Billcost Version 2010.1 – Release Notes

WELCOME TO BILLCOST 2010

Billcost would like to thank their loyal clients for their ongoing support in 2009. We at Billcost always strive to provide the best product and service. Even though this year was tough, there were no exception in our dedication to our clients and this will be the norm for many more years to come.

Some good news
The Gauteng and Western Cape housing markets are busy lifting their heads. This is according to construction economist Dr Johan Snyman of Medium-Term Forecasting Associates, after cement sales in the two provinces showed some improvement. He says cement sales are a good indication of the state of the building and civil construction industry. – News24

Being Positive
Positive thinking is a mental attitude that admits into the mind thoughts, words and images that are conductive to growth, expansion and success. It is a mental attitude that expects good and favourable results. A positive mind anticipates happiness, joy, health and a successful outcome of every situation and action. Whatever the mind expects, it finds. Be positive!

New Version
This newsletter refers to changes to be found in the very latest Version (2010.1) of Billcost, which is now available for download from the Billcost website – and as always it is full of updates, additions and fixes all designed to make your life so much easier and your work more accurate.

Just some of the new changes to expect in Version 2010.1

• This Update will likely go down in history as the “electrical” update. A comprehensive list of measureable formulae, based on the ECA electrical tender sheet, has finally been added to Billcost. Complete with labour components expressed in hours. Check it out!
• Speaking of labour, we have also added formulae for day labour rates. Check out the labour only section under each trade or a full listing in Preliminaries.
• The niggles regarding various formulae that you have brought to our attention has been attended to. Notable amongst these are the carpet and drywall formulae, and while we were busy we added the drywall section to the professional database too!
• Finally we have adjusted the size of the totals column in the Certificate Generator to get rid of those annoying hashes (###) that sometimes appear in jobs with large totals.
• We are already thinking up ways of making the software even better for you in future updates. One of the things we are thinking about is a hybrid “intermediate” database to fit neatly between professional and basic. Think about it, all the ease-of-use and speed of basic combined with the range of choice from professional. Like it, or maybe not? Tell us about it.
• And let’s not forget that civil database is also out there rearing to be expanded. Need it? Tell us what you would like to see in it.
• Oh and least we forget. The topic on everybody’s minds . . . prices! Our industry is still very much deflated and the expected large rises in the cost of construction materials early 2010 didn’t really materialise. In short, the following items showed the most change since November 2009
  • Gypsum Products (Ceilings, Drywalls) 6-8%.
  • Aggregates (Sand, Stone, Cement, Bricks, Precast Concrete, Roof tiles) 4%.
  • Nutec Products (Ceilings, Window sills, Roofing, Fascias) 4-6%.
  • Copperware (Pipes, HWC, Taps) 8-10%.

The Bad with the Good
Rising economic pressures has forced us to increase our license fees effective 1 March 2010. Please visit the about section on the Billcost website, or the Billcost support blog for more information.

Training
Billcost would like to ensure that our clients gain maximum benefit from our software. If you feel there is any feature in Billcost that you need some additional guidance on, please contact our offices. We can arrange some training if necessary and therefore enable you to utilize Billcost to all its capabilities.

Help is at hand
Unfortunately our dedicated staff need to go home sometimes, but after hour problems does not mean that you cannot work. We have included a complete listing of all known problems and errors in Billcost in the user manual. Simply look up the problem and follow the steps given to correct the issue.
We are also gaining momentum with our support blog. We will start publishing tips and hints on a weekly basis. Watch out for this and interact with us by asking your questions on the blog . . . or even better, subscribe to our blog via e-mail. http://billcost.wordpress.com/ or simply follow the link from the Billcost main page.

Download Procedure
The installation instructions are included for those brand new Billcost customers and for our loyal ones who may need to be reminded of the process and procedures.

1. Browse to the Billcost website at http://www.billcost.co.za/ and once there, click on the “Downloads” button. It should be about top centre of your screen, just below the Billcost Logo.
2. Scroll down to the section that reads Registered Users and then click the link that reads “Click here to LOGIN”.
3. Type in your username (the six digit account code on your invoice) in CAPITAL letters for example ABC001. Now type in your four digit password. Forgotten yours? No problem. Simply open the Billcost Project Manager, open the Help menu and select Registration. The four numbers located in the program serial number (written in blue) is also your password.
4. Once logged in we have reduced your options to three.
   1. You can enter your new activation code as displayed if for some reason you did not receive the e-mail with your new code on. (Remember to inform us on changes of your email addresses ok?)
   2. You can download the entire Billcost update install. We recommend this option.
   3. Or you can download only portions of the update like prices or databases.
5. Click on the link of the item you would like to download and select the save option. Doing it this way saves you the trouble (and bandwidth) of doing it again should you need to install Billcost again later.
6. Once downloaded and saved on your hard disk you may log out of Billcost and close your internet browser. In fact, it is good practise before you install Billcost or any other software, to close down all programs running on your computer.
7. Double click or Run the downloaded file to start the installation. The installation wizard will guide you through the process step-by-step. On a standard Billcost installation you should have no problems and you need not deviate from any of the settings. Simply click next on every screen to breeze through the installation.
8. The very last step in the installation process is to select the price and labour file areas to install. Select by holding down the Cntrl key on your keyboard and clicking the options you would like to install with your mouse, then click the Install button to complete the process. Repeat twice, once for materials and another time for labour.

In next to no time your Billcost system should be fully updated. Happy estimating!

NOTE: VISTA USERS: Some special installation procedures need to be taken when installing Billcost on a Vista operating system. This is to ensure your best possible Billcost experience. Please do not hesitate to call to have one of our staff guide you through these procedures.

Vista Problems Explained

A large portion of the problems that you will experience with Billcost on an MS Vista operating system originates from the method in which Vista handles security on software. In most cases any and all user created Billcost files are saved to a virtual directory in a completely different location on the hard drive as the actual Billcost installation. These files include Price and Labour files, Security file, Builders contact information etc, Projects and databases.

The client PC then gets confused in trying to synchronise the two directories causing errors like price files that is not visible, Access Violations trying to open formulae in the estimator or even list index errors opening the Estimator.

To fix the problem:
New Installation:

Before installing Billcost on a Vista PC, open control panel, then open User accounts.

The very last setting on the list should be “Turn User Account Control On/Off”.

Select this setting and make sure that the tickbox is empty (OFF)

Install Billcost as normal

Existing Installation:

• Follow steps as for a new Installation
• Browse to dir C:\Users\Username\Appdata\Local\Virtualstore\Program Files\Ecs\Billcost for Windows. If Appdate folder is not visible, go to the view tab under folder options and switch on radio button that states “show hidden files and folders”
• Copy the info in each of the folders to the “original” Billcost install dir C:\Program Files\Ecs\Billcost for Windows. DO NOT COPY THE FOLDER, COPY ONLY CONTENTS OF THE FOLDERS.

Please feel free to contact our support line should you require any assistance.

The Support Team

Editorial in Cape Times – 26Feb 2008

Have a look at the editoral on Billcost Mobile in the techno section of today’s Cape Times. You can also save or view the editorial here. Click on the link below to view online (you will need Adobe acrobat reader), or right click and save link to your computer for later off line viewing.

CapeTechtimes.pdf