all of its features, its lower price and time saving's make it worth it for me.

Pros

Very affordable compared to similar software. I love that is allows me to color code plans. As a GC, the subcontractors love it when I have a color coded plan for them. This program eliminates my frantic searching for take-off calculation pages and makes it easier to pick up where I left off when changes are made. No more adding strings upon strings of dimensions! Plans allways say "Do not scale" when given to us to Bid, not sure how they expect us to price accurately when that is the case, but the scale configuration is perfect when you are not given an actual scale and still just need to get the job done.

Cons

As a software, It is getting there. there are still some kinks, and usability is not the greatest. It is not a software for someone who is computer illiterate. The estimating and take-offs in particular could use some tweaking. I never use it to generate full estimates because it is missing a lot of what would be needed for a G.C. (Perhaps for an individual trade would be more beneficial). What my money goes into it for is the quantity take-offs. the setting materials is a bit cumbersome and confusing but you can make it work, albeit sometimes incorrectly. But hey, there are many ways to skin a cat!

Great All Around Software

I have been using this software for approximately 5 years, have tried mos of the alternatives on the market and always stick with this software. I would recommend this software to anyone.

Pros

-easy learning curve -lots of functionality -detailed info and reports -customization

Cons

-not enough tutorials -limited explanation of functions, a lot you learn by trial by error

Easy to use, accurate, robust estimating tools at the ready.

Pros

Ease of use, document / file organization and retention.

Cons

Cost can be steep for small business, light users.

Active Takeoff

human error is reduced as you can see what you have taken off, i am very pleased that the company im working for allowed me to purchase this for use as an estimating tool.

Pros

its ease of use is , customization of scale feature

Cons

the initial cost is a lot per license, i feel that was you pay the large first up amount that multiple user licenses from there on should be more affordable

Fantastic Product

I have had a fantastic experience using the product. I recommended it to my co-worker that needed a similar product for his computer. It would have been nice if you could purchase additional seats for the same office at a discounted price, but overall I am very happy with the product.

Pros

I like the ease of use. When I first started using the product, I couldn't believe how nicely all of the tools were mapped and how easy it was to figure out.

Cons

There are some minor functions that create a little annoyance every now and then, but nothing that I would say makes me not want to use the product.

I love Active Takeoff

It really spends up my time trying to calculate how much a item will cost me.

Pros

It is so simple to use and gives you really close measurements. It really works with my estimating program, Contractor Office.

Cons

I really don't have any problems to talk about.

VERY easy to use estimation software

I think after trying a bunch of estimation software Active takeoff took the lead because everything was so intuitive and easy to learn so didn't have to spend time or extra money in taking any courses, and also the price of the software was reasonable

Pros

Very easy learning path, accurate estimation, possibility to include prices and also it runs smooth on my pc

Cons

I have no negative comments, overall it met my expectations

Good Value, a couple of wish list items for improvement

AT is a quick and efficient way to take info out of plans and other images, and best of all to document the source of the take off information. The PDF reports created by AT make it easy to document and share the take off process with others. Really cool program.

Pros

Easy to learn, and does A LOT for the cost and time it takes to start using

Cons

I really want an Excel output report in simple spreadsheet format. Example of what I want: Plan Sheet Color Data 1 Sf Volume Floorplan Red Building Material One 100 600 Floorplan Blue Building Material One 200 800 Elevations Yellow Building Material One 250 900 Elevations Blue Building Material One 50 180 Shown below is the way Active T reports look now. I have to manually create new columns in Excel to show Color and Plan Sheet info IN EACH ROW. So I can sort my report by the heading of ANY COLUMN at will. FLOORPLAN Color Red Building Material One 100 600 Color Blue Building Material One 200 800 ELEVATIONS Color Yellow Building Material One 250 900 Color Blue Building Material One 50 180 This is just one example of the current reports using extraneous rows to deliver information. Please give me one reporting option that has NO rows containing anything that is not pure data, with the sole exception of the headings to each column, which should be located in the first row. Things that are now titles to separate sections in the report should be converted to a column, and the title should be reported on each row. Like the Plan Sheet and Color info is showing in my example report. Please and Thank You!

Active Takeoff Review

I've been using the software for about four years now, and it has been very easy to work with and simple to train others with as well. I think there could be a few items added to help highlight automatically without going through everything myself, but overall, the software was exactly what I was looking for at the time of purchase.

Pros

I love how easy to operate the software is. I tried many programs before this one, but this one had the best bang for your buck, easiest to learn and most transparent to translate to the client.

Cons

The real only issue I have with the software is the routing the paths of the files. I've had to switch computers a few times, and the licensing can be a bit difficult to get transferred to a new computer, as is the transferring of the files. If I did not have technical support from my company, I wouldn't know how to do it myself.

In my opinion the best takeoff software on the market

Prior to using this software I was scaling and taking measures by hand which was extremely time consuming for me and difficult to get perfectly accurate. I tried other similar products but found them no good and so complicated it was not worth bothering. I then trialed this software and was amazed at how easy it was to use. Drawings that would have taken 2 to 3 days to measure by hand can now be measured quickly in minutes or hours which means I can provide quotations to clients much faster and more accurately. After the trial period came to an end purchasing the product was a no brainer. It has paid for itself after just one week of use.

Pros

Its quite intuitive making it easy to use from the get go but also has a level of depth to it once you become more established. Its very good value for money when compared to other products on the market that are both harder to use and more expensive.

Cons

It would be nice to be able to change the currency used for estimations. This may be an option I have not learned yet.

Active Takeoff is Great Software!!

Active takeoff has helped me find mistakes in my sq ft takeoffs before I send out a bid. This has saved the company thousands of dollars.

Pros

This software works great for checking my sq ft takeoffs. If I get a different amount of sq ft with this software than my takeoff, then I know I have made a mistake on my takeoff. In the long run it could save thousands of dollars by giving an accurate sq ft of product.

Cons

I have liked everything about it. There is not a single item with this software that I like the least.

Simple to master

We needed one program to for some staff member to only do simple tasks, while allowing others to get into more complex tasks. Active Takeoff allowed us to all work on the same platform. It was also important to us to have a program that was not cloud based, which we found several compdoeditors are. Very pleased with the product, and the investment paid off within our first month with an enormous time savings.

Pros

Very please with Active takeoff's ease of usability. No CAD background required to get very comfortable on the platform and make the takeoff process far more enjoyable.

Cons

User interface seems a bit dated, but does not affect performance. Also, it would be nice to email reports directly from the software to collegues.

Easiest to learn.

Excellent customer service. Best of any company I've ever dealt with, software or hamburgers, this company responds quickly and fixes issues.

Pros

It was the only one I could jump right in and start estimating.

Cons

The lack of framing extensions. Have to count joists off program. Just limited framing which is what I needed.

Exterior companies Review

Faster quote turn around times, allow me to get more projects and have more profitable quotes since I'm not spending so much time that I don't mind charging more.

Pros

The ease of use, the more complicated uses that I don't need are easy to turn off to simplify everything.

Cons

The only issue I have is that it seems to hide my saved projects every time I update the software but that's probably easy to fix if I put my mind to it.

What a great company and software

Perfect.

Pros

I called today for support. I spoke to the original person who designed the software in 2014. I found out I was one of the first 20 customers to purchase it in the United States. I cannot tell you how happy I have been with this software and the customer service. Incredible. Joe

Cons

Nothing it works great once you build your formulas.

Active Take Off Trial

Very happy with everything about Active. All queries have been dealt with and we have not had to reissue questions etc like we have had to do with other products.

Pros

We are a QS firm based in Western Australia. We have used pretty much all takeoff tools that are out there. Active Takeoff offers a clean measuring tool that leaves definable markups with a legend on each page that clearly indicates what is what. There are tools for amending the item of measure and most importantly the back-up service is excellent. Queries are answered in a language that we can understand and replies to queries come back in a timely manner. This, above anything else, is vital to us.

Cons

Nothing in particular. We are still familiarizing ourselves with the estimating side but nothing stands out that would prevent us commiting.

New technology helping residential remodeling company in Boise

I am new to the world of takeoffs. As a remodeling contractor I always thought takeoffs were for big commercial companies. The program is fun and intuitive. There are a few tricks and shortcuts that I am starting to incorporate. The estimating component is out there for me to learn. Other than a few frustrations with my lack of experience and the way I do thing vs the way the industry does them. I am adapting and enjoying the program very much.

Pros

It is easy and fun to use. It makes my estimates extremely accurate. It has all the functionality that I need in my residential remodeling business. My designer wants to use it but I am having too much fun to give it up.

Cons

There are some features that I have asked for that do not exist yet. I have figured out how to work around them so nothing bad to say. My understanding is that it is a little less flexible and powerful than some far more expensive software packages but I am perfectly OK with that.