Bidfident for shutdown contractors
Estimating software for plant shutdowns
Pricing a plant shutdown means fitting a lot of trades into a short window. In Bidfident you price conveyor drives, process piping and pipe welds line by line, with millwrights, pipefitters, welders and labourers each at their own rate, night-shift welds at a line's own rate, scaffolding as a subtrade, and the crane and coordinator by the week, following the shutdown's length.
Enter your email and Bidfident sends you a sign-in link. New companies start with a starter rate library. Who runs Bidfident, and what it keeps about you.
Sound familiar?
A tab for every area of the plant
A shutdown packs drives, piping, welds and exchangers into two weeks, and the spreadsheet grows a tab per area. Totals get missed between tabs. In Bidfident every line sits on one sheet, grouped by area with subtotals, and the bid total is always in view.
The crane priced for the old window
The window slips from two weeks to two and a half, and the crane and coordinator are still priced for two. In Bidfident weekly items follow the job duration, and part weeks such as 2.5 are allowed.
Scaffold quotes in three emails
Scaffold quotes arrive late and in different shapes, and the one you carried isn't always the lowest. In Bidfident the bids sit side by side, the lowest is flagged and carried unless you pick another, and a plug amount holds the place until bids arrive.
How Bidfident fits your work
Each trade at its own rate
Millwrights, pipefitters, welders and labourers each carry their own rate from the rate library. Every line takes its trade's rate, so a drive change and a pipe run are priced right without a lookup.
Night-shift welds at their own rate
Give the night-shift welds a line rate of their own. Only that line changes, and it's marked in purple so anyone checking the shutdown can see the premium.
Crane and coordinator by the week
Put the mobile crane and the shutdown coordinator in as weekly items linked to the job duration. Stretch the window from 2 weeks to 2.5 and both follow it.
Scaffold bids side by side
Enter each scaffold contractor's erect-and-dismantle price. The lowest is flagged and carried, or pick the one you trust, and a declined bid is ignored.
One sheet, grouped by plant area
Tag each line with its area, such as the packing hall or the boiler room, and group the sheet with a subtotal for each. Collapse the groups to see the whole shutdown on one screen.
From direct cost to bid
Contingency for what you find once the plant is opened up, then fee, bonding and insurance. GST is shown separately for reference, and every amount is exact to the cent.
Worked example: a two-week shutdown at a food processing plant
A made-up job, priced in Bidfident: 28 lines of your own work, 4 subtrades and 5 overhead items over a 2-week job. The 5 lines this page talks about are listed one by one, and the rest are added up in one row. It's the same job you can open as an example project in Bidfident, so every figure below matches it.
To open this job in Bidfident: sign in and set up your company in Canada, then on the Projects screen, under Example project, pick "Industrial shutdowns" and "Plant shutdowns" and press Add example project.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Replace conveyor drives and gearboxes, 3 ea
| $27,888.00 |
Replace process piping, 4 in. stainless, 120 m
| $33,534.00 |
Pipe welds, 4 in. stainless, night shift, 90 ea
| $29,520.00 |
Open, clean and close heat exchangers, 2 ea
| $10,380.00 |
Labour support and housekeeping, 320 hr
| $20,480.00 |
23 more lines of your own work
| $179,537.80 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Scaffolding, erect and dismantle
| $16,900.00 |
Electrical, motor disconnects and reconnects
| $9,200.00 |
Weld X-ray and inspection
| $4,950.00 |
Insulation of new piping, allowance
| $6,300.00 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Shutdown coordinator
| $7,200.00 |
Mobile crane, 40 t
| $19,600.00 |
Safety attendant and confined space rescue standby
| $8,400.00 |
Welding machines and gases, rented
| $1,900.00 |
Mobilization and demobilization
| $4,800.00 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Own work
| $301,339.80 |
| Excluded lines, not counted | $12,720.00 |
| Subtrades | $37,350.00 |
Overhead
| $41,900.00 |
Direct cost
| $380,589.80 |
Contingency
| $19,029.49 |
Fee
| $47,954.31 |
| Subtotal before bonding | $447,573.60 |
Bonding
| $4,475.74 |
Insurance
| $3,356.80 |
Bid total
| $455,406.14 |
GST, for reference
| $22,770.31 |
See it in Bidfident
Coming soon Ask your estimate anything. Claude first, ChatGPT to follow. See how it will work
Questions
Can I price labour support by the hour?
Yes. Units are free text, so a line can be 320 hr at 1 hour per unit, priced at the labourer's rate. Other lines can be ea, m or LS.
How do I price night shift?
Give the night-shift lines their own rate. It applies to those lines only, is marked in purple, and the rest of the bid keeps the trade's library rate.
Can the shutdown run for part of a week?
Yes. The job duration is in weeks and part weeks are allowed, such as 2.5. Weekly items like the crane follow it.
What if no scaffold bids have come in yet?
Carry a plug amount for the trade until bids arrive. When they do, the lowest is flagged and carried unless you pick another.
Can I price a spare exchanger clean without counting it?
Yes. Price it, then switch the line off. It stays on the sheet struck through, and what it comes to is shown beside the totals, but it isn't in the bid. Switch it back on if the plant adds it.
Can I send the plant a breakdown by area?
Group the sheet by area to see each one's subtotal, or filter the cost report by area. Subtrades and site costs have no area, so the filter leaves them out, and the CSV copy is always the whole estimate by cost code. There's no client-ready quote document yet.
Does Bidfident work with Claude or ChatGPT?
Not yet, but it's coming. You'll be able to connect Bidfident to your own Claude or ChatGPT account and ask about your estimates in plain English. The answers will come from Bidfident's own figures, so they match the estimate. It will use the account you already have: Claude first, ChatGPT to follow.
Price your next shutdown bid in Bidfident
Enter your email and Bidfident sends you a sign-in link. New companies start with a starter rate library. Who runs Bidfident, and what it keeps about you.