Finding the right construction estimating software for your firm can be a daunting - and, at times - overwhelming challenge. A lot is on the line when you factor in the time it takes to research and interview vendors. Not to mention, these programs don't run cheap - they can set your firm back as much as $100,000.

Unfortunately, after the whole process has played out, there are a lot of construction firms that are disappointed with their decision. Therefore, Bid4Build's Mark Kennedy offers some advice on how to find the right software fit in his article, How to Select the Best Construction Estimating Software Solution for your Construction Business.

For starters, he believes that it's common for construction professionals to change their business procedures in order to fit the way a software program runs. This is a huge mistake because it often leads to frustration and dissatisfaction. Instead, construction firms should choose a software package that is flexible enough to work in conjunction with how the company operates.

However, according to Kennedy, the greatest source of frustration from estimating software stems from locked costbooks. It's common for estimating programs to provide a central database of materials and labor, but many of these centralized costbooks do not take into account geographical regions and local distributors. Therefore, many professionals find this tool unreliable and inaccurate. Compounding the problem, many software packages do not allow the user to change the values in the database; this can make them practically useless for some.

So what's a firm to do? Here's the money quote from the article:

The best estimating software solutions should allow the construction professional to completely leverage existing industry database cost information as well as provide the ability for the construction professional to create their own costbook database of information and even combine the two. This should be extended to have the ability to create as many costbook databases as the construction professional would like to accommodate multiple types of estimating situations.

Ultimately, the software should work for you and not the other way around. For Kennedy, this starts with an estimator that comes with a fully-customizable costbook.

For more ideas on how evaluate construction software, check out our introduction to construction estimating software and our Construction Estimating Software Buyer's Guide.