“It’s fantastic. It’s working really well for us.”

Ian Bateman

Ian Bateman is co-owner of Black & White builders in Hampshire. He and Gary Hammond run a successful construction firm, focusing on extensions and renovations.

As owners they like to be hands-on as much as possible, which means hours spent estimating is, as Ian put it, “time we’re losing out on site”. It’s a typical catch-22 faced by small businesses in the residential construction sector.

Ian explains, “The requests for quotes are increasing which is great, but the complex projects can take up to a week to estimate. Well that was certainly the case when we were employing our usual method of typing up all the details and putting the numbers into Excel.”

First choice following research

With this in mind, the company decided to investigate estimating software and discovered after researching various options, that BuildingWorks ticked lots of boxes, including the fact that the software is a subscription model and payable on a monthly basis.

So following a trial with full technical support during this period from Marc at BuildingWorks, Black & White Builders took on a 24-month subscription of the ‘Estimate Professional’ module.

Massive time-saving benefits

So how are they finding the software? “It’s fantastic. It’s working really well for us. Complex quotes are currently taking just over a day, and often less. And we’ve only been using the software for a matter of weeks. Thanks should go to Ed who has been great, he couldn’t be more helpful.”

As Ian and Gary subscribe to the ‘Professional’ version of the Estimate module, they also benefit from instant Gantt charts, reports and professional, customer-friendly quotes.

“The detailed schedules and material lists in particular, are an added bonus, and we’re already appreciating the business benefits. The subscription is already paying off.”

If you’d like to know more about how BuildingWorks could transform your business simply request a trial or give us a call on 0117 916 7880.