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 pipework and butt welds line by line, with mechanical fitters, pipefitters, coded welders and labourers each at their own rate, night-shift welds at a line's own rate, scaffolding as a subcontract, and crane hire and the coordinator by the week, following the shutdown's length.
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Sound familiar?
A tab for every area of the site
A shutdown packs drives, pipework, 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 total is always in view.
The crane priced for the old window
The shutdown window slips from two weeks to two and a half, and the crane and coordinator are still priced for two. In Bidfident weekly preliminaries follow the job duration, and part weeks such as 2.5 are allowed.
Scaffolding quotes in three emails
Scaffolding quotes arrive late and in different shapes, and the one you carried isn't always the cheapest. On the Subcontractors tab the quotes sit side by side, the lowest is flagged and carried unless you choose another, and an allowance holds the place until quotes arrive.
How Bidfident fits your work
Each trade at its own rate
Mechanical fitters, pipefitters, coded 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 pipework 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 enhancement.
Crane hire and coordinator by the week
Put the mobile crane and the shutdown coordinator in as weekly preliminaries linked to the job duration. Stretch the window from 2 weeks to 2.5 and both follow it.
Scaffolding quotes side by side
Enter each scaffolding contractor's erect-and-strike price. The lowest is flagged and carried, or choose the one you trust, and a declined quote is ignored.
One sheet, grouped by plant area
Tag each line with its area, such as the packing hall or the boiler house, and group the sheet with a subtotal for each. Collapse the groups to see the whole shutdown on one screen.
From direct cost to tender
Contingency for what you find once the plant is opened up, then overheads and profit, bond and insurance. VAT is shown separately for reference, and every amount is exact to the penny.
Worked example: a two-week shutdown at a food factory
A made-up job, priced in Bidfident: 28 lines of your own work, 4 subcontract packages and 5 preliminaries items over a 2-week programme. 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 the UK, then on the Projects screen, under Example project, pick "Shutdowns and turnarounds" and "Plant shutdowns" and press Add example project.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Replace conveyor drives and gearboxes, 3 nr
| £15,336.00 |
Replace process pipework, 100 mm stainless, 120 m
| £17,730.00 |
Butt welds, 100 mm stainless, night shift, 90 nr
| £12,330.00 |
Open, clean and box up heat exchangers, 2 nr
| £4,400.00 |
Labour support and housekeeping, 320 hr
| £7,680.00 |
23 more lines of your own work
| £81,370.99 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Scaffolding, erect and strike
| £10,200.00 |
Electrical, motor disconnections and reconnections
| £5,060.00 |
Weld radiography and inspection
| £2,723.00 |
Insulation of new pipework, allowance
| £3,465.00 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Shutdown coordinator
| £4,400.00 |
Mobile crane hire, 40 t
| £13,600.00 |
Safety attendant and confined space rescue team
| £4,620.00 |
Welding sets and gases, hired
| £1,046.00 |
Mobilisation and demobilisation
| £2,640.00 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Own work
| £138,846.99 |
| Excluded lines, not counted | £6,252.00 |
| Subcontractors | £21,448.00 |
Preliminaries
| £26,306.00 |
Direct cost
| £186,600.99 |
Contingency
| £9,330.05 |
Overheads and profit
| £23,511.72 |
| Subtotal before the bond | £219,442.76 |
Bond
| £2,194.43 |
Insurance
| £1,645.82 |
Tender total
| £223,283.01 |
VAT, for reference
| £44,656.60 |
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 nr, m or item.
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 tender 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 crane hire follow it.
What if no scaffolding quotes have come in yet?
Carry an allowance for the package until quotes arrive. When they do, the lowest is flagged and carried unless you choose 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 its cost before markups is shown beside the totals, but it isn't in the tender. Switch it back on if the client adds it.
Can I send the client a breakdown by area?
Group the sheet by area to see each one's subtotal, or filter the cost report by area. Subcontractors and preliminaries 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 tender 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.