FastPIPE Bulletin JAN/FEB/MAR 2005

From FastEST, Inc.

We are dedicating this newsletter to helping answer questions about the upgrade to Version 4.1R5 released in December. Hopefully, we can help you to get the most out of the many changes and new features in FastPIPE. We appreciate your patience, while waiting to receive the update.

We also would like to thank the customers, who received preliminary versions of the update, for helping us with evaluation and testing.

The goal of this update was to make FastPIPE even easier to learn and use, to try to create a better flow for the program to match modern estimating techniques, and to give customers the ability to customize their system to fit their company's standard procedures.

The reviews of the new version that we've heard from some of you are welcomed and appreciated. So far, they've been overwhelmingly positive.

If you have any suggestions for the newsletter, call me at 800-828-7108, or send me an e-mail at mark.oxler@fastest-inc.com.

Thank you,

Mark Oxler President

FastPIPE Version 4.1R5: What's Different

FastPIPE's new job screen allows for storage of project in cabinets for better organization.

Cabinets. When you enter your FastPIPE Job List screen, you will notice the screen is split into two areas labeled "Cabinets" and "Job List". Cabinets can be created to help you organize your jobs.

To create a cabinet, click on File, then New Cabinet. Simply enter a new name for the Cabinet, such as "Dead Estimates". Select Assembly or User and click on OK. Assembly Cabinets are yellow and are specifically designed for storing assemblies and commonly used Job Items and Specs. User Cabinets are for allowing for the storage of projects in an organized manner.

User Cabinets entitled "Dead Estimates", "Current Estimate", "Pending Estimates", "Active Projects", etc. can help to sort projects accordingly and avoid long scroll lists at the Job List screen. To move a job from one Cabinet to another, simply click on the job folder and drag it (while holding down the mouse button) to the new Cabinet.

Other suggestions for using different Cabinets: Customers for whom you perform multiple jobs; different company departments; or different estimators.

With the addition of Cabinets, it was necessary to Update Excel Macros in the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The instructions for this were in the letter, but call us if you have any questions or need assistance. If you have a version of Microsoft Excel prior to Excel 2000, it will not allow for the updating of macros. Our recommendation would be to upgrade your version of Excel to Microsoft Excel 2000 or later.

Assemblies. We still have the same HVAC and Plumbing assemblies, but have organized them into assembly cabinets (yellow in color). The HVAC and Plumbing assemblies are arranged inside of different jobs, allowing for less scrolling to find a desired assembly, when copying them into a job. If you still prefer the old assembly format, you can leave them on your desktop or move those jobs into the assembly cabinets we've created.

If you have your own company Assemblies, you can create an assembly with your company name, such as "Benchmark", and store your own assemblies, company Specs, or a catalog of Job Items. Assembly cabinets will be stored alphabetically above the User cabinets for easy access.

Templates. A special Assembly cabinet has been created to house Template jobs. Jobs within this cabinet can be copied as a standard template to save setup time in creating a new job. Jobs with a certain engineering firm or customer, for example, may always have the same Specs or Job Items. When you click on "New Job", you can select a template job, which is pre-loaded with certain Specs or Job Items. If you don't wish to use a template, just leave the selection as "None".

In my opinion, this is one of the most beneficial features of the new version. Once templates are created for a certain customer, you can create a job and immediately begin to takeoff with virtually no set-up time.

Job Tabs provide better access to tasks, while Operation Buttons put functions at user's fingertips.

Job Items and Job Item Quick-Pick. In the new assembly cabinets, we loaded over 650 new Job Items, which can be copied into a job or template as desired. The tab for Job Items provides a venue to add or delete items or edit names or prices, as desired to make the list job specific.

If you enter a takeoff section on a job which contains Job Items, you will notice the items available in the Job Item Quick-Pick area at the bottom of the screen. These items can be selected and taken of with a single click! If there is more than one size available, a list will pop up similar to our reducing fitting window.

Reports Changes. At the Reports Tab, you'll notice a couple of changes. Once a Re-Calculation is performed, the Material Cost sheet, the Labor Hours sheet, and a new Exceptions sheet are available by single clicks. Notice the new option on the Exceptions sheet to sort exceptions by Section. This allows for quicker management of exceptions, when they do occur.

New FastPIPE Customers

Kruse Corporation Wichita, Kansas

Pride Plumbing Porter, Texas

Crosby-Brownlie Rochester, New York

Industrial Refrigeration Services Alkeny, Iowa

Knight Plumbing Franklin, Wisconsin

Frontier Mechanical Salt Lake City, Utah

Lively Mechanical Chamblee, Georgia

R.J. O'Neill, Inc. Montgomery, Illinois

DeLuca Plumbing Huron, Ohio

ETCO Couer d'Alene, Idaho

Hartwig Mechanical DeKalb, Illinois

Haury Plumbing Sparta, Illinois

John Costakis Red Hook, New York

Design Mechanical Kansas City, Kansas

AVM, Inc. Anchorage, Alaska

General Plant Services Blue Grass, Iowa

Plumb Plumbing Tucson, Arizona

JT Mechanical Peru, New York