ZZ to BidBow Integration Workflow Idea

Thanks for sharing David! Appreciate you spearheading this discussion and inspiring a lot of the creative ideas behind it.

If any joint BidBow/zzTakeoff users (or those curious about using estimating software alongside zztakeoff) want to try out the workflow and validate it with your takeoffs and estimates, you can register here for access. We would value your feedback before finalizing it. What David showed is still in our experimental environment, so you won't see it in your regular BidBow account.

Thanks to the zztakeoff team for your partnership as well. This joint effort will help us build a solid API integration down the line.

Thanks @David and @Hadeel! Looking forward to deeper integration with zzTakeoff + BidBow, and any discussion that can be helpful for users here. 🙂

Hi David, Awesome work on this, I would love to connect with you on this, I have some ideas and a bit of experience with Bidbow..

Reach out to me if you like at todd@zztakeoff.com.

Now its a party! Thanks for the Loom David, this is this is exactly what the industry is missing, passing formula's from takeoff to estimate. Now that this is a epic clunkily workflow, now its time to dial it in so the normal "non unicorn" software user can use it. Make it easy, make it scalble, make if fun and we have a winning system.

My main concern is how hard is it to setup this in Bidbow that I'm going to dabble in to see if my unicorn status is up with yours.

Yes!

From my conversations with Hadeel, the Library, once set up in Bidbow I fairly easy to maintain. This just becomes the standard, not to limit the Take-off individual to that list though. If he were to measure something that doesn't have an item quantity attached to it. Then Bibdow will just create a resource that will have to be priced manually. So I think as much as can be re-used through the Bidbow library the better and easier the estimating will be. But it shouldn't be anything that is limiting.

Hadeel made the best comment to me, that the software should feel natural. It should aid the natural process of estimating. If we are bending our processes to meet some software's requirements than it is limiting. I understand we will all have to bend a little to make a software work, but the idea would be to create the most sandbox like environment that balances flexibility with control.

If anyone want to do a screen share with me to walk through this process and see it in better detail I would be happy to!

Love this, keep pushing us @Kyle! Just to be clear, the current workflow is intentionally rough around the edges. This is not the final workflow (which will turn into API magic). The point is to nail the workflow before we make it invisible, so we don't end up building something that doesn't serve the final outcome.

This is exactly the exercise we need, and any feedback from you Kyle is gold. What estimators actually need is nuanced, and we'd rather understand that now than build the wrong magic. Appreciate David for taking the time to walk us through his process. The more nuance you share, the better we can make this for everyone.

Guys I met with David in a zoom call and was extremely impressed with his set up and with BidBow. It is a great estimating platform and easy to integrate with zz, and is worth checking out!

Thanks David!

I'm late to the party but this is one of the things that I've been searching for ever since I got into estimating in the electronic age. One of the biggest headaches for me has always been trying to maneuver my takeoff data into an estimate. I got around that by separating my takeoff and estimates into multiple line items that mirrored my takeoff items and using a library estimate. For years, that meant giant master estimates coupled with complicated codebooks. With this, I think I'll be able to set up my material resource library and some crew activities and be able to start estimating. Then, thanks to the template system that BidBow has, we can compile a master estimate along the way to speed things up in the future if we want to.

Then, once the API is in place, the ability to be able to quickly make modifications if I need to add something will be a tremendous help instead of having to manually add line items and resources.

Bidbow and ZZ were made for each other even before this - I have had a great experience with the two so far. This just elevates things. EDIT: Just had a thought: I wonder if I could represent my crews with a count and assign that crew type during the takeoff process (Thinking: Hey, this sewer is 8ft deep, let me drop in the Sanitary Sewer 8-12 crew as a nested count or labor item). No need for production or anything, I'll figure that out once it's in BidBow.

@Martin, yes that is the idea!

Any resource in Bidbow would have the ability to be exposed in a list in ZZ, if you wanted to be able to pick it. The simple approach would be to have all resources here. For some that may be too many things and the list get too long. So the thought I had was, build the API to see all resources but filter and choose which ones you want in the ZZ list.

Similar to the waste percentage example. Its flexible enough to allow you to handle that in ZZ or in Bidbow.

Once the resource is chosen from the list and added to an Item, bidbow knows exactly what to do, add the corresponding resource and apply the quantity.

My ideal workflow would be to have a template estimate in Bidbow that the API chooses to look at to build the list. However, there may be an instance where you want to have an item in ZZ that you dont have a corresponding resource for. No problem, creat the item in ZZ with no assigned list resource. When Bibdbow sees that there is an item here with no assigned resource it will create a resource and assign the quantity and name.

If that is a resource that you want to use again in the future, simple click the button in Bidbow to add to template estimate, which will in turn make it exposed to the api and available in ZZ for the next one.

No need for extra steps in Bidbow to create the resource first.

Thoughts?

@Martin your input is key because it highlights exactly what we're after. Instead of your process being a headache in order to accommodate the limitations of the tools, we're hoping to get to a point where you can do what feels natural at that step in your workflow and have the mechanism to do it, without repeating your steps or worrying about synchronization.

To add to what @David has shown and described, I think you will love the fact that your BidBow library items, Auto Estimate (whether with item codes or with AI) would also have the references to the zz variables baked in, whether as a direct quantity or part of a formula. Based on conversations you and I had about this workflow, I'm sure you'll have a lot to add once you've worked with it (the bid form workflow will be fun to think through as well).

@Hadeel

I want to run away from any tool that says “Auto” estimate. If I were you, I would remove that term from your vocabulary and tool. I’ve seen Togal make the same claim then pivot.

copilot

helper duck

The Takeoff Caddy

Spreadsheet Sherpa

Estimating Wingman

Big Spoon

So many better options!