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Recommended
J Leland K.
Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, 51-200 employees
Used monthly for 2+ years
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Ability to customize specific tasks that are not standard in the industrial installations.
Up to date installation and material costs throughout the United States
Searching for specific tasks that are not listed. Not enough specific industrial electrical installation tasks.
Randy W.
Construction, 51-200 employees
Used weekly for less than 6 months
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Helps us be more accurate with our initial budget prices with owners, thus reducing our risk to being tied to a sq ft price that doesn't reflect true market costs. Helps owners make quicker investment decisions, and allows us to partner with them.
Quick overall budgets by using square foot estimator. Helps to get an idea where prices should be. This is the only feature that is important to me in my role.
Difficult to customize the sq ft estimate to materials matching the job I'm pricing. Too cumbersome to pull in assemblies--lookup feature doesn't find key words well. No good pre-engineered assembly or sq ft building option.
James B.
Insurance, self-employed
Used other for 1-2 years
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Easy to use and able to use pricing for specific locations.
Not able to run a simple report separating labor and materials
Alvaro S.
Construction, 1-10 employees
Used monthly for less than 6 months
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I am using to estimate construction cost of electrical work
I can find cost in local currency. Somehow easy to navigate (easier than a pdf at least)
Nothing yet since I haven't have many opportunities to use it yet
Matthew G.
Construction, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used other for 1-2 years
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The data is available online rather than in hard copy.
The online database is difficult to navigate.
Trishi K.
Food & Beverages, 10,001+ employees
Used monthly for 1-2 years
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Insightful and extremely detailed information plus the cost models are very good to have. The customer service is also prompt and helpful. Slight learning curve before you can effectively start using the tool.
The information presented is extremely detailed and is available for a plethora of cities and towns in US and Canada. Building cost models with custom configurations are very useful.
The tiered approach and the overlap of line items in the datasets.
Thomas M.
Architecture & Planning, 11-50 employees
Used monthly for 2+ years
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We used RSMeans Data Online both as a sales tool and as a construction cost verification tool.
Ease of use of square foot cost estimates, especially substitution of systems.
Not every cost line item corresponds with actual products, but we are usually able to determine the equivalent.
Albert L.
Architecture & Planning, 11-50 employees
Used monthly for 2+ years
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Construction Estimates on Governmental projects.
the search engine is easy to use, if sometimes confusing in terminology
The database does not include all of the items/services that I frequently deal with in renovation/rehabilitation
Lyne W.
Construction, 1-10 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
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I have been using the online version for about 8 months and although I am old school (paper & books), it has taken me some time to get use to it.
Convient
Knowing what Means "calls" items in order to find them. So I may enter a common trade name for an item and Means doesn't recognize it.
David M.
Education Management, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used monthly for 2+ years
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The software has all of the features and data needed to create professional estimates.
The user management is terrible. If you regularly assign different people to use this software within your organization the features for managing that task do not work!
Michelle T.
Construction, 51-200 employees
Used monthly for 2+ years
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We use the pricing data when pricing change orders and/or unit prices. Customers usually accept this method.
Ease of use in finding pricing. And general acceptance by most owners/customers when using pricing for change orders
a little pricey but all other features are good
Mike D.
Architecture & Planning, 11-50 employees
Used monthly for 1-2 years
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The ability to search the data base and have the latest up to date data information drove the transition from the books to the online data base.
great for looking up information but could not make the effort of assembling a project cost online worth the effort. still look up the data and type it into our excel spread sheet.
Luke F.
Construction, 1-10 employees
Used weekly for 6-12 months
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So far I think it is a great product
The database is very inclusive and has tons of great data for the price.
The organization of cost items sometimes makes it difficult to locate the appropriate line item for your project.
Tim M.
Construction, 1-10 employees
Used monthly for 2+ years
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It's very customizable for location and time period. It's easy to use if you're generally familiar with the RS Means books, and you know it's up to date.
You must have an internet connection, but this isn't much of an issue most of the time.
Con K.
Construction, self-employed
Used weekly for 6-12 months
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I am solving the necessity of calling around to vendors and subcontractors to get updated pricing.
I like the quarterly updates and the ability to calculate local costs factors
Getting specific cost reports is cumbersome
Garima S.
Transportation/Trucking/Railroad, 201-500 employees
Used weekly for 6-12 months
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The software is easy to use, reliable and fast. The data is accurate and helps me do my estimation in a much better and organised manner now.
Needs more transportation related data points.
Bryce F.
Environmental Services, 10,001+ employees
Used monthly for 1-2 years
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Overall, I have a positive experience with RSMeans doing construction related estimates that came out very accurate to the actual overall costs. It is easy to use and being able to generate excel sheets is my favorite feature.
That it is credible and easy to generate excel files that can be used to show clients for expected costs.
Need more control with the Manage Estimates tab i.e. allow you to move line items up or down.
Dylan O.
Facilities Services, 1-10 employees
Used monthly for 2+ years
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Using it to price materials and labor estimates for recommended Energy Conservation Measures we offer in our energy audit reports.
It provides aggregated/averaged up-to-date pricing info.
A little unwieldy; search functions could be better optimized.
Kelsey D.
Facilities Services, 201-500 employees
Used weekly for less than 6 months
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We just began using it but so far it has the capabilities we need it to.
The amount of building options to create close costs for our facilities
When I login the login dropdown malfunctions and does not make it easy to select login to application. Once I have completed a life cycle cost there is no way to return to the previous screen, I have to go back to the login page (with the malfunction) and go back to create new estimates. Small functionality things could be improved such as those when users are working on creating several estimates at once.
Robert E.
Construction, 1-10 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
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Provides ease and confidence in putting together a bid
Great amount of detail and ability to change data output
Still early into using this product and having found anything I dislike as of yet.
Kyle G.
Construction, 11-50 employees
Used weekly for 6-12 months
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East to use, easy to present back up pricing for both labor and material to customers
Search function can be a bit wonky at first. Once you know how to use it, its fine
Gary S.
Construction, 11-50 employees
Used monthly for 2+ years
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Good overall experience sometimes use for budgets or to assist in figuring change orders.
The layout & format of the online service
sometimes the search comes up empty unless you key in exactly how the line item is listed
Norie C.
Construction, 51-200 employees
Used monthly for 2+ years
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Good so far.
It pretty much has detail estimates and has different options to choose from.
It takes time to get used to it in regards to functionality. I have to get trained to get the value of the software.
Amer A.
Construction, 1-10 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
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Great from sales to support
Real world data puts this one man shop in a level with much bigger companies
The planes are too small some of the information is redundant
David M.
Construction, 501-1,000 employees
Used monthly for 2+ years
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Very good... it's a good tool that we like to use.
Getting feedback that my costs are up to date
Some costs don't match what the market says things are worth... sometimes the unit costs have too many pieces to it.