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Recommended
Guy B.
Construction, 1-10 employees
Used weekly for 2+ years
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Very helpful
Helps me get a quote quick. Very close to cost on most projects if inputs are done right
Mostly east coast language. A little hard to find some costs
Kent O.
Accounting, 1-10 employees
Used weekly for 2+ years
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Reliable cost estimates in tax/accounting environment.
Provides Comprehensive data, and separates material from labor cost.
There could possibly be more cost models.
Keith S.
Civil Engineering, 51-200 employees
Used monthly for less than 6 months
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Overall we are happy to use RS Means online to perform quick, efficient cost estimates for our projects, and we have grown accustomed to making some overrides on unit costs where we know they differ from the local averages. The speed that this offers to estimate costs to get order-of-magnitude ideas of construction costs is well worth the cost of the subscription. Doing these by hand or with a printed RS Mean Book is slower and more costly to do, so we prefer the online format.
Pros: The ability to search pay items is quick and simple. The budget builder is easy to use and exports a nice format that we can use on our summary reports
Cons: Not all items we would hope to find are in the pay items, so we have to get creative with some of the item costs. Some of the costs seem to be orders of magnitude different that actual industry averages, so we over-write some of the costs that we find. The format for tracking the total cost of an item is complicated. Sometimes labor, equipment, consumables, goods, overhead and profit are broken out separately, and sometimes they are lumped together, so it is hard to have a consistent format when different items are displayed differently.
Howard T.
Government Administration, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used weekly for 2+ years
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Customer service is good.
Being able to assemble an itemized cost estimate on the computer.
The pricing structure for group use is excessive.
Shawn P.
Architecture & Planning, 201-500 employees
Used monthly for 2+ years
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It has been a great tool to talk with clients in real-time about design options and their affect on the bottom line. In the past this has been an issue with alot of mistrust around it and being able to show validated third party costs has added credibility to costing work.
The best parts of this software is that availability to access it anywhere I am. Its been great to be able to show clients a third party cost and the relative effect of different scenarios in realtime.
It can run slow at times and its not intuitive to non-technical users.
Angel M.
Construction, 51-200 employees
Used weekly for 1-2 years
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We use it to reference data on all our bids. Will continue to use the service.
Very helpful when trying to price out projects. Usually its dead on.
We are do a lot of drywall finishing and Black Iron for ceiling support, and there are not much details for pricing labor.
Marissa N.
Construction, 1-10 employees
Used weekly for 6-12 months
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Overall it brings value to me and our company so I will continue to use it just wish it was slightly more user friendly.
I like that I am able to price our jobs reasonably based on the recommendations from the program.
I wish you were able to add your favorites to your estimates, if you can do that I haven't figured out how. I also wish you could select if you want just labor instead of labor and materials. Then I have to click on each line item and figure it out myself.
David T.
Building Materials, 1-10 employees
Used weekly for 2+ years
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Easy to use very accurate very deep data base
The annual fees are a little expensif but, in the end, worth it for us.
Haresh U.
Design, 1-10 employees
Used weekly for 2+ years
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Great Experience
Have plenty of data and information for all disciplines.
Not covered all items and broken down to find them easily.
Stéphane G.
Construction, 11-50 employees
Used weekly for 6-12 months
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Base de données complète permettant de se situer et d'estimer des coûts détaillés.
Une bonne calibration est nécessaire avant l'utilisation du produit. Vous devez vous assurer de suivre les coûts du marchés et les réalités de votre secteur et en faire l'ajustement le plus souvent possible.
Showing original review in French. See translation
Hello Stéphane - Thank you for taking the time to submit feedback of your experience with RSMeans Data Online.
Robert N.
Construction, 11-50 employees
Used weekly for 1-2 years
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This software is easy to use and accessible via the internet so it makes it easy to work with.
This has a large amount of items that can be cumbersome to find. It would be helpful to have a favorites button to quickly access regularly used items.
Thomas V.
Construction, 1-10 employees
Used weekly for 6-12 months
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A benefit i obtained s the city regional based data.
I like the many options presented to develop a comprehensive estimate. Customer Service is the best I had encountered with any cost related company. The could based software is second to none.
There are really no cons that I encountered utilizing this software.
Akhilesh E.
Utilities, 11-50 employees
Used monthly for 2+ years
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I work on developing population level technical papers and their historical cost index is amazing to estimate the change of cost over the years.
It is so easy to use. Any first timer can easily figure this out. The industry trust this source and hence one does not need to worry about justifying.
I had a small hiccup in transitioning from one email account to other. However, the team was pretty responsive in resolving this
Carla I.
Architecture & Planning, self-employed
Used other for 2+ years
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Ease of use. Current pricing. Great descriptions.
Nothing, quite honestly. I would love it to be a little more affordable.
Aubree K.
Construction, 1-10 employees
Used other for less than 6 months
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Nothing. I have used the printed cost guide manuals in the past- the way the software was "pitched" thought it would be great but you can find better data on Angie's List, etc.
The new program said that it also includes "remodel/rehab" data not just new build. However, the amount of info you have to enter just to price cabinets for example, makes it too time consuming and worst part- it'a not accurate. Online data for free is more useful. Save yourself time and money and use online data and throw your logo onto a word doc to create a bid. I've also used the online chat feature for help and was only told to "go look on the website" etc- very disappointed. Buyer beware- very expensive and they must know their limitations because there are no refunds- so it's a literal trap.
Todd C.
Construction, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used monthly for 2+ years
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Great tool for estimators, especially for commercial construction
This is very handy while in a bind estimating. We use this all the time to check our work, crazy estimates and shore up the numbers we need. Done with the book.
It actually could be a little more user friendly but I never loved the format of the book either. They basically mimicked it. I actually have needed to call ahotline for help and they answered my question right away.
Stephen E.
Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, 1-10 employees
Used weekly for 1-2 years
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RSMeans is an industry accepted tool for estimating project costs. Using RSMeans has increased the legitimacy of our project quotes.
There is a lot of information and can be difficult to navigate for beginners to the software.
kathleen C.
Construction, 5,001-10,000 employees
Used monthly for 2+ years
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The data provided is very useful especially when creating a job estimate. If you are looking to get a large set of data over multiple geographies it can be difficult. Not sure if this customer segment has been considered.
I appreciate how granular the data gets and output is easy to understand.
First timers might struggle with how to create an estimate and update it over time. Price per square foot and reference charts would be good if more easily extracted (not PDF)
MICHAEL K.
Architecture & Planning, 1-10 employees
Used other for 1-2 years
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Other on-line packages may provide more detail. The Square Footage Estimator is limited, but it is nice having access to the tables and historical information so I can prepare reasonably accurate comps.
Access to documents and tables 24-7-365.
Limited construction systems available in square footage data.
Nathan S.
Facilities Services, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used weekly for 1-2 years
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It is easily accessible and you can build an estimate in the system.
There are a lot of missing items that I need pricing on. Also the reports are not near as helpful as they could be for a system like this.
Joel G.
Construction, 51-200 employees
Used weekly for 1-2 years
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Easy to you and fairly straight forward.
It's great that the data is always current and easily accessible by our users on the road
would like if the SQFT building cost calculator was a little more detailed in it's cost.
Henry S.
Construction, 11-50 employees
Used weekly for 1-2 years
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Looking for projects to bid and getting documents
It had many projects and it's easy to use. You can get bid documents and contact the owners.
It's very expensive especially if you are looking at jobs in multile states
Samantha W.
Design, 201-500 employees
Used other for 1-2 years
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The fact that it is software and it keeps from having another book laying around.
Having to pay full price for a second license/user account. There should be a reduced rate for a company that wants to purchase more than one license/user account.
john-david c.
Design, 1-10 employees
Used monthly for less than 6 months
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I think this will get worked out and be a good product in the end but be ready for a lengthy and confusing purchasing experience.
It has the best cost data available. No one else that I can find has nearly the level of information as RSMeans.
It is impossible to get the thing to work and I believe it is due to how piecemealed the company runs itself and parcels out info. You should be able to keep you cost data and not lose it after the year like the books. Figuring out what I was actually getting was confusing. The online trial program was full of errors, The check out sequence was full of delays and errors, after finally purchasing it actually deleted my account on its own and still is unfixed. Customer service isn't open to help on the weekend. I tried to order the paper book overnight but it was delayed. They keep them all stored in one location apparently in lieu of regional. Just a frustrating experience overall. their price framing is bad as it leads you to believe the product is one price but the actual price is 2.5x higher for something that will actually function for real estimating.
Jon L.
Architecture & Planning, 51-200 employees
Used monthly for 1-2 years
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Online cost estimating has allowed me to save estimates, and come back to update them.
Ability to create estimates based on assemblies, components, or square footage, using up-to-date data
Lacking "help" functionality (or it's limited or difficult to find).
Hi Jon - Thanks for providing your feedback. The Online Help Center and Reference Items tab located in the account drop-down menu are great resources and have a lot of information. If you aren't able to find what you need there, please reach out to our customer support team.