RSMeans Data Online Reviews

Ability to change cities. productivity shown. set out as one would expect for trade format

Some pricing is off. Roofing pricing needs better expansion.

Its accuracy across the US, both current and historic data.

Wish it was easier to search for specific data. Occassionally requires rewording topic multiple times.

Hi Don - Thank you for your feedback. Have you checked out the Help Center? In the User Guide, there is a lot of information on "Searching our Data", specifically on the Index Search function. The Index search filter suggests sections from the catalog as you type (2 characters minimum). Once a suggested section is selected the search will take you straight to that section within the catalog (works for Units and Assemblies)." I hope that is more helpful when you are searching costs going forward.

ability to find items, ability to find items

The Purchased Means Database does not work with our PROEST SOFTWARE: - Does not update Quarterly - Inconsistent cost results - Does not allow for Union vs Non-Union pricing - Assemblies are not easily modified, and Units are almost never Industry Standard Units for Assembly

Ability to line item choose from all RS Means disciplines we subscribe to. Ability to customize our output reports. RS Means have the majority of the systems that we need to provide accurate budgetary estimates.

I administer our RS Means account, but I very, very seldom use it myself. As the account admin, I am forced to be one of the user accounts; therefore, I have to allow staff to log on with my e-mail and password to use the online cost estimating. We have determined that we do not need more than two simultaneous accounts and our preference would be to assign the licenses to who needs them, when they need them. I can do that with the non-admin license, but not with the one assigned to me. I’d prefer not to have staff logging on as me (administrator).

Unfortunately it is hard to like much about the software. Many of the assemblies are inaccurate. I am still waiting for a response from the technical service department for a "ticket" that the sales rep put in 5 months ago about inaccurate calculations.

The customer service is almost non existent. Emails and the website advertise that their is customer service available until 10 PM. After speaking with a very unpleasant gentlemen, named Kireee, that responded to me by saying "oh my god, reeeally", I discovered he didn't know how to do anything more than sign on to the program. He was the same individual that promised I would get a call back from...

Read more

It is so much easier than the books! You can search but need to narrow it down for speed.

I can't search as fast as I would like and can't customize the export into Excel to match my contract spreadsheet. Also exports into Excel that have certain symbols, do not work

Detail of the data, and ease by which we can pull an estimate together. As an A/E firm on the front end of a lot of projects the first question is usually how much does it cost. RSM consistently hits the mark with the bid results.

- a 80" computer monitor would work best to try to see everything with all the scroll bars - it would be nice to have an A/E fee adder % like we have for markups, instead of adding a % to every line item. The current option makes the math work but makes for a very messy output in reports. - have the Excel report outputs match the appearance of the PDF outputs. The PDF's are super clean but obviously lack any ability to augment or add things like A/E fee %, contingency, etc. We have to hand-edit them, which is fine, but if we change a number then we have to hand-edit everything again.

The content is fairly comprehensive and helps me get a better idea what costs may be for certain tasks or items. It also gives me the ability to see what the costs are through the different regions of the country. That is helpful because we service clients nationwide.

Sometimes I find it clumsy to navigate around. Also it never fits on my screen. I always have to scroll to the right. At times when I'm searching for an item I may have difficulty finding it. Even simple things. The reports are flat out terrible .

the 2019 on line service brings up 2nd, 3rd, 4th level data a lot quicker than in the past. I use the production info and modify for projects and the materials costs are extremely helpful. searching from the search bar is quick.

upon opening the divisions are open. when working on a laptop it is harder to close the section. it would be good to have a setup button to determine whether we want that open or not.

Useful line items, and ability to price out how much it installation is.

- Limited in terms of what items you can find and price out. We use this software to price out energy conservation measures and some technologies are just not listed which is a limits how useful it can be on a project to project basis. - Sometimes pricing is not realistic for metropolitan areas. Worked on a project in San Francisco and spoke to someone local that said that the prices were nowhere near what RS Means was saying, they were much higher. - need to create every time i want to put together and export pricing for something small. Sometimes I get small requests for pricing and instead of being able to put a couple of items together, export it and send it out, i have to create a project and then put it together to export.

The fact that it is reactive to current costs and I know that the cost I am seeing online is reflective of the current pricing world. I love the assemblies tab and wish that it would grow. I really appreciate the search feature. I like that fact that it is digital and saves me from hauling a book or books around and I believe that most of the time it saves me time versus looking it up in the book.

The search feature is too rigid often only searching one area when there can be multiple terms for the same item. I would love to see the assembly section grow. There are many other tasks that would be an incredible time savings if they were in the assembly section. I would like to see more explanation of what all is included in a line item. explain the processes more thoroughly that help decide one category v another.

The software is easy to use and has a good details about required man hours for tasks and the pricing of materials and equipment.

It covers only commercial projects and has minimal support for industrial projects.

It makes my estimating easier and faster. It would be impossible to estimate a project without RS Means. Its also gives me an advantage to check subcontractors quotes. In addition, I can bid projects in different areas around the country, which has open vast business opportunities in the construction industry that I would not be able to accomplish before I had the program.

I wish program had virtual "Cortana" like Microsoft. Sometimes I need to find an item and I don't know how to ask RS Means what the item is and all I get for a response is that there is no line item. Also, I wish they had more items to chose from and good example is ceramic tile such as: 12" x 24", 18" x 18", 24" x 24". These items are becoming more prevelent. RSMeans needs to keep up with HGTV as items are changing with the times.

Organization of the estimating items based on the Masterformat. Comprehensive list of the estimating items. Ability to verify estimates using the crew listing and the crew production rates.

Some estimating items should be available in both the commercial and heavy civil products, but it is only available in the commercial offer.

RS Means is extremely helpful in creating conceptual Budgets. It offers me an array of building models to start with and a comprehensive library of assemblies to add, subtract, or change the model to fit the particular building that I am estimating. The end result is a quick and accurate conceptual budget, with a detailed summary of the estimates assumptions. My set sum estimating on projects is also enhanced by allowing me to search RS Means data to compliment our in-house historical data. This virtually eliminates planning bias when pricing items within a project that we do not have historical data for.

I had a little trouble getting knowledgeable feed back from the rep that called for the renewal. I probably should have contacted customer support with my question but I received the renewal call before I had a chance to. The rep was very nice on the phone.

Easy to search for the data Many tips available to do the cost estimate (e.g. how to do the quantity take off regarding foundation, spread footing)

RS Means sale various versions - Heavy Construction, Concrete & Masonry, MEP, Commercial renovation Cost. I have all of them and found out only a few added data-base specific to the title, not much worth to pay for. Abbreviation dictionary: It has most of the abbreviation but does not cover all. I have to google from time to time.

The ease of use, the functionality of the online subscription service. The customer support.

Periodically, the system will "mini-crash" causing me to re-enter data for one particular project. Small price to pay for the end result.

Large database and still able to enter customized line items that fit our needs.

Even though the database is large there are lacking items for residential remodeling. Some areas are robust whereas others have very few and require more leg work creating line items.

I appreciate the extensiveness of the cost data library

I wish there was a better way to build/ develop your own assemblies

I liked the ease of picking up the software functionality for gathering reasonable quotes for new and renovations to buildings, streets and treatment plants.

At times I found that the software was lacking in overall speed when loading requested search items. I was able to minimize this issue by refining my search request as best I could but for new users attempting to compare all items of a requested search it will slow down RS Means, and you would have to wait until the system loads the various items. This was mainly an issue when I had over 700 results for a single search.

The outline style breakdown helps with finding what you are looking for in a timely manner

The search function is tough to get the wording just right to find what you are looking for

Easy to navigate and understand. Software contemplates so many different scenarios that it can be easy to obtain the information you are looking for. I really like the factoring for various city indices.

Provides general information. Need to use the software with caution. Understanding the factors of the various line items is key in developing accurate and reasonable estimates.

The access to all the trades and the ability to match items to specifications has been a great help. also being able to retrieve old proposals and have them update quickly

I also have the JOC software from RS Means which no one at RS Means seams to understand and they have tied my passwords to the same account but if I am locked out of one I can not get in the other one. Then all the tech know how to fix this is delete all your cookies. these are place markers for other programs and be cause of the failed IT side of this it makes it hard to accept it as a leader.

One of my favorite features with this software is the locator. Having the costs customized to your location is so handy and much more accurate than applying a general multiplier to each item.

My least favorite feature about RSMeans is the subcategories. I love having all of my HVAC costs in one category but I find the subcategories hard to navigate and find exactly what I'm looking for.

The data is updated regularly and is relevant to the local area

One has to consider the estimate given by the software for reasonableness. Sometimes their numbers are obviously not correct. For the work done most often this is not the case. For some less common work efforts, their data is questionable. The way they name the tasks is sometimes arcane. it seems like people are organizing the data that have not done the work before. Maybe they could use pointers to give something multiple entry points for different ways of saying it. They seem to have "maintenance" relatively often on the weekends, making it hard to use at that time.