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Before you submit your bid to the customer, do as much bid analysis as you can to ensure that your bid is as accurate as possible, and that nothing has fallenl through the cracks. Types of analyses include the following:

Average Branch Raceway Length per Outlet
A quick check worth doing is to divide the total footage of branch raceways by the number of outlets. This type of an analysis can be applied to each phase of a project such as fire alarm systems, sound systems, and so forth.

Average Number of Wires per Raceway Foot
Another quick check is to divide branch-circuit wiring by branch raceway lengths. If the answer is less than 2 or more than 4, that is a warning sign to check for errors.

Percent Distribution to Selling Price
Check the percentage distribution of labor, material, direct cost, overhead, and profit to sales. Be sure you do this for all jobs
so that you can compare each bid against previously completed jobs of a similar nature.

Cost per Square Foot
Another check is to calculate the cost per square foot; simply divide the selling price by the square footage of the building.

Example: The cost per square foot for the 2,500 sq ft meeting room is $3.01 [$7,533.17/2,500 sq ft], or a ballpark price of $3.00 per square foot.

Cost per Labor Hour
Another check is to calculate the cost per labor hour; simply divide the selling price by the number of labor hours.

Example: The cost per labor hour for the 2,500 sq ft meeting room is $68.63 [$7,533.17/109.77 hours], or a ballpark price of $70 per labor hour.

Author’s Comment: The cost per labor hour values can be used to check an estimate
for validity, not as the basis for a bid.

Labor Days
One final consideration is how the job will be staffed (number of man-days) and if this information appears to be valid. You determine this by dividing the total job hours by the number of hours per day that the job will be staffed.

Example: The meeting room is estimated to take 109.77 hours, if we plan on working 16 hours per day (two electricians), the job should take 6.86 labor days [109.77 hours/16 hours].

Experience
As an estimator develops his or her skills and accumulates history, he or she will be able to develop more of these quick checks and reduce the risk of errors.

For more information on this topic, get a copy of Mike Holt's Electrical Estimating video program and textbook.