Getting started with Bid

1. Create your account.

   Select Start free trial. Enter your Full name, Work email and a Password of at least 8 characters, then select Start free trial. If you receive a confirmation email, open the link in it to continue.

2. Name your company.

   On Name your company, enter the Company name and select Start my free trial. You become the company's owner. If a colleague has already invited you, select Join and the company's name beside the invitation instead.

3. Set your company defaults.

   Open Company › Company settings from the top bar. Under Defaults for new projects, set Where you usually work and the Units (English or metric), then select Save. Under Letterhead and Logo, add what prints on your proposals.

   Under Time zone, choose where the company works — Eastern, Central, Mountain, Arizona, Pacific, Alaska, Hawaii or another — and select Save: it decides when the foremen's end-of-day reminders go out and which day counts as today. Under Two-step sign-in, an owner can ask the owners and admins, or everyone, to sign in with a code from an authenticator app as well as their password; see Your account and privacy.

Owners, admins and HR managers add people from Company › Users and roles. An HR manager can give any role except owner.

1. Enter them.

   Under Add a person, choose By email (or By text (no email) for someone in the field) and choose their roles. With Job, select New employee instead: one page takes the whole record, from First name and Last name to pay and crews, and puts them on People as well, for crews and time cards. Under The app, choose Invite to the app and their roles to give them a sign-in. Someone who isn't one of your people, such as an outside bookkeeper, goes under Invite a user who isn't an employee, by email and roles alone.

2. Send the invitation last.

   Select Email the invitation, or on the employee page Add them and send the invitation. They are added straight away, and the invitation goes to them as the last step. It works once, for 14 days. If it doesn't arrive, select Copy link and send it another way. When they accept, their sign-in is linked to their employee record.

Roles are your company's own, made from templates. These are the ones a bid team uses most; Job and Field have their own, such as Project manager, Superintendent and Foreman. See Roles and permissions.

1. Add the project.

   Select File › New project…. On the Projects page, enter an optional number, the project name and its location, who it's Bid to (the GC or customer) and when it's Due, with the time, then select Create project.

2. Decide on the Bid tab.

   The new project opens on its Bid tab: the go/no-go, the GCs you're bidding to, the due date, the pre-bid meeting and addenda, the prices still out and what's known about the bid. The due date drives the countdown and the reminders. See The Bid tab.

A project's other tabs are Plans and documents; Takeoff, where drawings and PDF sheets come in and are traced; Sheet takeoff for a PDF plan set taken off sheet by sheet, each at its own scale; Volumes for quantities; Dirt swap for the bid's dirt to export or import; Concrete for slabs, footings, walls and curbs measured from the plans; Estimate for pricing; and Schedule for the project schedule. Engineering firms don't see Bid or Schedule.

1. Upload the files.

   Open File and, under Import, select PDF plan sheets…, DWG…, DXF… or LandXML…, or drop the files on the plan on the Takeoff tab. You can pick several at once. DWG files are converted on Aggrado's own server and read in a minute or so; for a Civil 3D drawing, see Importing DWG drawings.

2. Set the scale of each PDF sheet.

   A PDF sheet opens as it arrives and asks for its scale: either click two points a known distance apart and enter the distance, or choose the plotted scale, then select Set scale. To set or correct one later, open the sheet and choose Sheet › Set scale….

3. Review the layers.

   A drawing's layers are listed under CAD layers in the Layers panel beside the plan. To work on them, open View › CAD layers…. Turn layers on to preview them together.

4. Turn layers into surfaces, pipe networks or areas.

   In CAD layers, turn on the layers you want, then choose what they become beside Use N visible layers as:. Choose + New surface… for contours and spot elevations (as Existing, Proposed or Subgrade), + New pipe network… for structures and pipes, + New strip or subgrade areas… for stripping, building pads and paving, or + New takeoff item… for a length, area or count. Select Make it.

On Takeoff you can also trace contours, boundaries, strip and subgrade areas, grade shapes and pipe structures directly on a scaled PDF sheet (the Takeoff and Earthwork menus hold the tools), and enter borings and test pits.

1. Set the project's dirt.

   On the Volumes tab, under Cut and fill, set the project's Fill factor (bank CY per compacted CY, 1 for none) and Swell (bank to loose, for trucking). Every run, grade shape, cross section and the balancer use them.

2. Calculate cut and fill.

   Choose the existing and proposed surfaces, type over the Run name if you like, and choose Whole site or a boundary. Select Calculate cut and fill. More holds the method and a fill factor for this run only.

3. Review the other calculations.

   The same tab measures pipe trenches from a surface, sizes structures, and compares borings with the surfaces for rock and unsuitable soil. To export your work as DXF, KML or LandXML, use Earthwork › Export surfaces and lines… in the menu bar.

4. Print the volume report.

   Under Volume report, select Print / Save as PDF, or Download Excel for the spreadsheet. Report layout… sets how it's grouped and what shows.

1. Create the estimate.

   On the Estimate tab, type a name in Name the new estimate and select New estimate.

2. Load the customer's bid items.

   On Bid schedule, select Load a file and choose the customer's bid schedule. Select Read the schedule (or Read it with AI), review the items found, and select Import.

3. Price the work from your Codebook.

   On Worksheet, select Add ▾ › From the Codebook… and search your Codebook, or Type a line. A line loaded from the customer's bid schedule arrives with no work under it: select Price it… on its row and choose From the Codebook, Build the unit, Type a cost or Crew and production. An assembly's activities go under that item at its quantity. The grid is edited where it sits: + Activity adds an activity under an item and + Resource a person, machine or material under an activity. Price it two ways on an activity lets you compare and choose.

4. Check the rates.

   Rates on this bid lists every trade, machine, material and crew the bid uses, with its rate, hours and dollars. A rate changed there changes this bid only, not the Codebook. After a Codebook change, Refresh open bids takes it onto every open bid at once.

5. Check the fuel line.

   Machine rates are without fuel. Once the estimate has machines it gets an indirect Fuel line: each machine's running hours times its fuel burn at its crew's load, times the company's fuel price. At the Resources detail level each machine shows its load, which you can change for this estimate, and its gallons. The line says what's missing if a machine has no burn or there's no price, and you can type a cost of your own in its place.

6. Link quantities to the takeoff.

   On Takeoff links, under Link a quantity to the takeoff, choose an activity and the takeoff it should use, then select Link quantity. When the takeoff changes, Aggrado lists the changed quantities for you to accept.

7. Request and compare quotes.

   On Quotes, pick a Material group and select Ask suppliers for prices…, or Ask subs for prices… for a trade. The first time, select Set up a material group…: name what you buy together, such as Pipe, check its materials, and select Start the request. Add the subs or suppliers you are asking (pick one, or type a new one's name), enter what they send with Enter their price, and select Use this price on the quote you want.

8. Set the markup and final price.

   On Pricing, set the Markup (overhead and profit; markup and margin show side by side) and the Bond rates, and enter any Adjustments (adds and cuts). To bid a specific total, enter a Price you want to hit (target). Under Unit prices and holds, hold any unit prices that must not change. Under Fuel, give this estimate its own fuel price per gallon if it shouldn't use the company's.

1. Run the estimate check.

   Open Check and review the list of findings, such as items without quantities or crews without production rates. Correct them and select Check again.

   Pricing and Bid day also show how much of the cost is priced roughly (on Bid day, Still plugged): plugs, quick numbers, and subcontracts or quoted materials with no quote picked, with the largest listed by name. A sub stops counting once you pick a quote on it, and a material once a supplier quote that prices it is picked.

2. Prepare the proposal.

   On Proposal, check the customer (filled in from Bid to or a GC) and add your terms and exclusions (pick a saved clause, or type one), then select Print or save as PDF. If the customer supplied an Excel bid form, use Customer's form: select Load their workbook, identify the item number, unit price and amount columns, and select Download filled workbook.

3. Lock as submitted.

   On Pricing or Bid day, select Lock as submitted. It keeps the bid exactly as it went out and doesn't send anything. To make changes afterward, open Revisions and start the next revision, which begins from a copy.

4. Record the result.

   Locking marks the project Submitted on the Projects list, and each GC's bid that's out shows under Waiting on award. To have the customer sign it, use Send for signature… on Proposal; see Proposals. When the result is known, select Mark it won… there, Won… or Lost… on the GC's row on the Bid tab, or Edit on the project row. A won bid goes to Job from the estimate's Hand off to Job.

The Schedule tab builds the project schedule from the estimate each time you open it, using each activity's crew hours as its duration. Review it on the Gantt, Cash flow, Review and Calendar views, and select Export to Microsoft Project to open it in Microsoft Project 2010 or later.