Your Direct Costs for an estimate are the Resources (Plant, Labour, Material, Subcontract) used in your project.  The cornerstone of Benchmark is its flexibility, ease and speed by which you can estimate the direct costs for your project.  You can estimate your direct costs using a method that suits your project:

1. Add Items (An Item is a collection of Resources, also known as a recipe or activity) from an Item Library

2. Import a client's schedule of items (or bill of quantities) from a spreadsheet and price this using Allocate. (see below for more information)

3. Create Items from first principles by adding Resources from your Resource Library into an estimate, or create new Resources within an estimate. 

4. Run a Routine; Routines are ideal for pricing tasks or projects with many user-defined parameters (see below for more information).

The FULL version contains some additional functions that you can use in bidding your direct costs.  These are listed below and include Auto Allocate, Sub Items, Subcontractor Manager and Resource Rate Change.
 

Routines are ideal for day-to-day quotes and can also be used to bid items in larger projects, by simply answering questions.  Benchmark's Routines feature is fast and easy to use and will also increase consistency in your business.  When you run your Routine, Benchmark allocates the appropriate Labour, Plant, Material and Subcontract resources required based on your answers to the questions. 
 

Import a client’s schedule of items (or any prepared bill of quantities) from a spreadsheet to save time.  No retyping of data and no chance of embarrassing errors.  You can even save your bid rates back into the same spreadsheet when you have finished your estimate.
 

All of your estimates and libraries are stored in a central data file for maximum efficiencies in your estimating and business processes.  There is a powerful Project Browser screen which lists all of your estimates in your data file, and allows you to quickly find your previous estimates.  Benchmark's central data file also facilitates better interfacing with your other business information systems.
 

Benchmark allows you to allocate your Profit and Indirect Costs (Overheads and Contingencies) quickly and easily and with a lot of flexibility.  For your Profit you can apply a different % Markup on your Labour, Plant, Material and Subcontract components of your job.  There are also % and $ allowances able to be entered for your Indirect Costs, including Contingencies (Risks) and Overheads like Supervision and Wet Weather.  You can also add Items or Resources to "Overhead Sections" for things like Site Overheads; these Overhead Sections are not displayed on your quote to your client and are spread across your Direct Cost items.  In Benchmark's powerful Spread screen you can control the spread of your Profit and Indirect costs over your Direct Costs, on an item by item basis.
 

Over 70 reports to save you time and save retyping of data.  Reports available include Quotations, Quote with Options, Schedule of Rates reports, Estimate Summaries, Bill of Quantities, Bill of Materials, many Resource usage reports and Overhead reports.  Using Benchmark’s reporting will improve the effectiveness of your estimate review processes, and the transfer of information to your site staff for improved project management and maximum profits.  Many exports to Excel also exist.  The FULL version includes additional reports which are detailed below including Microsoft Word Templates and Marketing reports.
 

Update previous, completed estimates with current prices from your Resource Library in seconds.  Cost Check is a powerful feature that will save you hours of time and is ideal if you ever need to give a client an updated estimate that you priced previously.

(FULL version only)   Benchmark allows you to customise the format of your quote/proposal to your client, using templates that are set up in Microsoft Word®.  This powerful feature helps you to improve your marketing and stand out from your competitors.  When you purchase Benchmark you even receive numerous sample quote templates in Word; you can use these, edit them or create your own. 
 

Subcontractor Manager   

(FULL version only)  If you ever have to price a client’s schedule of items (bill of quantities) then Auto Allocate could be the biggest time saving tool your business could own.  This smart, powerful feature is unique to Benchmark and will improve your estimate consistency.
 

(FULL version only)  Sometimes making a simple phone call to ask about a job is the difference between winning and losing the work.  Benchmark’s Follow Up feature reminds your estimators when to follow up their quotes so you can improve relationships with your clients, improve your reputation in the market and win more jobs.
 

(Full version only)  All resources used in your estimate can be viewed in the one screen, and you can make project specific changes to Resource prices quickly and easily.  You can edit the Resource Rate manually or allow for a % discount from a Supplier.  This will save you time and help you produce more accurate and competitive prices to suit each job.  This feature is ideal, for example, when you get a cheaper price for some of your materials on a job.
 

(FULL version only)  Analyse your market share and other key business performance indicators (e.g won/lost/pending, reason for loss, competitor comparison) quickly and accurately.  This will help you analyse your tendering performance, analyse your market and improve and grow your business.  You can also generate a Forward Order report to compare your expected revenue against your monthly budgets.
 

(FULL version, available as an option in LITE)  Generate Progress Claims quickly and accurately directly from your Benchmark estimate.  No messy copying and pasting in spreadsheets, or retyping of data, means you will also eliminate errors. Submit your claims by % or quantity complete.
 

(FULL version only)  Sub Items are a great time-saving feature which allows you to call up whole crews or material assemblies as a single resource.  You can even modify a Sub-Item to suit an individual project, and if the same Sub Item is used in a project in many different items, your changes flow through to all of your items.
 

(FULL version only)  Email your quote as a PDF document directly from your Benchmark estimate to save time and impress your clients.  You can also fax your quote directly from Benchmark.