Takeoff (Quantity Surveying) and Estimating (Bidding) go hand in hand - so do our takeoff and estimating products! You can link an On-Screen Takeoff project directly to Quick Bid for pricing. This interactivity means a company can realize significant improvements to efficiency. Your users enter information once instead of multiple times getting Bids done faster than ever with greater accuracy.

Using On-Screen Takeoff and Quick Bid interactively is a great way to get the most out of On Center's programs.

Detailed instructions for using Quick Bid are in the Quick Bid User Guide - we will cover only the basics of creating an Interactive Bid here.

The first step in creating an Interactive Bid is to make sure both programs are licensed (Quick Bid shows 'QB' and On-Screen Takeoff shows 'OST' (at least) in the bottom right corner). See Related Articles for more information about licensing On-Screen Takeoff.

Verify that you have no Bid Tab filters set in either program. If there is a filter set in either program, it can prevent the programs from being able to create an Interactive Bid. See OST/QB - Cannot Create Interactive Bid (Insufficient Rights) for more tips on troubleshooting issues with creating interactive Bids.

Make sure the Quick Bid Database in which you want to create the Interactive Bid is open and that you have rights to create Bids in that database.

Synchronizing Bid Information

As you add Conditions, add Bid Areas or Typical Areas, draw takeoff drawn, and add/modify/delete Alternates and Change Orders (all done from the On-Screen Takeoff interface), those changes are synchronized between On-Screen Takeoff and Quick Bid.

• In Interactive mode changes synchronize between the programs instantaneously and automatically
• In Manual mode you must manually refresh Quick Bid from time-to-time by pressing "F9" on your keyboard

First, you need to create an interactive bid.

Price Using Excel - Linking a Condition to an Excel Cell or Named Range

Creating an Interactive Bid