Buyout, working with Estimating, helps you to quickly and accurately turn detailed estimates into RFQs and purchase orders. Because the buyout process is one of the most critical first steps in the overall profitability of any construction project you need to ensure that your numbers are correct—right from the start.

Use Buyout to take advantage of material and subcontract items in your estimates to solicit prices from potential suppliers and subcontractors, issue purchase orders, and automatically transfer the commitments to Job Cost and Purchasing.

Process automation and control
Buyout helps you sort the items in an estimate into desired groups of materials, produce procurement documents, and perform the tasks necessary to buy out your job.

• Automatically generate, sort and send RFQs to suppliers, and subcontractors via e-mail, fax or printed hard copy.
• Record, track, analyze, and select bids received.
• Transfer commitments to Job Cost for estimated versus actual cost tracking.
• Transfer commitments to Purchasing for purchase order and subcontract generation.

Integration with accounting and estimating
From Buyout, you have access to standard cost codes, categories, and pricing stored in Estimating. Buyout is truly integrated and reads the project information directly from your Estimating file. Once subs and suppliers have been chosen, POs can be printed directly from Buyout or committed costs transferred electronically to Accounting or Project Management for PO and subcontract generation and Job Cost tracking.

Information accessibility
Not only does Buyout save time and reduce effort by automating the bid solicitation process, it also provides an important tool for determining where you are in the buyout process.

• Establish percent complete.
• Minimize your exposure.
• See at a glance how your actual prices compare with your estimated costs.

Additional features

• Build a worksheet of material and subcontract items to be bought out automatically by reading the Sage Timberline Office estimate file.
• Multiple estimates can be combined into a single worksheet, an important feature for contractors who receive price discounts based on volume purchases.
• Create one-time items in the Buyout item window.
• View items the way you want to see them — by WBS, location, phase, material class, and so forth.
• Group materials or subcontract items for ease in obtaining prices; create quote sheets and assign material items and subcontract items to the quote sheets.
• Assign multiple vendors and subcontractors to quote sheets.
• Use prices from Buyout's standard price database for items in the quote sheet.
• Automatically submit requests for quotes and send purchase orders via e-mail, fax or hard copy.
• Split items out of one quote for the creation of a new quote sheet.
• Use the Summary Quote sheet to organize vendors/subcontractor's quotes from low to high.
• Save prices from the quote sheet to a Buyout standard price database.
• Change prices for any item and update the Estimating database with pricing from Buyout.
• Update Estimating estimates with Buyout prices, revised quantities and vendor/subcontractor selections.
• Transfer commitments to Job Cost for estimated vs. actual cost tracking.

View Screenshot
Set up the preferred communication method with each of your subs and suppliers. Do some vendors prefer email while others prefer fax? Not a problem. Buyout sorts it out for you.

Download more information in a printable PDF format.