Getting Started
Quick Bid is a powerful application that works seamlessly with On-Screen Takeoff® to help you get your bids (estimates, quotes) out faster with greater accuracy than ever before. Using Master templates, you can quickly account for all the materials, labor, equipment, subcontractors, and other expenses associated with any building project.
Before diving into using Quick Bid, it is important to be familiar with the program. Investing a few minutes to learn about the application increases efficiency and ensures understanding of how to use the program to bid the most projects in the least amount of time! Be sure to check out our Getting Started Page, linked at the bottom of this article.
Although you can start bidding as soon as you get your license (you can build your templates on-the-fly), we encourage you to review the rest of this chapter and then following chapters:
Investing just a little time now will save you countless hours down the road and help you not develop "bad habits" that make using Quick Bid harder than it needs to be.
We also encourage you to watch the Quick Bid Training Videos - they are a great resource for getting up-and-running with the application.
Quick Tips
Tool Tips - If you are unsure what a button does, hover the mouse pointer over the button and a Tool Tip appears. A tool tip is a brief description of the button or function.
Status Bar - If the program seems like it is processing information try looking at the Status Bar. The Status Bar is located at the very bottom of the Program Window and displays information about what Quick Bid is doing internally. It also contains the current date, and, if the database is set to require a login and password, the current user's name.
Context Menus - Right-click on most objects and within most windows to view a Context (or Pop-Up) Menu (for example, right-click on the Bids Tab to see a list of common functions such as Creating New Bids, Duplicating, and Deleting Bids).
Expand/Collapse - Expand any folder, Condition Type or other heading by clicking on the [
] plus sign next to it; Collapse heading by clicking the [ 
] minus sign next to it.
Basics - there are several articles that follow that discuss shortcuts, searching, filtering, type-ahead (huge timesaver!!!), and general 'How to get around' Quick Bid - please take a few minutes to review these to save yourself a lot of time down the road.
Confirmation Prompts
There are many confirmation dialogs that Quick Bid uses to verify different actions (such as copying/pasting Bids or deleting something from the Master lists). If you have turned off a confirmation (or all confirmations), these dialogs are suppressed. To turn confirmations back on, click Tools > Options and on the General tab, place a checkmark in 'Turn on All Confirmations.
If you've been using the program for some time, it is a good idea to turn back on all Confirmations after upgrading from an older version. There are changes that may only be visible if Confirmations are shown. You can always turn off individual Confirmations again.
Welcome to Quick Bid 4.98 Online Help