RSMeans Online Software

Time to Bid, RSMeans is your go to winner.

Pros

Online program is so much faster than the manual. The old way took a while and wasn't updated often enough.

Cons

Specific market codes and specialty contractors are difficult to predict in cost because of a rapidly changing economical environment.

Great tool for estimators, especially for commercial construction

Pros

This is very handy while in a bind estimating. We use this all the time to check our work, crazy estimates and shore up the numbers we need. Done with the book.

Cons

It actually could be a little more user friendly but I never loved the format of the book either. They basically mimicked it. I actually have needed to call ahotline for help and they answered my question right away.

Pros

Is a complete cost estimate preparation solution for cost estimators, contractors and engineers. Have a large database.

Cons

The software is not user friendly and needs a lot of training for excell the software capacities. Also is too slow working online looking for information or preparing a cost estimate.

Pros

crews and daily output, it is update quarterly and it is good for big project and complex project. on site work or civil work has more breakdown.

Cons

the RSMeans does add variable for small job or the condition of the site, the date need integrate with all variable ex. the construction index, the shortage of materials and labors city by city. .

I think this will get worked out and be a good product in the end but be ready for a lengthy and confusing purchasing experience.

Pros

It has the best cost data available. No one else that I can find has nearly the level of information as RSMeans.

Cons

It is impossible to get the thing to work and I believe it is due to how piecemealed the company runs itself and parcels out info. You should be able to keep you cost data and not lose it after the year like the books.

Figuring out what I was actually getting was confusing. The online trial program was full of errors, The check out sequence was full of delays and errors, after finally purchasing it actually deleted my account on its own and still is unfixed. Customer service isn't open to help on the weekend. I tried to order the paper book overnight but it was delayed. They keep them all stored in one location apparently in lieu of regional. Just a frustrating experience overall. their price framing is bad as it leads you to believe the product is one price but the actual price is 2.5x higher for something that will actually function for real estimating.

back on rs means after a few months of working with it, I was able to get more of the hang of things. the product was easily handled by myself and staff easy to navigate, this product has helped a few of our employees understand the rate for items other than local.

Pros

being able to find the information very easily and simple

Cons

the price

Advice to Others

study this product and familiarize yourself with it before judging its capability

I have been using the online version for about 8 months and although I am old school (paper & books), it has taken me some time to get use to it.

Pros

Convient

Cons

Knowing what Means "calls" items in order to find them. So I may enter a common trade name for an item and Means doesn't recognize it.

Advice to Others

Be patient if your old school

There are a few things that make this program very frustrating to work with. The biggest issue is trying to scroll through the data after you search for something. Say "Doors" the database has like 1000 items that are related to doors and it will generate the first 40 or so items in the screen but when you go to scroll down in the window to see more - it takes a while for the new data to generate - and I have a fast connection 100 MB/S so it is not the internet. But that is not the issue - it is the fact that if you scroll too fast and the website has to search for more data, then the entire screen scrolls up and you have to continuously grab the bar and scroll back down. It happens also when you scroll up the entire screen will scroll down and then you have to scroll back up... The other issue is the width of the columns - the allow you to size the columns that way you want them but the column bar is like one pixel wide and for you to point your mouse at exactly the right location on the screen to get the column bar to size the column takes FOREVER !! I have wasted like 6 hours out of 300 trying to resize the columns - the problem is that you can not see the material, labor and equipment prices until you either resize the columns or continuously scroll to the right and then you have to scroll back the left in order to check the item that you want to add to your project - so it is continuously moving back and forth and up and down - NO GOOD

Pros

Great data, excellent product database, great Square Foot model, I have the full blown professional version which comes with unit prices, assembly prices and square foot models for all types of buildings for all divisions for all locations throughout the USA. By zip code, you can set the labor type - union or open shop ...

Cons

Too costly - I paid $$$$ for the full blown version and it is missing some components. Such as LED light fixtures SF costs. Columns are hard to adjust. The layout of the website is not user friendly. To create a SF Model is not user friendly at first. It needs to be more intuitive, and easier to follow. The first thing you have to do is name the project in order to generate any kind of data out of the SF model - well the Name Cell is way down the bottom of the web page - and not up near the top - so if you select the type of building you want and size etc -- it will not generate a SF model .... I have been using RS Means for over 10 years - I started using it in 2004 and they had CD versions then they came out with one license agreements for a server type version - then it was named Costworks - I truly loved the CD version of RS Means Costworks - The best part of having CD is if you lose internet you are not out of business like I was the other week!!! For over 8 hours I had no power in my house therefore no internet and using a Hot Spot does not do the trick when you are searching a database with over 30,000 items....

Advice to Others

Wait for the fixes and wait for the price to come down. The Gordian Group purchased the RS Means product and now they have a system in place where as soon as you type a complaint or email an issue - someone on the other end sends you an email reply saying that it has been fixed .... Well 99% of the time it has not been fixed - the people (upper management) of Gordian need to relax their policies and not make it mandatory to close an issue the day it was created --- People are just pushing papers and they have lost the customer relations part of the process. You get a lot of emails stating that it has been brought up to the engineers attention and that the database creators are aware of the issue and that fixes are coming and the next version will or may or may not have these fixes included .... Not Good - I think to change the thickness of a column should take a few minutes???