OST Is For Me
December 18, 2018
OST Is For Me
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with On-Screen Takeoff
Estimators and project managers use On-Screen Takeoff to get accurate counts to either order products that we directly purchase ourselves or to verify quantities that subcontractors provide us for ordering products or qualifying their bids. In instances where sub pricing is substantially different from bid to bid, doing takeoffs in-house is a great way to help level the sub's proposals.
- User-friendly and easy to learn. You can sit down and figure out how to do simple takeoffs and counts with minimal training.
- It is very accurate and it is great that you can do several calculations for each condition you make.
- The colors and shapes provide a great visible audit trail.
- The layering feature helps from keeping the screen too busy if you are doing several conditions on one page.
- The worksheet tab keeps tallies of all the takeoffs from each page nicely.
- The backout mode feature can be a pain sometimes if you are trying to get real close to the edge of the takeoff you made and are trying to delete from.
- If you create a project then move the file, you are screwed.
- The software has more than paid for itself because the company has been able to save lots of money when awarding to subs since it is easy to verify quantities to qualify their bids.
- Less of a chance of under-ordering products since the visible audit trail improves accuracy. Also you spend less since you aren't ordering more than you should be.
I used OST at my previous job. Did a trial with PlanSwift prior to purchasing OST at my new job. Even though they were basically the same, I liked OST much more because I was more familiar with it.