Estimate software vs doing it by hand, tried both on a 40 unit Reno in Columbus

I flip small apartment buildings and for a while I just did takeoffs with a pad and pencil like my dad taught me. Then a GC buddy kept pushing me to try one of those cloud estimating tools, so I paid for the monthly plan, I think it was $89, and ran a full 40 unit rehab through it. Honestly the software was fast for counting doors and windows but it kept missing things like demo labor and dumpster fees unless I added them manually, which sort of felt like the same work anyway. Went back to hand for the next project and saved about 6 hours of clicking through menus, but I do use a spreadsheet template now for material lists. Has anyone else found a middle ground, or is it all about which one your subs actually send RFIs through?

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the_thomas24d ago

Software misses the messy stuff like demo, hand takeoffs catch that.