Within Excel you have what are called formulas and functions. While working from home, being able to access your spreadsheets for takeoff and estimating will make your project workflow more seamless. Which version you choose will likely depend on your company setup and whether you use Outlook (Microsoft) or Gmail (Google) for your general company email and functions.Įither way, we recommend using a cloud-based version of Excel, which comes with auto-save, different permissions levels and the ability to work within one spreadsheet collaboratively with other colleagues. With the rise of cloud-based tools, today you might use Excel online, which allows you to collaborate with others in an online spreadsheet or Google Sheets which is a similar online tool. Traditionally, estimating meant using Microsoft Excel to create a spreadsheet on your desktop or server. How to create an electrical estimating spreadsheet 1. Simply enter your rates and quantities for each item, and the template will automatically total your costs. This template includes itemised sections for listing materials and labour costs. You can also download our free customisable Excel estimate template. In this blog, we outline the best practices when creating an electrical estimating spreadsheet on Excel, including formulas and functions, as well as the potential downsides to relying on Excel.

By entering different line items for costs you can easily calculate the total cost of each item, and multiply across floors or drawings to calculate estimates faster. The benefit of using Excel for an estimation project lies within the formulas. If part of your work involves electrical estimating it’s likely you’ll have come up against a complicated estimating spreadsheet for labour, material and equipment costs.

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