Home Study - Webinar Fundamental Electrical Estimating Course

At JDE & Associates our estimating class was our first course offered; it is why we started this business. Estimating software is an important tool for most electrical contractors, without these systems, the time it takes to complete an electrical estimate manually often is time prohibitive – estimating software is a time saving tool but the need to know how to structure your bid is critical for your success. We have conducted numerous training sessions to teach electrical estimating software to find out that many clients do not understand how to structure an estimate. It is also common for many contractors to have difficulties calculating labor burden and overhead costs most estimating software just has a line item for a contractor to insert their labor burden and overhead. This class is set up to fill in the gaps to teach how to structure a electrical estimate, we also provide a Microsoft 2003 template to help you determine labor burden costs and overhead. We are not accountants and we do encourage you to have our method checked by your accountants to make sure that your accounting is correct. We offer our fundamental estimating class for those contractors who estimate manually, as well as those that utilize electrical estimating software systems. In either case, contractors need to know how an electrical estimate can be structured. Our method of electrical estimating has many checks, from start to finish helping reduce mistakes and realize a maximum profit. This reduction on estimating mistakes will build confidence, reduce stress and allow a contractor to know their costs more accurately. We also supply our students with other Microsoft 2003 templates for Word and Excel to assist them in both the class and their future daily electrical estimating tasks.

Our electrical estimating course is back to basics, we complete an estimate for a small commercial restaurant manually. We introduce electrical estimating to new estimators or refresh experience estimators with ideas that many have asked "why did I stop doing that?" It can give our contractors a better understanding of how to complete an electrical estimate with an eye towards submitting the lowest possible bid while retaining the maximum profit. Profit is not a dirty word, without it no contractor can survive for long. Our industry has many contractors while being great electricians have had little to no training on how to complete an electrical estimate. Let us show you a few ideas that may help those efforts,

These following topics are covered in this class;

1. Business plan
2. Pre-bid evaluation
3. Take off sheets
4. Sample RFI
5. Manual takeoff (We utilize a very similar method for computer estimating)
6. Manual extension
7. Labor burden and overhead calculator
8. Cap sheet (summary of bid)
9. Scope / Proposal letter
10. Pre-proposal bid review
11. Time sheets, (why they are important to you as an estimator)
12. Change order estimating and proposals

This course can be completed in four ways

* Classroom Estimating Classes in your area

* Home Study Fundamental Electrical Estimating

* Private In-House Electrical Estimating Classes

* Webinar Fundamental Estimating Course

Class Room Electrical Estimating Training in your backyard

The Local training in various cities is an opportunity to exchange views with other estimators and to hear questions that they may have. These classes are a fine opportunities to gain a tremendous amount of information in a short time. This form of training is our most common electrical estimating course, it is thorough, convenient and quick. This training is typically paced as a four day class consisting of two, two day sessions, each class is four hour long (16 hours). Each session is separated by two weeks. The information in this course is detailed, yet basic and does involve homework between sessions. A minimum number of students are required to conduct this course.

Home Study Fundamental Electrical Estimating

Our home study course is an option which allows individuals to complete the Fundamental Estimating Class on an eight to ten week schedule. Once a client is registered and has paid their tuition paid, all material, textbooks, project drawings, specifications, tally counter, scaled tape measure and templates for Microsoft Word and Excel files (on disk) are mailed. Once the student has received this material and has had time to review it - approximately 1 week - we will discuss via phone or email how long the student requires to complete this course in eight weeks. Our local course is generally set up as a two, two day sessions over a two week period when in a class room setting. This is a way for a tremendous amount of information to be spread out between eight weeks. Allow between four to eight hours a week for this courses material as a home study course. The more time invested the better your results should be. As you can see this class allows a substantial increase in time over the local training. Motivation to complete this class is a key to this classes success as the class is self paced. We will e-mail students requesting homework once or twice during the course to help remind them that an assignment is due.

We make every effort to motivate our students enrolled in this class; however, it is intended for those people who are willing to commit three to four hours a week during the eight-week course for homework. The more time invested on this material the more information you will retain from this class. We will not start and stop this class beyond the ten-week period. The reason for this is that the project we use for the class estimate is small and student's retention of the homework cannot stay fresh when our students start and stop working on the homework. No refunds are given for those students that do not complete the class.

Once the class schedule is determined between our instructor and student we generally start class within a week. We begin with the set up of an estimate and then start the process of taking off light fixtures and switchgear - our quotable items, the first homework assignment is given during that first class. Homework is then completed, scanned into a computer and emailed to JDE & Associates for review and comments within five days. Generally, papers are reviewed and emailed back within one day. This review does not issue a letter grade; instead we mark up areas where we think the estimate can be improved, we also mark up areas that are exceptional. The returned assignment will benefit our students from repeating mistakes that may have occurred in the previous assignment. This will continue for seven assignments and will be completed with a scope letter as one of those assignments. During the course many questions may arise that are not clear to the student. These are handled via email questions; if email doesn't work then telephone calls are welcome. To save on telephone expenses for our students these calls will be scheduled by email and then we will place the call at an agreed time, in the continental United States.

This option is not for everyone, but it has many advantages, you do not need to pay for a private class, or wait for a scheduled course in your area. We are ready to start within days of your decision to take the class.

The course tuition has been reduced through August 15, 2010 to $1,140.00 from $1,395.00

Webinar Fundamental Electrical Estimating

Our Webinar Fundamental Estimating Course is designed around a small commercial project - the same project that we use for our classroom or home study students. We cover the same material as our classroom course, just from the comfort of your office. This course is a six week class scheduled for three hours for the first session and two hours for the remaining five sessions schedule at various hours and days of the week to allow for various contractor conditions. Scheduled dates are on our course calendar registration for this class begins by clicking on the date of the class you want to enroll in, class materials will be shipped to you before the class is to start. Homework will be assigned every week up to the last week. Homework should be completed and emailed to us five days after each class session. We will review it, mark up suggestions and email the reviewed work back to you before the next class.

Our webinar course is an option which allows individuals to complete a Fundamental Estimating Class on a six week schedule from the comfort of your home or office. Once a client is registered and paid their tuition.  Class materials including, textbooks, project drawings, specifications, tally counter, scaled tape measure and templates for Microsoft Word and Excel files (on disk) are mailed. We try to have this material delivered several days before the webinar sessions starts so that students will have a chance to read the text, review the files on the CD and begin to develop questions.   Our local course is generally set up as a two, two day sessions over a two week period as a class room setting. Allow between four to eight hours a week for this webinar courses homework. The more time invested the better your results will be. As you can see this class allows a substantial increase in time over the local training. Motivation to complete this class is a key to this class’s success.

We make every effort to motivate our students enrolled in this class; however, it is intended for those people who are willing to commit four to eight hours a week during the six-week course. The more time invested on this material the more information you will retain. No refunds are given for those students that do not complete the class.

Homework is assigned every week up to the final week. Students completed homework is then completed then scanned into your computer and emailed to JDE & Associates for review and comments five days after each class. Generally, papers are reviewed and emailed back within one day. This review does not issue a letter grade; instead we mark up areas where we think the estimate can be improved, we also mark up areas that are exceptional. The returned assignment will benefit our students from repeating mistakes they may have occurred in the previous assignment. This will continue for five assignments and will be completed with a scope letter as one of those assignments. During the course many questions may arise that are not clear to the student. These are handled via email questions; if email doesn't work then telephone calls are welcome. To save on telephone expenses for our students these calls can be scheduled by email and then we will place the call at an agreed time, in the continental United States. This option is not for everyone, but it has many advantages, you do not need to pay for a private class, or wait for a scheduled course in your area. We are ready to start within a month of your decision to take the class.

Please check our website calendar for scheduled dates and registration for this class

The course tuition has been reduced through August 15, 2010 to $645.00 from $750.00

Class specifics,

Students must supply their own calculator (basic), writing pad, and ruler (standard 6 or 12" flat ruler), all other course materials are supplied, including;

• Our text
• Practice drawings
• Specifications
• Tally counter
• Scaled tape measure (in lieu of a plan wheel)
• 3 High liters
• CD with Microsoft 2003 Word and Excel files (these will assist you in the class and can be used in your day to day estimating work)

We also encourage questions and attempt to help for up to three months after a class is completed. Use this service, it is included in the class and can result in you understanding the concepts that you need to know. We will not answer bid specific questions, relating to a bid that you are working on. Ask these questions in a generic fashion, as we would not have the bid documents to give you a proper answer, a specific question would require. Our intent is for each student to leave the class with the best instruction that we can provide, and a basic understanding of the fundamentals of estimating.

In-house Electrical Estimating Training at your office

Our in-house training is intended for contractors who want specialized estimating training for their firm’s staff, while not being in the same class as their competition. It can be tailored to meet your firm’s individual needs, it can be more elementary or more advanced electrical estimating techniques. Residential, commercial or industrials, which ever suits your companies needs.

All Fundamental Electrical Estimating class options include,

Once complete with this course our students will have been exposed to a method that can reduce stress, while increasing both accuracy and profits. Our method of electrical estimating allows the Project Manager of an awarded project already has a schedule of value well under way. Estimating in a manner that is broken down into various floors and tasks this allows for quick verification of the accuracy of an electrical estimate. We extend the option to continue to ask generic questions relating to this class for up to three months after the course is complete via e-mail.