Estimate software for a project

[Pieter00]

Anyone know of estimating software that can be used to compare actual vs estimated time of a project etc? Maybe an excel spreadsheet with formulas in the background?

[GCE]

There are numerous different package available but all come at a price.
Not sure what the bigger contractors in the industry use but when I spoke to some many years ago it seemed that there was a fair amount of info that you would need to enter and I decided to start my own spreadsheet .
I use Pastel as an accounting package and have the excel module .I had the guys write me up a program to extract the items purchased from the accounting side in a format that would make claims simply.
Every item gets purchased on and order number and cost code to a particular job including the labour that we put on the contract.That way all the info is available to get an accurate end figure as to what went onto the project.
Not knowing the size of projects you are on , the first step would be to set up your accounting package with cost coding and order every item through the system which will give you history.

I then use that excel sheet extract to get last bought prices for tender purposes
Tender sheet is now in a format that becomes copy and paste , insert the same codes I use to buy the material with to insert against the line item on a BOQ along with the Lookup command in excel to bring them across. Took awhile to build it up that I can trust the sheet .