Open Source Estimate/Work Order/scheduling Software

white8

Has anyone come across a good open source estimate/work order/scheduling software? I'm an electrical contractor so I'm not dealing with various trades on a project but would like to be able to keep better track of work orders and scheduling. I'd like something along the lines of Acowin or Dispatched without the big price tag. I've priced custom software development but prices range between $4000 and $35k.

duckdown

If you were able to get custom development for that cheap, you got yourself a bargain. If you are looking for open source, consider browsing sourceforge.net

Max Nomad

To second what duckdown said, http://www.sourceforge.net is the place to check. When it comes to Open Source projects, if it's not at least listed there at Sourceforge, http://www.launchpad.net or http://www.freshmeat.net then it's either not out there or probably going to be next to impossible to find.

If I had to recommend anything, you might want to try playing around with making your own estimate template using a spreadsheet program.

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modterry

First - how large is your company?, Who will do your estimates? Are they shared over a network. Do you want to step into a fully integrated system at the get go? I came across 2 very reasonable estimators on this website.

Write down on paper how you want to do your estimates, info you want , sharing, invoicing, purchasing related, etc and then I would rate the features you want on a 1-10 rating and then compare packages.

My whole business is internet based and have back office operations web based - so sharing info is important to us , plus I made up my own categories based upon construction sequence. I don't like any of the "Industry Standard" categories as they aren't in the sequence that any one builds in.

1) bid4build dot com - uses your own categories, and you can build different cost books using national codes or build your own. I liked several items it offered as you could build cost books say for retail tenant finish, basement remodels, etc

2)Expert Estimating - www.expert-estimating.com
Same small price point.

go to these websites and check them out they may be a good starter for you.
Terry