We were a 20+ year user of Sage/Timberline (Estimating Extended Version). We have been using WinEst Pro Plus version for about 6 months now. We are building our own database rather than using one of theirs, so it has been slow going, but we love the software. For those Sage/Timberline users, WinEst works on a very similar platform and you will find it very easy to pick up. However, it seems like every little task you do in WinEst is just a little better, a little easier, a little faster than Sage. Because of all those little things adding up, we have found WinEst to be a much better solution overall.

Spreadsheet based, but very powerful database behind it. Ability to assign two crews and two equipment groups to each line item, allowing huge flexibility in crew makeup. Easy to make revisions to production, crew hours, etc. on the spreadsheet, on the fly without having to open a detail window. Great flexibility in reporting of information without having to create/write custom reports. Creation of assemblies is much, much easier than Sage.

You have to assign both 5 digit and 6 digit CSI codes to each database item, making input of new database items cumbersome. We wish there was a way to toggle off the 5 digit requirement.

Try this if you are familiar with sage!

I liked this software because I was able to build a database and after I did my take offs, I could enter them in here and it would do the math automatically. I think this is a lot like sage, but I love anything that has an Excel theme.

I did like everything about this software, I ended up using Sage at a new company, they were very similar and the costs were too.

I like the flexibility the simple interface offers. The ability to allocate markups makes this product especially useful and dynamic. The catalog and database of cost items is very helpful. Having the ability to choose items from a tree helps in the estimating process. It reminds you of different items you might be forgetting in your bid.

The biggest downside to this software is the customer support. Easy enough to get someone on the phone, but they will literally refuse to speak to you about any issues or problems unless you buy the support plan. The support plan is also overpriced. I am OK with software developers charging a fee to teach someone how to use the software, or to assist with integrating their program into your existing system. However, I am not OK with them charging a fee to fix issues within their software that you have already purchased. I feel like that should be included in the price of the program.

Winestimator is a great estimating tool. With the ability to save small local estimates, or collaborate and update versions with the Enterprise Data Manager, Winestimator allows companies plenty of flexibility to support its initiatives. This program allows you to create custom labor rate tables for your clients, custom crews, shifts, etc for the most accurate estimates. It also integrates custom or standard commodity codes for clean, consistent estimates from your company.

There is a lot to learn as far as administering and maintaining this program. It is relatively easy to use, but someone has to set it up and troubleshoot it. This can be quite a laborious task, but once everything is setup it is very efficient.

WinEst Customer support is always superb and helpful. Just about anytime you call or email, you would get an answer right away! The markup function is great. It allows users to easily manage different markups, taxes or escalation.

Reporting is not the best. It would be great if it comes with a set of can reports and allow users to modify from it. Also, it would be great if crews table can be imported and exported. Understanding that there are ties from the trade table with it, but it is a pain to not able to import from a table. Auto line number would be nice, especially if it would be nice if it lets you renumber in case if we want to insert line in between existing ones.