Make Crew Templates with Production Rates in Contractor Estimate Pro

Start here, step 3 of 3 · All Contractor Estimate Pro guides

A crew template is the crew you send to do a kind of work: the people, the machines, and how fast they go. Set it up once. When you put the crew on a pay item, the app uses the production rate to figure the hours, and the hours to figure the cost.

Crew Templates are part of Libraries, so they're free to use. You don't need a subscription to build them.

What you'll need

• Your labor and equipment in the libraries (Build your libraries)

• A production rate you trust for the work, from past jobs or your own numbers

About the numbers in this guide: every rate below is an example number for our sitework job. They are not real prices or real production. Use your own.

How a crew template works

A crew template has three parts:

1. Labor from your Labor library, each with a count

2. Equipment from your Equipment library, each with a count

3. A Production Rate: how much work the crew gets done, like 150 LF/hr

The app adds up the labor and equipment into the crew's Total Cost/hr.

Step 1: Open Crew Templates

Tap the Libraries tab, then Crew Templates. Each crew card shows:

• Total Cost/hr, for example $325.00

• Production Rate, for example 90 TON/hr, 60 CY/hr or 2 EA/hr

• Labor, with counts, for example 2x Operator

• Equipment, for example Dozer, Single Drum Compactor

Use Search crews to find one fast. The red trash icon deletes a crew. Tap the blue + button to start a new one.

Step 2: Name the crew

Give it a name you'll know on a bid. For our example: Silt Fence.

Step 3: Add labor and equipment with counts

Add the labor and equipment from your libraries, and set how many of each. Two laborers is one Laborer with a count of 2, not two separate lines.

Here is the Silt Fence crew as it shows on our example pay item. On the pay item's Edit Crew screen, the rate next to each resource is the total for its count, so 2 Laborers at $50.00/hr each shows $100.00/hr (2).

Operator: count 1, $60.00/hr each (example), shows as $60.00/hr (1)

Laborer: count 2, $50.00/hr each (example), shows as $100.00/hr (2)

Mini Excavator: count 1, $60.00/hr each (example), shows as $60.00/hr (1)

Total Cost/hr: $220.00

Labor is $160.00 per hour ($60 + $100). Equipment is $60.00 per hour. Together the crew costs $220.00/hr.

The single rates above ($50 per Laborer and so on) are worked out from the screen: $100.00/hr for 2 Laborers is $50.00 each.

Step 4: Set the Production Rate

Enter the crew's Production Rate and its units. For our example: 150 LF per hour. That means the crew installs 150 feet of silt fence an hour. On the pay item it shows as Production Rate 150, Units LF/Hour.

Save the crew. It now shows in Crew Templates with its Total Cost/hr and Production Rate.

To change a template later, open it from Crew Templates and edit it.

How the production rate drives hours on a pay item

When you put the crew on a pay item with + Add Crew, the app does the math:

Total Hours = Quantity ÷ Production Rate

Crew cost = Total Hours × Total Cost/hr

For our Silt Fence pay item, 750 LF:

Hours: 750 LF ÷ 150 LF/hr = Hours: 5.00

Crew cost: 5.00 hrs × $220.00/hr = Cost: $1100.00

Crew unit cost: $1,100.00 ÷ 750 LF = Unit Cost: $1.47 ($1.4667 rounded)

The crew card on the pay item shows all of it: Hours 5.00, Hourly Rate $220.00/hr, Qty 750.00, Unit Cost $1.47, Cost $1100.00, and the rate in a box: 150.00 LF/hr.

Change the quantity and the hours follow. 1,500 LF at the same rate is 10.00 hours and $2,200.00.

On the estimate's pay item list, the crew cost splits into LABOR and EQUIPMENT:

• LABOR: 5.00 hrs × $160.00/hr = $800.00

• EQUIPMENT: 5.00 hrs × $60.00/hr = $300.00

Add the Silt Fence material ($993.75) and the pay item's TOTAL COST is $1,100.00 + $993.75 = $2,093.75, or a UNIT COST of $2.79 per LF. Markups take it to the UNIT PRICE and TOTAL PRICE. Those come in later guides.

When one job is different: changing the crew on one pay item

Every job isn't average. Open the crew from the pay item's Crews section to get to Edit Crew. Changes here only affect that pay item. Your template stays the same.

On Edit Crew you can:

• Change the Production Rate. Tight site, slower going? At 120 LF/hr, 750 ÷ 120 = 6.25 hours, so the crew cost is 6.25 × $220.00 = $1,375.00.

• Turn on Override Hours and type the hours yourself when you already know them. At 6 hours, the crew cost is 6 × $220.00 = $1,320.00.

• Change the labor or equipment. Use + Add under Labor or Equipment, the arrows to change counts, or the trash icon to remove one. The app marks the changed crew with -Mod, like Crew: Silt Fence -Mod.

• Swap the crew. Tap the crew name (Tap to change) to pick a different crew template.

• Add a note in Task (Optional).

Tap Save to keep your changes, or Cancel to back out.

Pay items are covered in full in a later guide.

Tips

• One crew per kind of work. A silt fence crew, an excavation crew and an aggregate crew each go at a different speed. Make a template for each.

• Match the rate units to how you bid. Silt fence bid by the LF gets a Production Rate in LF/Hour.

• Check your rate against a past job. Feet installed ÷ crew hours on a job you've done is a good starting number.

• Use counts, not copies. Two laborers is one Laborer line with a count of 2.

• Update rates in the library. If a labor or equipment rate changes, change it in Labor or Equipment, not in each crew. Existing estimates don't change until you choose to update them.

FAQ

How does the app get the hours? Quantity ÷ Production Rate. 750 LF ÷ 150 LF/hr = 5.00 hours.

Does changing a crew on a pay item change my crew template? No. Edit Crew only changes that pay item. A changed crew shows -Mod after its name.

What if I already know the hours? Turn on Override Hours on Edit Crew and type them in. It replaces the hours from the production rate for that line only.

Next guide: Create an estimate: customer, markups and bid due date (guide coming soon) · Back to all Contractor Estimate Pro guides →