WorksPro vs. running the company on spreadsheets.
Most public-works electrical contractors run bids, job cost and pay estimates in Excel. It is flexible, everyone knows it, and it costs nothing extra. Here is where it holds up and where it starts costing you money.
WorksPro
One system where the bid becomes the budget, the foreman's report becomes job cost, and job cost feeds the next bid.
Spreadsheets
A file per bid, a file per job, a WIP workbook and a payroll binder, connected by whoever copies the numbers across.
Where they overlap
- Pricing an item schedule
- A budget per job
- A monthly pay estimate
- A WIP schedule for the surety
Both handle these. The differences are below.
Side by side
Where they differ.
| Topic | WorksPro | Spreadsheets |
|---|---|---|
| Bid unit prices | WorksProYour actual hours per unit from closed jobs shown next to each bid unit | SpreadsheetsLast job's sheet, copied forward |
| Competitor prices | WorksProPublic bid tabs imported once, winners' range shown on every item | SpreadsheetsBid tabs filed as PDFs, if they are kept at all |
| Field hours and quantities | WorksProForeman's phone report, approved by the office | SpreadsheetsPaper or text messages, keyed in later |
| Fade on a job | WorksProProjected margin recalculated every week from PF | SpreadsheetsUsually found when the job closes out |
| Pay estimate | WorksProPre-filled from approved field quantities through the cutoff | SpreadsheetsRebuilt by hand each month |
| Certified payroll | WorksProWH-347 PDF and CSV exported from the same timecards | SpreadsheetsRetyped from payroll records |
| Who sees margins | WorksProPermissions by role. Foremen never see costs | SpreadsheetsAnyone who has the file |
| Cost | WorksProFrom $299 a month for 10 users | SpreadsheetsUsually already paid for with Microsoft 365 |
Stay with spreadsheets if
- You bid a few jobs a year and one person does every step.
- Your jobs are small enough that a fade of a few points does not matter.
- You do not have field crews reporting hours and quantities.
Choose WorksPro if
- Several jobs are running at once and you find out about overruns late.
- You keep losing bids on a few items and do not know which ones.
- The pay estimate, WIP and certified payroll each get rebuilt by hand every month.
Bring one bid and one live job. We will show you both in WorksPro.
30 minutes, on your own bid and one live job. No slides.