Good Investment for Estimators

The online version is great. I like not having about 4 tons of outdated cost books in my file cabinet. I like being able to see what an estimate would cost in the past just by changing to an older data set. The SF cost estimator feature is really good. The one complaint is the structural types to choose from never quite matches what we actually build here in Utah. It seems it is very "east coast" oriented. The cost gets pricey if you want something different than their preselected data set packages. I don't like the fact you can't just pick and choose data sets ala carte. I also wish the formulas would export with the SF cost reports. I waste alot of time recreating links and formulas after exporting to excel.

Pros

I like that it has just about everything you would need to price out for all types of construction.

Cons

Sometimes as an estimator you use your own template and you use RS-Means as a resource for costs and product descriptions. The software doesn't allow to right click copy and paste text feature so I have to jump through alot of hoops to export the estimate in Means to an Excel report and then copy and paste from there.

Review of the pros and cons of RS Means Online

In general, I have had excellent experience with Means. I feel confident in their prices, wages and factors for various areas of the country. I live in Mexico so would love to have a Spanish version.

Pros

the scope of the cost items is very extensive. The wage rates are very good and the crews are excellent

Cons

they should have versions for Power Plants, Refineries, Mining and Metals and other large types of projects. They should also design it so that there would be a industry standard type of estimate report. Means used to have a Spanish language version. They should continue with this version.

Great for Heavy Civil Industry

As far as cost estimation goes, this is the most widely used tool in the industry for a good reason. I have found that in some cases, the cost estimates tend to be lower than bids from contractors.

Pros

The best feature is being able to save job specific cost estimations that can easily be transferred to a similar job in a different region as needed. Local adjustments are available for even remote places in the United States.

Cons

The user interface can be a bit challenging to get used to. There are some acronyms that are not explained and require a bit of digging to find.

Small Architectural firm review of RSMeans Data Online

As an occasional user (maybe once a month); it is difficult to use this any more than is absolutely necessary. As it is, with each use, I still pull the information out into my own "summary" and present it to clients from my custom spread sheet. I basically find myself using it like a Means "book" and not taking advantage of it as an "electronic" system. Currently, my experience requires a lot of extra time just to get the final data into a usable, transferrable, understandable format.

Pros

Depth of the cost data is impressive. Ability to "modify" and customize into "assemblies" is powerful. Software keeps a "running tab".

Cons

Customization seems very proprietary and cumbersome. Experience is required to learn the language and "assignments" of materials to categories and assemblies. Pricing adjustments seem to require being in Excel at which point, that specific work is not "saved" to the program.

Great product!

Pros

With the web introductions and walk-throughs it makes it easy for my engineers to look up what they need, fast and efficiently.

Cons

I, to be honest, have never used the product , but with the initial tutorials that we got last year with the 2019 version the engineers seem to be totally satisfied with this product.