Estimating Concept Demos
What the workbench looks like once it is carrying the reading and the writing
A few working demonstrations of what an estimating workbench does with a bid package,
including what it looks like reached through Open WebUI. Click into any one and move
around. Nothing you do here affects anything.
Please read this first. These are concept demonstrations, not finished
software. Every company, project, drawing and dollar figure in them was invented for the
demo. None of your data appears anywhere. Parts of each one are deliberately unbuilt, and
are labeled where you will run into them.
The workbench
Estimator workbench
A bid in progress, seen the way an estimator would work it. A pipeline across the top,
what is waiting on you next, and inside any bid, the conversation on one side and the
priced estimate on the other.
Try this. Open BID-2412, Cedar Creek WWTP Controls Upgrade. The engine has
stopped on a question it will not answer for you: Addendum 2 changed a panel enclosure but
the schedule was never updated, a $6,500 swing. It shows its confidence, lays out the two
readings, and waits. The affected line is marked in the estimate beside it.
Open the workbench →
The same work, from a phone
Estimating away from the desk
Eight bids in flight, sorted by what needs you. Open any one and it is a conversation with
the engine, with the numbers it is proposing shown inline rather than buried in an
attachment. Built for a phone first.
Try this. Open Cargill Rev A Retrofit. A distributor quote came back above the
figure that was agreed, so the engine shows you every line it moves, old value struck
through next to new, up to a total going from $484,600 to $487,250. You either apply the
change or keep the original. Then it asks the one thing it will not decide for you, what
margin to carry.
Open on a phone →
The same engine reached through the front door you already run, rather than a separate
application to log into. The estimator stays in a chat with your proposal agent, and the work
comes back as panels they can act on. These two are still pictures, not running software.
Checking an export
Validation against your ranges
An estimator asks the proposal agent to check the current QuotePlan export. It reads the
export, pulls the three closest past proposals, and puts the numbers next to the ranges
those jobs set.
Look at. Twenty two parameters land in range and two do not. Controls engineering at
188 hours sits inside the expected 160 to 220, while contingency at 3.0% falls under the
4.0 to 7.0 the comparable jobs carried, so it is held for review. The review gate below it
stays locked until both are answered.
Open the validation view →
Catching a conflict
Curating what the package says
A bid package goes into the chat and comes back as sourced claims, each one traceable to
the document it came from. The estimator curates what the engine could not settle.
Look at. Twenty three documents in, 148 claims out, and 31 held for review. The one
that matters: drawing E-402 Rev C says the palletizer PLC is existing and gets reused, but
the answer to RFI-03 says it gets replaced. Scope drafting stays locked until that is settled.
Open the findings view →
