HeavyBid Reviews

The ease of setting up your crews/equipment/materials is very beneficial in creating estimates. It is very easy to use and pick up on if new.

I'm honestly having a difficult time trying to think of a negative about HeavyBid.

This software is so easy to set-up, from adding employees, job classifications, to merging employees into the job, to exporting timecards. The setup flow just make sense. Works great for those who have crews out in the field, foremen can use their tablets to record time, material and equipment used on the job and submit. No more paper time cards to do manual entry with.

This software has "user licenses" you have to buy, so at times they may all be used by other users in the company. It does allow you to "boot" them off, but you better make sure they are not in the middle of something if you do or they will lose the information. A quick phone call to ask if they can log out is best.

The software is easy to use and the support is very knowledgable. HCSS listens to it's customers and implements changes they are requesting in updates to their product.

There is not too much I dislike about the product. At points it would be nice to have a better laid out users manual for the program we utilize to help some of the newer estimators understand the product more ithout having to attend training.

I have used this system since the DOS days. Todays system and its various styles of reports provide us with quick turn around times in responding to our clients needs. The 24 hour support service is no joke. We introduce HCSS to clients all over the world and with time zone differences of 6 to 13 hours we have called upon theses services at 1 AM and 3AM when we have proposals due in Qatar, Dubai and Zurich.

The 24 hour service that is so good is also frustrating. Because of HCSS's commitments to its client base our commitments to our clients sometimes suffers as it appears that the 24 hour hot line only travels with one HCSS representative For some reason it always happens to our firm. You need to be able to answer our calls so we can respond and answer our client's issues.

I like the ease of use with Heavy Bid. An estimator can be as detailed or as generic as he wants to be. You have the ability to breakdown multiple activities and phases within one bid item. The audit checks help identify mistakes. The ease of changing mass amounts of data within the estimate is easy. From tracking DBE dollars to comparing subcontractor and supplier quotes, everything is a the tip of your fingers. You can get a report for just about anything in the estimate. The ability to build in automation is a huge time saver and maintains consistency within your organization

Hard question to answer. Once you buy the product, HCSS is on your team. Their support group is fantastic. I don't have any dislikes

It is adaptable to use for any-kind of Construction Estimating.

Does not provide any take-off products.

Customer support is amazing. There is always someone there to receive my calls at any time and on any day.

So expansive it's hard to learn all the tricks. It's hard to transfer all the tricks I've learned to coworkers but we have weekly trainings to share information.

I like that you have a great control over all the costs involved with entering all aspects of your bid, and consolidate source quotations plus revise quickly critical mark-up, schedulling and productivity scenarios to bid confidently based on your entries.

It's a bit of a steep learn curve at the very beginning, it's very dependent on a good network connection in order to process quickly, sometimes can be affected by overall bandwidth available from corporate server during peak times, I can only see a passive filtered generated list of multiple bids to review their current status, closing dates, missing steps or things that would assist to coordinate a prioritiezed sequence to close these bids.

- Has a plethora of features which create an easy bidding process
- Can setup local or global resource libraries to allow a job-specific library with our general materials
- Easy to run all reports of all different kinds and easy to read

- Can be a bit buggy when within an activity, which may force it to crash. This is primarily because of user error though and you learn ways to stop this from happening.

The desktop app of Heavybid is a powerful tool.

Can be buggy at times and crash. Takes some time to figure out and has a very old feel.

Great features. HCSS offers wonderful classes at the UGM each year to make using products easier. Great for use on projects of any size.

Start up can be slow. It takes some time to use the product to its potential and integrate all the software together.

Allows you to customize your bids to your liking. Bids can be streamlined for customers and/or you can copy what the owner has set up.

THE SELECT BID ITEMS FEATURE NEVER WORKS. EVERY TIME I TRY TO ADD BID ITEMS THROUGH THE SELECT BID ITEMS IT DOESN'T WORK!

ease of use and its overall functionality

almost too indepth

The product is very user freindly and a complete packeage for our estimating needs. We have 8 users and bid many different types of projects from small paving projects to large bridge and highway project. Heavybid allows us to bid as many as 400 plus projects per year. HCSS support is top of the class.

Some specilized reports are that would breakdown the cost and price with showing all the details are difficult to use. Example pricing change order work for an owner that requires the labor, equipment and materials details for submittal but without the cost of each crew item.

They are very good at respondsing to questions and getting answers in a timely manner. This product is very helpul in putting together accurate estimates and tracking the job. This product is very user friendly and could be taught to anyone in a short time fram.

Sometimes it wont let me do exactly what i want to. Sometimes navigation is very timely unless you know all of the shortcuts. Some of the reports and information isnt very clearly laid out. If you didnt use the software before navigation can be very difficult.

The codebooks are very helpful if setup correctly. Being able to bring in activities with a states standard item code speeds the bidding process up tremendously. Also, Support is second to none. Call anytime and someone will be there immediately to help. They wont get off the phone until the problem is resolved.

Some very minor tweeks might need to be changed, but if you know what they are they can avoid them. However, if you do make the mistake, you can still find it in the end under the Estimate Review.

It is a very comprehensive software group that will meet all your needs for a sub-contractor. From bidding, scheduling, COST TRACKING, statistics, equipment maintenance and fuel, and more. It really have all we needed. And the customer service is amazingly good.

There is no undo button (Which it is understandable for record keeping purposes). But, in HeavyBid and some instances of Heavy Job, it is a hard pill to swallow. Also, in Heavy Job, COs, POs, could be better handled.
Also, Field users do not need to be computer experts, but they do need to be comfortable with computers and software (which it is not always the case).

Heavy Bid contains every way necessary to build a complete bid. The multiple methods allow the user to approach the solution from different angles to come up with a complete, accurate, competitive proposal.

There are very few dislikes. It has a simple interface but which has at times complex means to a solution. It is not the perfect software. There are a few functions which wcould use enhancement such as vendor solicitation and document control.

the ease of use itsbthe best feature, including interaction with our accounting software. customer support is the best acroos all industires. second to none

there isn much i dont like about the feature. If I have to choose something is trying to explain to management thrROI on the software. At first glnace it may look pricey, but when all integration is completed across all applications for HCSS the investment is worth it

heavybid is the easiest and most user friendly estimating software that i have ever used. Heavybid can be used by any employee with very little training.

cant speak of any problems or concerns we have had with the project. we have used it for numerous years and if we have had any problem it has been handled quickly and professionally. no problems to speak of and cant think of any problems in the near future

The software is a great time savers. Being able to integrat Heavy Bid, Heavy job and the Saftey system is nice. Great customer service and timely help with any issues. I also like the estimate check features to check for errors and missing costs. Being able to copy from previous estimates is also a great time saver.

New copy function does not pull in resource plugs from master list

The best part about Heavy Job and HCSS is the customer service. They are very quick to solve any issue. They also listen to there customers to help improve the product.

I dont know that there is anything that i dont really like about HCSS. I know that they cant make a product that is great for everyone. I guess they do not keep up on the android mobile app as much as the IOS.

the product is very user friendly, offers multiple options to make almost all aspects of your easier. the tech support is second to none and answers questions quickly and accurately.

i have very few complaints, but if i have to come up wit a downfall it is HCSS's willingness to listen and try to implement too many requests. these requests sometimes burden the system.

The field and mobile capabilities of heavy job makes us more efficient. Foreman and Superintendents are able to track time, submit time etc. from the field without having to go into the office. Things are timely!

Having the ability to interface into our back office system is very important. Having a propietary database makes this a bit more difficult.