Bidfident for shutdown contractors
Estimating software for plant shutdowns
Bidding a plant shutdown means fitting a lot of crafts into a short outage window. In Bidfident you price conveyor drives, process piping by the linear foot and pipe welds by the each, with millwrights, pipefitters, welders and laborers each at their own rate, night-shift welds at a line's own rate, scaffolding as a sub, and the crane and outage coordinator by the week.
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 outage slips from two weeks to two and a half, and the crane and coordinator are still priced for two. In Bidfident weekly general conditions follow the job duration, and part weeks such as 2.5 are allowed.
Scaffold bids in three emails
Scaffold bids arrive late and in different shapes, and the one you carried isn't always the low number. On the Subcontractors tab the bids sit side by side, the lowest is flagged and carried unless you pick another, and a plug number holds the place until bids arrive.
How Bidfident fits your work
Each craft at its own rate
Millwrights, pipefitters, welders and laborers 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 outage bid can see the differential.
Crane and coordinator by the week
Put the mobile crane and the outage coordinator in as weekly general conditions 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 sub's erect-and-dismantle number. 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 packaging hall or the boiler room, and group the sheet with a subtotal for each. Collapse the groups to see the whole outage on one screen.
From direct cost to bid total
Contingency for what you find once the plant is opened up, then fee, bond and insurance. Any sales tax is shown apart, for reference, and every amount is exact to the cent.
Worked example: a two-week outage at a food processing plant
A made-up job, priced in Bidfident: 28 lines of your own work, 4 subs and 5 general conditions 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 the US, then on the Projects screen, under Example project, pick "Industrial shutdowns and turnarounds" and "Plant shutdowns" and press Add example project.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Replace conveyor drives and gearboxes, 3 ea
| $21,672.00 |
Replace process piping, 4" stainless, 395 LF
| $26,330.70 |
Pipe welds, 4" stainless, night shift, 90 ea
| $22,050.00 |
Open, clean and close heat exchangers, 2 ea
| $7,740.00 |
Labor support and housekeeping, 320 hr
| $14,400.00 |
23 more lines of your own work
| $137,107.85 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Scaffolding, erect and dismantle
| $13,500.00 |
Electrical, motor disconnects and reconnects
| $7,360.00 |
Weld X-ray and inspection
| $3,960.00 |
Insulation of new piping, allowance
| $5,040.00 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Outage coordinator
| $5,800.00 |
Mobile crane, 45-ton
| $15,600.00 |
Safety attendant and confined space rescue standby
| $6,720.00 |
Welding machines and gases, rented
| $1,520.00 |
Mobilization and demobilization
| $3,840.00 |
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
Own work
| $229,300.55 |
| Excluded lines, not counted | $9,960.00 |
| Subcontractors | $29,860.00 |
General conditions
| $33,480.00 |
Direct cost
| $292,640.55 |
Contingency
| $14,632.03 |
Fee
| $36,872.71 |
| Subtotal before the bond | $344,145.29 |
Bond
| $3,441.45 |
Insurance
| $2,581.09 |
Bid total
| $350,167.83 |
See it in Bidfident
Coming soon Ask your estimate anything. Claude first, ChatGPT to follow. See how it will work
Questions
Can I price labor support by the hour?
Yes. Units are free text, so a line can be 320 HR at 1 hour per unit, priced at the laborer's rate. Other lines can be EA, LF 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 per diem follow the outage length?
Yes. Add per diem for the crew as a weekly general conditions item linked to the job duration. Part weeks are allowed, such as 2.5, and it follows when the outage moves.
What if no scaffold bids have come in yet?
Carry a plug number 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 cleaning 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 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. Subs and general conditions 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.