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 Estimating Program Overview
Add Line Item
Change Category Name
Contact Information
Create a New Estimate
Default Pricing
Estimates Allowed
Freight Pricing
Pricing – How Was It Compiled?
Pricing – What Costs are Represented?
Print Estimate
Sales Tax
Save Values
Saving Your Estimate
Scratch Pad Estimate
Security of Your Estimates
Site Response Time
Vendors
View Estimate
Additional Questions
ESTIMATING PROGRAM OVERVIEW
“My Estimator” is designed to assist in providing an estimate or a proposal by serving a wide range of users’ pricing needs, from clients to contractors. Therefore, it’s important to view the “Industry Info” link for each category to identify what pricing is being made available and to adjust your amount accordingly with overhead and profit. The categories are listed in the order that a communications site is typically designed, managed and constructed. Equipment and business services requirements are also included.
This format provides an excellent checklist to ensure that you have included all aspects of the project. Your estimates can be viewed, managed and printed wherever you have access to the internet. You might want to complete a couple of sample estimates so that you become familiar with the program’s capabilities and flexibility.
ADD LINE ITEM
Every category is grouped into one of the main areas of the estimate. In example, under Tower Foundations, you might be in the Drilled Piers category for a specific tower type. However, you will require a flagman during the course of the foundation installation due to its proximity to a State road. Add that line item at this point so that it is detailed under Tower Foundations when you print or review your estimate.
CHANGE CATEGORY NAME
Under each category name you can select “change”. A window will be provided to allow you to change the name if it is not how you want the line item it to appear in your estimate.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Your contact information in “My Estimator” includes the information you provided when you registered as a member of WirelessEstimator.com. You can change it by selecting the “User Options” link on the left hand side of your screen and update your information.
CREATE A NEW ESTIMATE
When creating a new estimate, you’ll be asked to include basic items regarding client information. This will allow you to easily identify the proposal as well as provide the correct information if you wish to print the estimate and provide it to the client or an employee, or keep accurate records for your files.
DEFAULT PRICING
If there is default pricing available for a category, under the Unit Price it will state: “Default Available”. To identify what the Default Pricing represents, select “Industry Info” for an explanation. If there is no default pricing available, oftentimes there will be a range for that particular product or discipline in the “Industry Info”. Additional pricing information can be obtained by contacting one of our valued vendors.
The program will not allow you to store your own default pricing; however, you can set up and save an estimate(s) that will include your default pricing for commonly used proposals and then change your quantities to meet the project requirements.
ESTIMATES ALLOWED
You are allowed 10 estimates. If you exceed that it is requested that you delete one of your existing estimates. If you would like to obtain additional estimates, you can request them on your “My Estimator” home page. You will receive an email response within one business day regarding the availability of additional estimates over the 10 provided.
FREIGHT PRICING
It's always best to have your vendor provide you with freight pricing for your estimate since they're aware of palletized weights, special shipping requirements and all other considerations that might affect your cost. Some expedited freight charges for steel products can exceed the cost of the material. Many trucking companies have added a surcharge to compensate for rising fuel costs for shipments. If you require a dedicated shipment, the typical open trailer can carry 44,000 lbs. By selecting the “Freight” link you’ll be able to choose links to some of the nation’s leading freight companies.
PRICING – HOW WAS IT COMPILED?
Wireless Estimator's pricing is provided by professional estimators throughout the country, contractors and subcontractors, architectural and engineering firms, material suppliers, price services and major national estimating databases.
The pricing is continually reviewed and revised to provide an accurate representation of average pricing for the various materials, installation and professional skill sets required for wireless construction. In example, tower erection and associated installation pricing was calculated by reviewing submissions by more than 150 established companies throughout the country. If you find any category, too far above or below the industry average, please let us know by contacting info@wirelessestimator.com.
PRICING – WHAT COSTS ARE REPRESENTED?
All pricing has an accompanying explanation in “Industry Info” detailing whether it is set at the average cost that a client would expect to pay a contractor for materials and/or services or list pricing when purchasing materials only. It may also show special pricing conditions. Remember, it is just baseline pricing. As with many construction items, pricing may decrease based upon volume purchasing and increase when there are extreme weather conditions and other extenuating site and contractual requirements such as an ambitious deadline or the requirement for night work. Sales tax and freight are not included and should be added to all materials. Although it is not common, installation services may be taxed as well in certain taxing authorities.
Based upon safety, quality, performance, and competitive environments, not all construction is done at these prices. However, these baseline costs are the most accurate in the industry and are excellent guidelines for estimating wireless construction projects and providing accurate capital improvement pricing when no other sources are available. If you are contracting with the industry’s more responsive, quality-conscious, safe and dedicated companies, expect to pay more for these sought after value-added firms’ services.
PRINT ESTIMATE
Select “View Estimate”. This is a printer-friendly page. You can also right click and use “Select All” when you are in the estimate view and copy and paste the information into a Word document for correspondence or backup purposes. The estimate information can also be pasted into an Excel spreadsheet. After pasting it, select “Match Destination Formatting” and then format the columns with “Auto Fit Selection”.
SALES TAX
You can enter a sales tax percentage when you set up an estimate. This amount will be reflected on each category where sales tax is charged. Material is typically taxed, but services are not and no tax is listed for a service category. If you add a line item within a category, tax will be shown. If you do not want the tax charged for a specific category and a default amount is added from the percentage you identified in the estimate setup page, put “0” in place of the defaulted percentage for that line item.
SAVE VALUES
When you are satisfied with the values you have provided in a category, select “Save Values” to incorporate this item into your estimate. You can return to the category and modify it at any time.
SAVING YOUR ESTIMATE
Your estimate is automatically saved every time you select Save Values in any category.
SCRATCH PAD ESTIMATE
If you need assistance in providing a quick estimate for categories such as an entrance road, electrical conductor pricing for a specific run, the total cubic yards of concrete and the average cost for a foundation or any other calculated requirement such as tower erection, use the Scratch Pad Estimate. It will allow you to easily access these items without having to provide the estimate and client information. However, if you select Save Values, they will appear in the Scratch Pad Estimate the next time you open it up. To delete values that have been saved in the Scratch Pad Estimate, delete the values or input "0" and then select Save Values.
SECURITY OF YOUR ESTIMATES
The security of your estimates is important to us. Your estimates can only be viewed by you. It’s important to occasionally change your password to ensure that your information remains secure. Estimates are maintained on a secure server and can not be accessed by any Wireless Estimator, Inc. employee.
SITE RESPONSE TIME
Through load balancing and other server-side considerations, the WirelessEstimator.com web site has been carefully designed to allow you and thousands of other users to quickly navigate throughout the site for extended periods of time. On occasion, due to increased usage at peak times and general conditions of the internet and your service provider in general, you may find the site to be slower than its normal quick navigation. Try again a few minutes later and we’re sure that you’ll revisit us with a quicker response to your estimating and information needs.
VENDORS
When you are in specific category and require additional information or pricing, you can easily select the “Vendors” button to identify which service company, supplier or contractor can assist you with your needs.
VIEW ESTIMATE
You can review your estimate at any time by selecting “View Estimate”. This is a printer-friendly page. You can also right click and use “Select All” and copy and paste the information into a Word document for correspondence or backup purposes. The estimate information can also be pasted into an Excel spreadsheet. After pasting it, select “Match Destination Formatting” and then format the columns with “Auto Fit Selection”.
IF YOU HAVE ANY ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS or suggestions relating to improvements to the estimating program, please  contact us at info@wirelessestimator.com. If you have any category-specific pricing or technical questions, please contact one of our valued vendors or submit a question to the many professionals that frequently participate in WirelessEstimator.com’s Discussion Forum.
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