Desktop Design : All of the features of Q-Script are available from a single desktop browser following the familiar standards of Microsoft Windows. Jobs may be created at any stage from cost planning to final account with work done at any point easily available for inclusion elsewhere within the current job or other. Each job can have its own list of sortations, bills and sections, document registry and contacts file.
Job Templates : Q-Script provides the ability to store multiple job templates allowing for the rapid creation of standard format job files to support individual client needs.
Cash Flows : At any point a cash flow report can be requested that will provide the user with charts and tables including the most up to date cost information; including the cost plan, the tendered amount, a number of cash forecasts and actual valuations. Ready comparisons can be easily made.
Cost Planning : Cost planning allows for the import and export of cost planning data, which, together with your own database of past jobs, provides easily produced and well presented reports based on accurate data.
Taking off and Billing : Users have the ability to create their own custom libraries, which can be imported and exported via spreadsheet. This capability allows for the creation and use of libraries of descriptions and rates to support individual projects or clients. Enhanced taking off features provide for the rapid copy and paste of items and the creation of a components library of ready made, and priced groups of taking off items. Integration with digitiser and CAD significantly streamlines take off.
Once take off is complete Q-Script provides a range of facilities for generating fast and accurate estimates. These range from the office price book to collection of rates from sections of previous bills. Q-Script can concentrate your entire database into a facility for collecting all rates on all jobs on your system and electronically updating them with a weighting (set by you) and an uplift per job (set by you). It then automatically applies them to like items in the current job. You may then scroll through the priced estimate, applying adjustments and new prices as required.
Bill Print Facilities : Q-Script has a fully interactive design tool to allow the user to create bill layouts including the full range of Windows fonts, line and picture graphics and other static bill page information.
Bill Export Facilities : Q-Script provides various methods of exporting finished bills. Exported bills can be written to the local disk of your system or automatically zipped and emailed to a defined contact. Q-Script supports the CITE standards and also provides two export to MS Excel formats; one for export and re import – to be used for loading in contractor’s rates with subsequent tender analysis – and one to produce a file in the format of a final bill.
Sortations : Q-Script will allow any part, or multiples of any part, of a job file to be included in ad-hoc sortations of job files. Similarly the print order can be defined in many alternative ways to support client needs. This facility is ideal for housing developments.
Valuations and Variations and Final Account : Q-Script provides for the production of spreadsheet files that allow for the creation of valuations on site. These files may then be re imported to provide fast and accurate payments documentation.
Variations are convenient to create and are linked on screen to actual valuations. Final accounts are both flexible and quick to produce and can be exported to spreadsheet to include any minor adjustments required.
Version 5 supports the NRM2 Library
The Extended Feature Set
Integrated Document Registry : Q-Script can store all project documentation indexed and linked to the relevant job files.
Built in Letter Writer : Q-Script has a built in word processor that is aware of the Q-Script database. Each significant data item, e.g. a valuation, can have any number of documents attached to it which are created from a user defined set of standard document templates. Using the letter writer Q-Script users can easily create high quality standard documents. These documents can automatically include Q-Script data such as the name and address of a contractor or the value of a variation order or cost plan. Each document adds both to the job file and to the Q-Script document registry.
Spreadsheet Integration : At many stages during the life of a job file spreadsheets can be used to present data for editing or to allow for its import / export. These spreadsheets can become a part of the jobs document set and so a part of the users document registry.
Contacts File : The Q-Script contacts file contains the industry standard working set of contact information, including email address for the electronic distribution of documents and other files.
Built in Email : Using the Q-Script email facility the user may send, and receive, documents directly from Q-Script.
Component Library : Q-Script allows the user to select sets of taking-off (e.g. an inspection chamber, door and adjustments etc) and copy and store them into component items for use as ‘building blocks’ in future jobs.
Tutorials : Q-Script is supplied with a full set of training documentation that takes new users through each of the many features available. Developed by a highly qualified QS with many years of experience in both private and academic environments, the tutors are easy to use and assume only the barest minimum of computer expertise.
WH Stephens & Sons Case Study
WH Stephens & Sons
Keeping pace with changing times :
Belfast – based WH Stephens & Sons is one of the UK’s oldest and most respected Quantity Surveying Practices, dating back to
1865. It’s easy to assume this means doing things the old-fashioned way, but not so. In fact WH Stephens & Sons is one of a growing number of users
harnessing the power of Q-Script to automate its Bills Of Quantities.
“We previously used an older system from another supplier” said Chairman Ken Patterson, “but
because it was DOS-based, it was slow, cumbersome, difficult to learn and even harder to modify”.
“Meeting market demands and turning round Bills of Quantities quickly meant we needed to equip
ourselves with a smarter, faster and more accurate solution. We decided to upgrade our system, and spent several weeks evaluating five or six packages and
looking at demonstrations”.
“We chose Q-Script for its ability to deliver automated information accurately and quickly and for its value for money. Many of the other systems had unecessary
add-ons that either made them too complex or too expensive. Q-Script does exactly what it promises, and is extremely user friendly”.
WH Stephens & Sons is now running Q-Script on about 30 desktops and has been able to reduce its administrative overheads by 50 percent.
“Under the Q-Script application, the system we have now is easily twice as fast as before.” added Patterson, “and we estimate we’ve gained anywhere between 25% and 30%
in terms of increased productivity. The more our surveyors use the system, the more they like it and the faster they get”.
“We had very little training and found it surprisingly easy to use. Q-Script comes with a self-teaching tutorial and we’ve
added to that by developing our own ‘do’s and don’ts’ list for internal use. Everyone that’s used the system has picked it up easily and quickly”.
WH Stephens & Sons have also taken the system one step further by creating their own abbreviated libraries of information for re-use within the company, providing further
customisation of shared data.
“The great thing about Q-Script” added Patterson, “is that we have an adaptable system we can customise as we see fit. It’s this kind of flexibility and rapid turnaround time in producing Bills of Quantities that makes it so
valuable. We’re able to develop and suit our own needs, rather than trying to work with something that keeps us locked in a straight jacket”.
WH Stephens & Sons have now migrated to Version 2.0 of Q-Script, which is even more friendly and straightforward to use. The practice has hundreds of disparate customers ranging
from hospitals to buildings for large retailers such as MFI and Toys-R-Us, all with different needs and specifications.
“We’re a long established, traditional professional practice” added Patterson “with a 130 year old track record of excellence. We simply don’t adopt new technologies or business models because
they’re popular, indeed we take our work very seriously and have done so since the 19th century”
“Q-Script has helped us to improve the way we carry out that work. We’ve already seen a payback on our investment in the system and we’re able to respond to our
customers’ needs very quickly and even more accurately than before – which makes sound commercial sense in any century”.