Cleaning is a professional service for cleaning various premises and maintaining cleanliness.

Even in Europe and the USA, with their established market for cleaning services (about 80% of all commercial real estate is serviced by cleaning companies), this area is developing rapidly. The Entrepreneur Top 500 Franchise List includes 17 cleaning companies, all of which are growing rapidly.

In Russia, only one fifth of all commercial real estate is serviced by professional cleaners. But if there are large players in the non-residential cleaning market in Russia that work with large shopping centers, business centers, government agencies, then the residential cleaning market is not consolidated. It is represented by small local companies operating within the same city, as well as individual cleaners constantly working for several clients. Therefore, the threshold for entering this market is not so high.

The purpose of this project is to create a cleaning company specializing in cleaning residential premises (apartments, houses, cottages) in a million-plus city.

Key success factors for this business:

• Low competition. Even in large cities, there are no major players in this market, it is occupied by small businesses or “private traders” with whom one can successfully compete. In cities with a population of less than 500 thousand people, it is quite possible that the market will be free.
• Demand. In any city there is a solvent audience that does not want or does not have the opportunity to clean their homes on their own. Even those who clean their own houses order additional services, such as dry cleaning of mattresses and carpets.
• High MRR(monthly recurring revenue). A person needs cleaning all the time, once every 1-2 weeks. If you provide quality services, the client will order it again and again, which, coupled with a high average check, will lead to an increase in MRR. A high MRR is not only a stable monthly income, but also the ability to predict and track the profitability of the enterprise in advance.

The amount of initial investment is 325,000 rubles.

Breakeven point for 4 months.

Payback period - 9 months.

The average monthly profit is 118,790 rubles.

2. Description of the business, product or service

List of services provided:

• Regular cleaning is dry and wet cleaning of the entire room. It is necessary once every 1-2 weeks and includes dedusting and wet cleaning of all surfaces in an apartment or house.
• General cleaning is a comprehensive cleaning of the apartment, including washing windows and balconies and kitchen appliances from the inside. General cleaning is required for the premises once a month.
• Post-construction cleaning is a one-time service required after the repair of an apartment or house. It is aimed at getting rid of traces of building mixtures, glue, limescale from all surfaces in the apartment.
• Dry cleaning of upholstered furniture. Professional cleaning service for furniture (mattresses, chairs, sofas, armchairs) using a special vacuum cleaner. Produced 1-2 times a year.
• Ironing - is done at the customer's home using the company's equipment and ironing board. Payment is hourly.
• Delivery of keys to the customer. If the customer is not at home at the time of the arrival of the cleaners and the end of the cleaning, he can order the delivery of keys from him and to him for a fee.
• Separate services included in the general cleaning. For example, window cleaning. Can be ordered separately or together with regular cleaning.

Working hours - from 7:00 to 22:00. All services are provided at the client's premises.

3. Description of the market

In 2014-15, the commercial real estate cleaning market, which previously occupied more than 90% of the cleaning market, entered a stage of stagnation associated with price dumping against the backdrop of cost optimization for large companies and business centers. In turn, the residential cleaning market began to grow, due to the fact that the services of housekeepers became less accessible to the middle class. For now, this growth continues.

In million-plus cities, there are about 10% of the solvent population who are ready to order cleaning of their house or apartment. On average, there are 2.5 inhabitants per dwelling in Russia. Let's estimate the potential and actual market volume per month for different cities, provided that the client orders cleaning twice a month for 2000 rubles:

* the calculation is made taking into account the smaller share of the solvent population in cities with a population of less than 1 million people.

4. Sales and Marketing

Promoting a cleaning company is not an easy task. You will have to work with several segments of potential customers at the same time, answering their key questions.

Let's highlight these segments:

• Those who do not know about household cleaning at all. Their question is “What, can I order cleaning of my house?” They just need to describe the company in detail. There are many such people. For example, 70% of our regular customers ordered cleaning from us for the first time.
• Those who are used to cleaning themselves. “Why should I order when I can do it myself?”. If this is a principled position, there is nothing you can do, but the rest of the categories need to be conveyed the benefits of professional cleaning, employee training and work standards.
• Those who want to order, but are afraid / doubt. Their question is “What if it’s unsafe/expensive/inconvenient?” Your task is to refute these assumptions. And not only in word, but also in deed. Today, in the age of the Internet, any published story that your cleaning lady stole something, or that the stated check was lower than the actual one, will kill the reputation of your business.
• Those who order from "private traders" or other companies. Study the work of these categories. Order cleaning yourself and think about what can be done better. This will set you apart, and it will form the basis of your company's positioning.

In any case, constant active marketing will nullify the profit of your enterprise. High-quality performance of the service, a high percentage of customer return - that's what needs to be achieved in the first place.

Prices for cleaning apartments (rub):

Prices for house cleaning (rub):

Prices for additional services:

The average check is 3000 rubles.

5. Production plan

Stage 1. Registration

First of all, you need to register your business.

Register IP. Select UTII as the taxation system.

In the OKVED-2 classification, select item 81.21.1 "Activities for cleaning apartments and private houses." It is included in the class "household services" and falls under UTII.

You will also need to make and register a seal and open a bank account. In total, you will spend about 4,000 rubles for registration.

Stage 2. Premises

Your activities will be related to the storage of chemicals, inventory, the constant arrival and departure of employees. Therefore, an apartment as a room would be a bad option. Rent a small inexpensive room for free use. It should have a bathroom, two rooms, good ventilation. Since the arrival of customers is not expected, repair of the premises is not required. A plus will be the availability of free parking near the office and the availability of public transport. In a million-plus city, such an office can be rented for 25,000 rubles a month.

Stage 3. Purchase of equipment, uniforms and chemicals

To get started you will need:

1. 20 cleaner sets (mop, mop, bucket, bag) - 40,000 rubles.
2. 20 sets of uniforms - 30,000 rubles.
3. Professional vacuum cleaner that can be used for post-construction cleaning - 23,000 rubles
4. Vacuum cleaner for dry cleaning of upholstered furniture - 47,000 rubles.

Monthly costs:

• Consumables (sponges, rags, gloves, caps, etc.). All this will cost about 500 rubles per cleaner
• Chemicals - about 1200 rubles per month for a cleaner

Total: 140,000 rubles of initial costs + monthly.

Stage 4. Hiring employees

First of all, you need to hire an office manager. This position does not require a person with any special competencies, he will simply supervise cleaners, accept and send them to orders. Since the company's work time is clearly more than 8 hours, most likely, you will have to take two employees in 2/2 mode. The salary of an employee is 25 thousand rubles.

Your main problem will be hiring cleaners. Cleaning residential premises implies high requirements for employees - in terms of discipline, appearance, willingness to work and improve their skills. But there is an established idea of ​​cleaning as the lot of low-skilled personnel or people looking for a part-time job. In our experience, only 1 person out of 75 who responded is suitable.

But hiring people is not enough - they still need to be trained. You can independently study GOSTs, materials on the Internet, practice with inventory in order to subsequently train employees. You can hire a technologist on a piece-rate basis who will deal with pure training. In this case, each cleaner training will cost you at least 2,000 rubles. One way or another, even recruiting a staff of 5 cleaners will take you about 2-3 months.

6. Organizational structure

The company structure is simple:

• Head - 1
• Office managers - 2
• Cleaners - 20

Naturally, you will not hire 20 cleaners right away, initially 5 people will be enough. But it is precisely with 20 employees that you get the perfect combination - a high turnover while maintaining a simple team structure. Increasing the state will lead to the need to create an additional hierarchy, and this is an extra complication for you.

Cleaners' salary - 60% of the order. Schedule: 2/2. It is obligatory to have a medical book with analyzes for employees of domestic services (for example, a beauty salon).

7. Financial plan

The financial plan is calculated from the average cleaning bill of 3,000 rubles and the norm of 18 cleanings per cleaner per month.

Methods for calculating the cost of cleaning services
If you try to analyze how the cost of cleaning services is calculated, you can select several methods of calculation.
1. The comparative method is usually used by companies for pricing, if there is no experience in carrying out these works. Based on the price of competitors. This method has one big drawback: where is the guarantee that the price of competitors is adequate to the costs that your company will incur? You have neither the experience nor the technology that your colleagues have. And if a competitor made a mistake or deliberately underestimates the cost?
2. The normative method is mainly used by the cleaning company (UK) on the basis of its own developed regulations. The lack of generally accepted standards does not allow this method to be widely used, but many companies are trying to develop their own standards, which are often a trade secret.
3. The custom method is used quite widely. It is based on the calculation of all costs associated with the execution of a given order. Its disadvantage is that sometimes the cost calculated in this way does not correspond to the offer price of competitors.
So which method should you choose?
I propose to use the fourth - custom comparative-normative method.
Calculation of direct costs and their optimization
Often the question arises not so much about the calculation of the types of work, but how to bring this cost in line with the realities of the market. Therefore, the issue of cost optimization is as important as the calculation itself. Working in cleaning, I noticed that managers understand the word "optimization" as an order to reduce the cost. And first of all, they are trying to reduce the number of cleaners, thereby increasing the production rate by 20-30%. This achieves the opposite effect: the quality of work falls, labor costs increase, as mistakes have to be corrected.
So how can you optimize costs?
In my opinion, first of all, it is necessary to choose the right equipment and inventory. Consider an example.
A large shopping center opens. The terms of reference indicate that the main cleaning should be carried out from 7.00 to 10.00. The manager made a calculation of its cost by analogy with an object similar in many respects. Compared to the offer price of competitors, it turned out to be 10% higher.
After leaving the site, the manager suggested that the use of an additional floor scrubber would help optimize costs. Having recalculated, he received savings of several hundred rubles. This result did not suit him. Following the proverb of the peoples of the North “Scratch seven times - wash once”, the manager began to consider other options and turned to the company supplying the equipment. The specialists of this company solved the problem very quickly. They suggested using floor scrubbers with larger working widths. This made it possible to bring the cost of the gearbox to the desired values, while not increasing the number of cars. In the future, the routes of floor cleaning equipment were worked out in order to reduce the number of turns; this resulted in additional savings in man-hours.
This example helps to draw important conclusions:
· do not rely only on your own experience, you need to work more closely with companies - suppliers of equipment and chemicals;
Not always the use of additional equipment gives the desired result.
As shown in fig. 1, the share of detergents and consumables in direct costs is on average 8-12%, equipment and inventory - 15-25%. The main item of direct expenses (wages of workers) is up to 85% and is the main one. Her cleaning companies are trying to optimize first.

Rice. 1. Structure of direct costs (average)
But in order to reduce the cost of servicing the contract, it is also necessary to carefully study the terms of reference, the service plan. Typically, companies are limited only to the fact that they break the cost into seasons. However, there are other ways.
Real life example: the customer requires the bathrooms to be cleaned every hour. But the specifics of the work lies in the fact that visitors begin to use the toilets only two to three hours after opening. As a result, the service plan was agreed upon and amended. This freed one person for the morning shift.
It is also possible to differentiate premises by categories, assigning them a certain level of cleanliness and, depending on the traffic, determine the number of cleanings. This can either reduce the workload on staff or increase it. In the latter case, this will protect you from mistakes when starting work.
Experience has also shown that in complex service facilities, attempts to optimize costs through chemical means do not give a significant result. However, when carrying out general cleaning (especially after construction), properly selected chemistry significantly reduces labor costs. At one of the facilities, our company saved about 20 thousand rubles. compared to a similar facility only in chemistry, not counting the fact that the work was completed 1.5 days ahead of schedule ...
Marginal profit
A frequently asked question at seminars is: how to account for overheads and profits when calculating the cost of a commercial proposal? There are no definite answers. Overhead costs are generally a “floating” figure that depends on many factors, and it is rather difficult and time-consuming to accurately calculate it in advance. It is worth noting that when planning, the calculation of overhead costs for the future period, of course, is necessary. In CJSC KMK, when calculating the cost of a commercial offer, it is customary to use the term “marginal profit” (MP). It is calculated quite simply: direct costs are deducted from the contract value, excluding VAT (Fig. 2).

Rice. 2. Calculation of the cost of a commercial offer:
A - including overhead costs;
B - using marginal profit

The introduction of MP rather quickly simplified the work of managers of the commercial department, since the evaluation of their activities now did not depend on the ratio of overhead costs and profit. If the economist used to charge a percentage of overheads that sometimes amounted to 50% of direct costs (which reduced the profit for the manager), this caused numerous complaints and conflicts. Now the manager of the commercial department is interested in a progressive bonus scale in increasing MP. And the economist, already in the preparation of the management report, distributes the MP for overhead costs and profit in fact.
The MP formation policy should also take into account the strategic goals and objectives facing the company. For example, if a firm has a goal to increase sales, MP decreases. This is also true when holding seasonal promotions or when concluding a "promising" contract.
Drawing up a commercial offer
After the price of the service has been formed, it is necessary to prepare a commercial offer in such a way that the customer can not only see the key information (cost) immediately, but also in the correct sequence. To do this, it is necessary to personalize each offer as much as possible and work it out in such a way that the personal characteristics of the customer are taken into account.
Example: during negotiations, the customer focuses on the quality of services and the appearance of the staff. Despite the fact that each commercial offer contains general words that “the company has been paying special attention to quality for 20 years…”, etc., this is clearly not enough for THIS CUSTOMER.
You can, of course, highlight these phrases in type, write on a separate sheet, but it is much better if you write down some mechanisms or activities that will help achieve the desired result. As for the appearance of the staff, in my practice there was a case when we developed a form for the staff together with the customer, taking into account the specifics of the shopping mall. And although the form of a different model was adopted as a result, such a “live” discussion benefited both parties.
In 2006, I interviewed some customers, and one of the questions was: do they read company information in commercial proposals? Of the 16 people, 13 answered that practically none. If they don't read, should they write? It is difficult to give an unambiguous answer, because the three still read "from cover to cover." But if you decide to include the history of the company and information about all the services you provide, I would recommend that you also include a table of contents in your proposal.
Another important point is letters of recommendation. There were cases when managers included more than 30 such letters in a commercial offer. As a result, the KP was a solid publication of 60-70 pages. This, of course, has its advantages - it is difficult to lose such a CP. But, in my opinion, letters of recommendation from customers working in a similar segment will be much more useful.
One more question: is it worth deciphering the cost of a commercial offer for the customer? Yes, the customer has every right to know what he pays for. On the other hand, one can understand a cleaning company that is forced to disclose information that can be used by third parties - this may relate to technology, the amount of equipment, etc. However, if the client requires a detailed estimate from us, we provide it to him. This can be used as an advantage if we can convince the customer that the dumping price of competitors cannot provide the quality that is necessary for the work.

Example. The customer held a tender for complex cleaning of shopping malls. One company provided a KP with a cost below the payroll (wage fund) of its own service. When asked how much you plan to use the cleaners, the answer was: don't worry, we are professionals. Naturally, this company could not continue to participate in the tender. Another company won and, as it turned out later, the direct costs of the selected company exceeded the cost of this CP by almost 100 thousand rubles. Was the client right? Most likely, yes, since there are still cases when, having won with the lowest price, the company was not able to organize work at the required level. And the opinion that the customer will not demand quality from a cheap contract is a myth.
I would like to turn to companies that unreasonably reduce the cost of work. After all, the contract won now at a very low price can hardly be called a victory, except perhaps a “Pyrrhic” *: you will not have the opportunity to fulfill it in a quality manner. Moreover, there is a precedent for incorrect competition. Remember, optimization is not always cost reduction.
* Pyrrhic victory - a victory that came at too high a price; victory equals defeat. This expression owes its origin to the battle of Ausculum in 279 BC. e. Then the Epirus army of King Pyrrhus for two days attacked the Roman troops and broke their resistance, but the losses were so great that Pyrrhus remarked: “One more such victory, and I will be left without an army.”

Estimate for cleaning objects

Once upon a time, back in the days when there was practically no competition, and the word crisis was associated with 1998, many cleaning companies, when preparing a commercial offer, made an estimate without plunging into calculations too much. Usually it happened like this: they summed up all the expenses that only came to mind, added another 20% to this amount and voila - our tender. Since there was no strong competition, they won mainly only because everyone else had a 30% increase. Now everything is completely different. For the customer, quality is important, not price.

10 years have passed and, as expected, the clear days are over. Everyone was hit by the 2008 crisis. By that time, the number of cleaning services had already increased, and technologies had changed. As a result, many companies reduced their budget by 20% or even 25%, although the method of calculating the estimate was left the same. In the end, it turned out that many companies not only began to work at 0, but completely went into the red. In fact, the client feels good - he saves quite well, but the organization that performs the duties under the contract is confidently moving towards the edge of the financial abyss. There comes just such a period when the funds intended for turnover run out, and there is nothing to pay the employee a salary. At this point, the so-called Russian cost optimization begins. First, they cut the salaries of employees, then they remove the equipment from the facilities and, in the end, they stop using chemistry. All these actions lead to the fact that the object begins to overgrow with dirt and the customer naturally does not like it.

Although there is another way, which is even easier. They take the salary of one cleaner and multiply it by the number of these cleaners. As a result, it turns out that all expenses for inventory, chemistry, equipment and taxes are not taken into account. Of course, the customer agrees to such low prices, but what does this lead to? And this leads to two bad things: firstly, to the fact that the object is cleaned poorly and secondly, to the bankruptcy of the cleaning company.

So how do you budget for cleaning?

There is a way out, and it is gradually coming to us from the west. The fact is that the customer of cleaning services should reconsider their attitude towards reducing their own costs in the short term. The fact is that cleaning at present is not Aunt Galya with a pemolux and a scarf, but a serious high-tech process. The customer must clearly understand what he needs. If he needs quality, then you have to pay for quality, and if it is important for him that the price be low, then go to Aunt Galya. The customer and the contractor must speak a common language, the language of estimates. To do this, you need to form a budget in such a way that when studying a commercial offer, customers can immediately weed out those who do not work in good faith and contact only really good cleaning companies.

• First of all, we need to understand how many employees we need to attract. Based on the fact that one cleaner is needed for every 750 meters, by simple calculations we find out that we need 4 people per shift. Since the TC works every day, it is necessary to form a schedule 2 through 2. As a result, it turns out that 8 cleaners are required. If we take the minimum wage of 5,500 rubles as a basis, then the amount of the wage fund is 44,000 rubles.
• Next, you need to calculate the cost of money for chemicals and consumables. Usually they are calculated at the rate of 3-4 rubles. per sq.m. Total approximately = 9000 rubles.
• If cleaning is required with the help of scrubbing machines, then the depreciation of the equipment is included in the estimate. For example, a simple network scrubber with a service life of 3 years costs about 100,000 rubles. We add additional costs for maintenance and consumables and get 5000 rubles.
• We will lay down unforeseen and transport costs at a minimum - 2000 rubles.

Summing up all the costs, we get only direct costs of 58,000 rubles. Let's add a minimum profit of 5 percent (it will be 2900 rubles). And of course, do not forget to add value added tax (VAT) of 18% and as a result we get = 71,862 rubles. From here we get that the cost of one sq.m. will cost from 24 rubles. along with VAT.

It is clear that this estimate is made rather roughly and is only a good example. You need to try hard to calculate everything to the smallest detail. Here you can add other cleaning equipment, and create an individual form for the style of the shopping center, etc.

How to cut costs during a crisis

Now imagine that we are in a crisis situation and we need to cut costs. Suppose we fire one cleaning lady. Approximately we win about 11,000 rubles. But the load on the remaining three cleaners is growing strongly and in the loaded autumn-spring seasons, they simply will not cope, which means they won’t do anything. Over time, dirt will accumulate and you will have to carry out general cleaning at least once a year, which costs approximately 30 rubles. per sq.m. Having quickly calculated, we will understand that such savings are only a minus for us. In principle, the same situation is with the reduction in chemistry. When switching to cheaper chemicals, we get more pollution, and again we have to do a general cleaning. If you refuse scrubbing machines, then this is also a bad option, if you need them, then without them you will simply burrow. It remains only to reduce the profit, but it is already minimal, it turns out that we are working to zero (but in this way it is possible to survive the crisis).

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The preparation and subsequent filling of the estimate is deservedly considered the most important stage of any construction or repair work. In most cases, the design of a building or structure is completed with the execution of estimate documentation. In the case of performing small amounts of work, for example, repair or finishing, when the project is not being developed, an estimate is also necessary. This is explained by the fact that it serves as initial information for the development of many related documents necessary and important for the effective organization of work, in particular, the work schedule and the schedule for the supply of necessary materials and mechanisms.

Budgeting will become a much easier process if you entrust this business to professionals.

Form and sample estimate for work

In essence, the document in question consists of two parts:

• calculation of direct costs, which are determined on the basis of 2001 prices and are converted into current prices by multiplying by the corresponding appreciation index, set quarterly. Direct costs consist of the following elements:
  • Cost of materials;
  • the main salary of workers;
  • the costs of EMM (operation of machines and mechanisms necessary for the performance of work), including the salary of machinists;
  • calculation of overhead costs and estimated profit, made taking into account the standards in force at the time the estimate was made.

The disadvantage of this method is that the prices of 2001 used when using it quite often do not take into account the realities of today, since at the time of compilation many technologies and materials simply did not exist. However, in the construction of budget facilities and most private large-scale construction projects, there is no alternative to the base-index method today.

How to make a budget for work

As an example of a simplified form of an estimate for the repair of a room, the following table can be given.

The importance of good budgeting and budgeting

As already noted, filling out an estimate allows you not only to get an approximate amount that will cost construction or a certain amount of work. This value is necessary to determine the contract price of an object or stage of work, both for the customer or investor, and for the contractor, that is, the direct manufacturer.

But in addition to this direct functional purpose, a competent and modeled design of the estimate will allow you to plan the work in such a way that they are done as quickly as possible and at a lower price. In addition, the estimate also helps to determine the need for the necessary materials, which, in combination with the work schedule, will allow you to develop a schedule for their delivery.

The main tasks of the estimate

The development and filling of the estimate allows you to solve three most important tasks at once, which are always faced by any contractor and customer:

• determination of the cost of construction or any work. In modern conditions, the estimated price is the most important parameter, vital for all participants in the construction process. It is interesting for the customer not to overpay, and for the contractor - to receive a worthy reward for the work. A well-designed estimate allows you to take into account the wishes of both parties and get an amount that suits everyone;
• scheduling development. The timing of the construction of a building or the performance of any work is often no less important for the customer than their cost. The timely delivery of the object and, of course, the receipt of remuneration, possibly with a premium, depend on this. The estimate for work, made according to the model, provides the builders with all the necessary information for the development of the calendar plan;
• development of a schedule for the supply of materials. With the correct filling of the estimate, the need for materials and mechanisms becomes clear, which, in combination with the calendar plan, makes it possible to draw up another important document for the uninterrupted work of builders - a schedule for the supply of materials. Efficient construction organizations do not purchase materials for the entire facility at once - this simply freezes money that is much more efficient to spend on something more important at the moment, and also requires significant storage costs, etc. Also, any downtime of equipment and workers is extremely unprofitable, which is fraught with no less serious additional costs.

As a result, we can say the following: the preparation of an estimate allows not only to understand the cost of construction or a separate stage of work, but also to effectively plan their implementation.

Basic-index method for compiling and filling out estimates

There are several different cost estimation methods. When erecting large objects, when filling in the estimate takes place as part of the development of the project, the base-index method is almost always used. In this case, the estimated standards of 2001 and the conversion indices to current prices are used for the calculation.

Simplified form of estimate

Quite often, especially when construction or repair is carried out by the household method or at small facilities, a simpler estimate form is used, which consists only of calculating direct costs. It contains a listing of the scope of work and prices for them, which can be broken down into the same components as in the option described above: the RFP of workers, the cost of materials and, if necessary, the cost of machines and mechanisms. In this case, the estimate form, after its execution and filling, looks like the one shown in the following photo:

When compiling and filling out such a simplified version of the estimate, the contractor's profit is established on the basis of his negotiations with the customer or the construction investor.

The form of an object estimate for the performance of work

Quite often, especially during the construction of large objects, several so-called local estimates are compiled at once, that is, separate calculations for each type of work performed. In this case, to obtain the total cost of construction, they are combined into a general object estimate, a sample form of which is shown in the following photo.

Object estimate

Drawing up and filling out an object estimate allows you to bring together all the information about the object under construction, even when the individual stages of its construction are performed by different contractors. Often, local estimates are also calculated by them. Therefore, the generalization of all disparate data is extremely important for any customer or investor.

Programs for drawing up and filling out estimates

Currently, there are many programs that are used in the preparation of estimates. They can be roughly divided into two groups:

Free. Placed on the network on thematic resources. They are freely available.

Professional. Used by professionals. To use it, you need to purchase a distribution kit of a service product.

In the first case, there is no particular need to describe programs, since they appear almost constantly, while having similar parameters:

• the ability to perform the most simple calculations;
• lack of updating of regulatory frameworks (if they exist at all);
• minimal functionality.

Professional estimate programs are used much more actively, since without them it is almost impossible to draw up high-quality documentation for any large object. The most popular products at the moment are the following:

GRAND Estimate

According to experts, the most widely used budgeting program. Its advantages are the ability to automate the entire range of cost estimates, the speed of making changes to the regulatory framework and effective technical support for the product.

Smeta.ru

The only program that really competes with the GRAND Estimate described above. The main advantage of the product is its ease of use, which allows you to work with it without having the professional knowledge of an estimator.

1C: Contractor (or 1C: Construction Organization Management)

These programs are not purely budgetary. However, they are quite popular due to the fact that 1C is used for accounting in the vast majority of Russian enterprises, including construction ones. The software products under consideration help to compile the necessary budget documentation; as a bonus, they are integrated into a single company management system.

turbo meter

An easy-to-learn and use program, which at the same time has quite serious functionality. It is not used as often as compared to GRAND Estimate and Estimate.ru.

WinSmeta, Rick and Bagheera

Software products whose peak popularity is in the past. However, a certain number of professional surveyors still continue to use them, which is explained by a number of undoubted advantages: wide functionality, editing, adjustment, etc.

The main mistakes in budgeting

There are several main types of errors that occur in the preparation and execution of estimates in practice. The most typical are the following:

Mistake 1. Insufficient detailing or excessive enlargement of the estimate. Any well-compiled estimate must necessarily contain a complete list and volume of work performed and, accordingly, prices for them. In practice, often the customer and the contractor, having found out that the price level suits both parties, agree on the cost of a stage of work, for example, the repair of one room. As a result, in fact, a situation is obtained when the actual volume of any work performed does not coincide with the initially estimated one. The result is a conflict situation, since it is not clear how to evaluate the rise in price or reduction in the cost of work;

Error 2. Inaccurate accounting of volumes. The basis for the construction estimate must necessarily be a competently and accurately drawn up statement of volumes, in the case of repairs - a defective statement. In both situations, the result of the budget execution also depends on the correctness of their preparation. An error at the beginning can lead to a rather serious distortion of the final cost of the calculation, since in most cases there is a multiplication by various indices and prices, so the error increases all the time;

Mistake 3. Incorrect application of prices contained in HPES and TERs. One of the main problems of the basis-index method, the most common in real life, which was mentioned above, is the discrepancy between the existing types of work and those that are encountered in practice. Therefore, quite often it is necessary to use the available prices "as applicable". This is a special term coined by estimators for such a situation. The more "applicable" prices are used when filling out the estimate, the more likely it is that the final figure will be incorrect. Naturally, this should take into account the fact that customers are trying to use low "applicable" prices, and contractors, on the contrary, are the most profitable.

In any case, the preparation and execution of estimates should be considered an important and extremely necessary preparatory stage in modern conditions for any construction. It is better to entrust its implementation to professional and trained estimators, which will allow not only to form the optimal cost of work for the customer and contractor, but also to organize their effective implementation in the shortest possible time and at the lowest possible cost.