I must tell you that I am more than impressed with your product. It has made and saved me money nearly every week since I have purchased it. Its rare that a product exceeds the hype and I have made several references to you software to a number of my peers. I am excited about what you have come up with in regards to an upgrade.
I have used Estimate software since the beginning of 2005, I must say it was one of the best investments i have ever made when it comes to purchasing software, Thank you Estimate Software for Making C R Graphic Designs, Inc. the 21 st Co.Out of 50 for Las Vegas, NV.
Estimate 2011 has many added benefits. Love the Templates addition under the "Add Item" of the Estimate window. Makes it easy to pull up pre-priced items that we commonly sell. Love the updated look of the program also.
We have been using EstiMate for a few years now and absolutely love the software - we run the Enterprise Multi-User version and find it brilliant and so simple to use. We are able to turn around accurate consistent pricing very quickly and manage our factory work flow using one piece of software which helps us streamline our business. Mark and his team have always exceeded our customer service expectations and delivered basically 24hour / 7 day service for us – hence the reason we upgraded to Estimate 2011 – this new version is fantastic! We love the customer dashboard and purchase order facility. We look forward to moving forward with Estimate and know they will be adding further development / features that will enhance our business.
I really the like the customer & vendor dashboards - the ability to attach any file to the customer data base in Estimate is great! Categorizing items is also a big help. We have a lot of items we use the retail items plug-in to price & it is nice to be able categorize them now. I am sure there are more features that we will use after we convert to 2011. I have used Estimate since 2003 from Version 1 to Version 2 & now 2011. Every version has come out with more great features.
The upgrade from Quick Quoter to Estimate Enterprise is like moving from a very nice comfortable pop-up camper into a luxurious motor home with all the comforts. Now THIS is some serious success vehicle!! Don't get me wrong they both get the job of figuring out how much to charge done - the fact that Quick Quoter is free brings this capability to everybody with sense enough to take advantage of your generosity. But, the availability of the additional features in the Enterprise edition already has me thinking bigger in my plans for developing the signmaking part of my business.
Estimate is the pricing software package written specifically for the sign industry that plays an essential role in the every day operation of thousands of sign companies all over the world. I talk to dozens of sign companies every week as editor of the Signs Never Sleep Blog (www.signsneversleep.com) and it always amazes me that almost all of them use Estimate and love it. Having Estimate software in your sign shop is like having oxygen in your sign shop. You can't live without it, it always works the way it is supposed to, it helps you breath easier, and you would sure miss it if it was gone!
I've been using your program for almost 4 years now and I think it has increased my production by 50%.
Just a quick note - I cannot say enough good things about your estimate program. I have tried several other books, pricing programs etc. I wont mention names. I can finally say with certain, when I quote a sign or banner job, that I will make a profit on it. When I price for my large format printer, and laminator, Im where I need to be to make money. In the past I shot my foot off more times than I care to admit. Thanks again.
All in all this is a great product and does most everything we want, and has been a big help to our shop.
I love this program... I could not survive without it!!!
I noticed your customer feedback letters and wanted to send you a quick one myself. I bought Estimate a year ago and use it every business day. It's just a great program. Thanks for making a great product!
I use Estimate every day (and night for that matter) and highly recommend it to any one looking to make more money, keep consistent pricing, professional formatted estimates and invoices, customer databases and much much more.
I've been using Estimate since it was released to the general public and all I can say is that I love it!!! I found the set up fairly straight forward and with in about an hour I could already see that my profits would be going up. I used to pretty much price jobs off of the top of my head but sometimes I took it in the shorts! Now my pricing is consistent day in and day out. Well worth the money!
I have Estimate and absolutely love it!
I have realized more sales just because I can present them with a computer generated written estimate very quickly, with note typed in. people trust that price.
Sung to the Coffeemate jingle... "Estimate works great, estimate smooths your quote process, so let Estimate, make your bottom line look great." Thank you, thankyou very much...
LOVE THE SOFTWARE!!! I couldn't imagine running my company without it!
Just a short note to tell you our experience with Estimate. It is everything that is advertised and more. We installed the program,with ease, in Janurary, 2004 and the biggest plus we have seen is our greatly improved bottom line. I keep track of supplies purchased that go directly to our sales. That number compared to gross sales has gone down by over 10%. The program has taken us from the SWAG system to a consistent quoting system. Our staff has been trained with the Tutorials and they now have confidence in their quotes. Our estimates/jobs is at the 60% level and that is a improvement. Our customers like the professional way the quotes come to them and they approve and returrn the estimate, usually at a higher price than before we had EstiMate. Again thank you for introducing us to EstiMate. David Kimmel
I just want to let you know that I really enjoy using your software. I have been using it since I got back from Indianapolis and will be training my other two employees next week.
Thanks sooooooo much for sending me the latest version of Estimate. I have been using it for several months now and I love it! I look like a real professional now when I print out my invoices. Before I just typed them on a type-writer and they looked less than professional.
That software is wicked-nice, Mark. It was exactly what I've been looking for. I have been pulling my hair out trying to figure a way to run a spreadsheet in Excel to do the same thing. It is sooo much more simple this way.
Seen on 4edgetalk.com: I asked the original question about if Estimate was worth the money. I bought the program in January and after tweaking it a while during the 60 day trial with all of the plugins working, I can say that the answer to the question is HELL YEH ITS WORTH EVERY PENNY!!!!!! You've gotta think and put in the time to tweak it, but most of the default figures and settings will be pretty much dead on. So buy it, buy it now.
We love it!
Thank you all! Installed and working perfectly, I can now have my wife help with the books! Thank you again! This is so cool!
I was doing an estimate a couple of weeks ago, and had already figured in my head about what the price should be. I knew that a competitor had bid on this job, and the customer had always been ours. Needless to say, my 'in my head' estimate was influenced by the fact that I didn't want to let the customer go to someone else. Common sense prevailed, and I went to EstiMate for a cross-check. The price came out nearly 35% higher than my "guess." Now came the hard part. I had to resist the temptation to override, and tell myself to remember that we do this to make a profit! I went with EstiMate's full price, and got the job. It turned out, in fact, that we were substantially less than the other guy, and the customer questioned why. I showed him the full itemized estimate, and now he is confident about our price AND our PROFESSIONALISM!
When you are inputting the information about the sign that you are estimating, it tells you the maximum number of hours you can spend on that job without dropping below your hourly rate. That has been a big boost for me. When the estimate has been accepted by the client, with one click, I convert the estimate into a job. Once converted, I can printout a job manifest and projected number of hours allotted to do the job. My crew, on their own, now compete to beat the allotted time. It's become sort of a game for them and more profit for the company!
It has always frustrated me knowing that the computer would be far better at doing all this repetitive work if only it were properly programmed to do so. Thank goodness Mark came to the rescue with EstiMate. Prices of material are entered once and only updated when prices change. All of our overhead costs are entered only once, and are easily changed at yearend if needed. All I have to do is select the materials, tell it the size, etc., and it gives me the answer. Even better, it makes it so easy to do the "what if's". You know, the "well, what if it's only one colour?" "What if it's corrugated plastic instead of PVC?" "What if it's 18x24 instead of 24x36?" "What if I get two of them?" On and on and on. Ya gotta love it!
We had tried them all... This is the only software that we feel REALLY WORKS & THINKS LIKE A SIGNMAKER PRICES. I & my employees can very quickly & easily price any level of sign, graphic, digital print or screen printing from the very basic to the very complex...all with the click of a mouse. And the most important factor is THAT AFTER THE SMOKE CLEARS & THE SIGN IS DELIVERED WE IMMEDIATELY KNOW HOW MUCH PROFIT WE MADE ON THE JOB! Setup is extremely easy & straight forward, some of the others required hours & hours of setup & configeration. Just fill out the overhead work sheet, set your market levels, put in your vendors, material markups and you're ready to accurately start pricing. You've got a REAL WINNER! This is a must for any sign shop.
Mark's estimating program is hot! It addresses the needs of the general sign shops' routine stuff better than other programs we've seen.
About the only thing more user friendly than your creation, EstiMate, is you yourself. I enjoyed meeting you at the trade show in Atlanta and seeing you again in Atlantic City. I purchased my first estimating software program in 1985. It came on two five and a quarter inch floppies. I had to run it atop Lotus 123. It was not particularly user friendly. Your EstiMate program is such a pleasure to use. It is obviously a reflection of many hours of attention. Your personal concern for the industry is equally obvious. Pricing has long been perhaps our single most difficult daily challenge, and you are changing that. I look forward to recommending your program to anyone who is serious about improving their productivity and profitability. Customer service is becoming very rare in today's computerized environment. You are an exception! Thank you for being so. Sincerely, Bob Singleton President
As far as I'm concerned it is worth it's weight in gold! Once you are comfortable with a price structure, all of the following quotes are consistent... No second guessing... You know if you are making money on each quote.
You've got a winner here. I can only guess it's saved me hours a week grinding out quotes by hand or losing jobs by the guidebook prices!
It's a great product that so far has lived up to everything that it was said to be and then some!
Mark, I've got to hand it to you. I downloaded your demo off the web and within 1 hour had it installed, configured and pumped out 3 estimates. I then spent another hour and a half calculating prices for the same signs the "old way" just to find myself within 5% of ESTIMATE's price. One of the quotes I faxed to a customer from my PC while she was still on the phone. She was so pleased with the quick service that she signed the estimate and faxed it right back. The best one though, was a quote that I had figured both manually and with ESTIMATE. Estimate's price came up 35% higher than mine (I underestimated my labor). I figured I'd present the printed estimate to the customer with the higher price and see what happened. Much to my surprise, he looked at the estimate and said, "that's about what I figured I'd spend". The price difference was enough to pay for the software! I believe a computer generated price is much more credible to the consumer than a hip-shot quote. Thanks for giving us a tool to make that easy to do!
The first time I saw EstiMate I knew it was going to blow the socks off the other similar programs. You have created the most powerful and easy-to-use sign estimate/quote/job program on the market. It's so easy that we didn't have to "learn" to use it and it's topical editing features are so intuitive and powerful that it took almost no time to customize for our store. Having two vinyl cutters, a large format printer and a Gerber Edge, it's easy to get overwhelmed with pricing custom jobs; we have a pricing guide but it does not cover everything and you can't print from a book. It's much more professional to give a printed quote than a hand-written one.
You guys probably hear this all the time but I just want you to know that your software has enabled us to compete with the "big boys" in the industry. I have increased my profit margin and increased business 2 fold since purchasing your software over a year ago. Thank you so much for making a "smart" program that makes sense. I have over 11 years in the sign industry, so I feel like I have been around long enough to know what software is good, and what software is not. YOUR SOFTWARE IS GREAT!!! Keep up the great work guys!!
You have a winner on your hands! I have only worked with the software about 30 minutes so far. I priced three Edge jobs and came within a few bucks either way compared to my pricing tables (for the Edge)... So far, I am a really big fan of what I have seen, and I imagine the rest of the C.D. is just as impressive!
Your software makes it easier to price our signs than any other package we have reviewed. It also gives a structured legitimacy to our prices which we can use when needed to justify them to our customers.
Thank you for the prompt attention to the minimizing problem i was having. It is nice to have a customer support dept. that responds to customer needs.
Thanks a bunch for the prompt professional service you are famous for providing!!
Estimate has paid for itself many times over in the 6 months I've been using it. I'm projecting a $8-10,000 increase in my net income over last year due primarily to increased margins on sales and less time spent quoting jobs, writing work orders & ordering supplies. Thanks EstiMate!
What can I say. An excellent upgrade and the second site copy has made life so much easier. We are in the process of figuring out the accounts to QuickBooks and then it will be all too simple. Thanks for the excellent work and product.
I am very happy with EstiMate and wish I had this when I first started the sign business. Of course you hadn't even developed it then.
I like the EstiMate program because I can present my customers with a clear and concise printed estimate. If they do not like the price I quoted, fine! I know with ESTIMATE it is the price we need to charge in our shop to be in business and yes have profit left! I see now why you say "stop using your head." I no longer have to give my customers that "far away look" when they ask: "how much is it?" With the ESTIMATE program I feel confident in my pricing "SYSTEM". I was able to "groom" all of my material costs into the ESTIMATE program and then let ESTIMATE coordinate all those costs I used to miss.
We have tried them all. Most estimating software that we have used in the past cost 8 times the price of yours, and we needed a degree in science to operate. Not "ESTIMATE". We Love it. Have bought 4 user copies for all our computers. No more shooting from the hip. Straight bids, everyone giving the same bid for the same job. Thanks so much.
I recently received Estimate Basic with a cutter I purchased from signwarehouse.com. It is the best software program of ANY type I have ever owned, tried, or seen. And I have used a lot. I've been using a computer since 1989, and have over 20 years experience in the sign industry. If you need a reference of any kind, refer it to me. I'd recommend Estimate to anyone who owns a sign company or needs help pricing, or getting organized. It is soooooooo easy to use and learn. It's awesome--I love it! Whoever came up with this is a genius... period!
Got the Estimate package this afternoon, Loaded like a dream, Cannot believe the depth of the program. Have been trying to get the owners to buy it since shortly after my arrival at company primarily from info gathered in th 4Edgetalk forum. They will be kicking themselves for weeks to come. It quickly revealed some very serious errors in their "off the cuff" pricing practices. This system will be a very serious profit builder for Gemini Signs. Congrats on a very good program. -- 2 months later -- The program does eveything you say it does in your advertising/web site. I only wish I had something similar when I was in the Burglar/Fire Alarm business. Took me close to a year of prodding to get the owners to "get with the program." They are now in the progress of buying all the add ons with the exception of the silk screen add on. Again a big Thank You to you for the obvious time and effort put into it's developement. Maybe over the next year they will migrate from 20 years of working for good wages to a company with a heavey +income at spread around.
I use Estimate every day (and night for that matter) and highly recommend it to any one looking to make more money, keep consistent pricing, professional formatted estimates and invoices, customer databases and much much more.
-- Stewart, American Grafix- EstiMate is perfect for:
- Sign estimating
- Vehicle wraps pricing
- Flatbed digital print pricing
- Wide format print pricing
- Thermal digital print pricing
- Vinyl sign pricing
- Screen print pricing
- Sandblasted sign pricing
- RTA graphics pricing
- Window graphics pricing
- Embroidery pricing
- Screen printed garment pricing
- Dimensional item pricing
- Labor item pricing
- Retail item pricing
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