Finding Parts in Clear Estimates has Never been Easier!
What’s New?
Since 2007, Clear Estimates has provided our customers with a localized material and labor cost library for remodeling and handyman projects. We update these prices quarterly, add new items into the library, and adjust items as needed.
Over those years, the most common feedback we got was that it was really hard to actually find those items to put them into the estimate.
Well, we listened! In November 2022, Clear Estimates released a brand new part library search interface to make it incredibly easy to find the items you’re looking for. No more looking for a needle in a haystack to create your estimates.
Find Parts for Estimates in Seconds
Fast & Relevant
The new search functionality uses similar technology that the major software companies use for search, meaning you’ll get search results in fractions of a second. No more spinning wheel to wait for, you enter a search term and you will see results basically instantly, here you can see 152 parts are found when searching for “drywall” and the search takes just 0.20 seconds to complete!
Not only will you see results quickly, but because of the more advanced search technology, we can also show you more relevant results as well. This means the items you’re most interested in will be at the top of the list, saving you even more time searching for the item that matches your needs!
You can also include terms like “install” or “demo” in your search, to instantly see more relevant results based on the task at hand! Even typing in the measurement of what you’re looking for should bring up highly relevant results.
For example, if you search for “Install ½” drywall ceiling” you’ll get only items matching that description. So drywall items for walls, removing drywall, and ⅜” or ⅝” sized drywall won’t show at the top of the list. Making it extremely easy to find what you need!
Variety of Terms
One of the ways we have improved the relevancy of search results is by configuring the different regional terms used for building items so you can search for items with your terminology and still find what you need.
For example, in our part library we use the term “drywall”, but others may call that same product “plasterboard”, “wallboard” or “gypsum board”. Don’t worry! You can type in any of those and our drywall items will show up for use in your estimates!
Brand Names
Similar to adding regional terms to the search, we’ve also added some brand names to help find items. In our drywall example above, we’ve also included the term “sheetrock” to show drywall related items; despite the term “sheetrock” not appearing in any of our items!
This includes Trex composite decking. Clear Estimates has lots of composite decking items in our part library, but we don’t use the term Trex as our items are primarily generic items without specific brands. However, when you’re looking for composite decking you might search for the term “Trex” because that’s what you are used to, and just like that you get all of our composite decking items.
Easy Filtering
We have a variety of different categories and subcategories for each of the parts in our part library. These are there so you can easily drill down into a particular section of our part library and find what you need.
When searching, you can now do some incredible filtering with categories and subcategories. Along with the parts themselves coming up from your search, we’ll also show you which categories the results are coming from. That way, you can select one or more categories and filter for only the items that match your search AND fall within those categories.
This is very similar to what you find on eCommerce sites like Amazon, Home Depot, or Lowes, where you can filter by particular categories of products as you search for the one that meets your needs.
Continuous Improvement
One of the most important aspects of this upgrade is our ability to continuously improve the search on top of what we’ve outlined above. We can continue to add regional and common terms for items that will help bring up the right parts, we can add brand names to the configuration to match with products you actually purchase, and we can monitor search performance incredibly accurately to ensure that relevant results are shown very quickly.
Your Custom Parts
This doesn’t only work for the default library of parts provided by Clear Estimates, but it also improves searching for your custom items! If you create a custom item, you can search for it exactly the same way as you can with other items in the part library. Also, the above brand names will still work the same way as well!
For example, if you create a custom part called “composite deck railing bar” and then search for “trex deck railing bar” you will see your custom part show!
What does this mean for you?
The new search capabilities within Clear Estimates provide an incredible level of flexibility and performance when searching for items to build your estimate. This means you spend less time looking for items, less time building your estimate, and more time at the job site or winning new jobs. The team at Clear Estimates will continue to improve and expand this functionality as well, so that every time you log into Clear Estimates you’re getting the very best estimating solution!
