For Office applications: Intelligent interfaces to the German GAEB standard

If European construction companies want to participate in German invitations to bid, they have to use the so-called GAEB file format. At very little expense, European construction companies can now carry out a data exchange with architects and contracting authorities that work in accordance with the GAEB standard.

All it requires is to have an application package like Microsoft Office or a cost-free Office like OpenOffice available. The only other thing that is needed is the small but practical software app, GAEB-Online 2016 from the “gaeb-online company” in Walzbachtal which provides the interface.

To communicate an offer in Germany, the architect sends the construction company an electronic specification in the German GAEB DA83 default format. This can be transmitted by the contracting authority in such currently common GAEB formats in Germany as GAEB 90, GAEB 2000 or GAEB XML. With the GAEB software GAEB-Online 2016, the service specification in all these formats can simply be opened on the construction company’s PC and for every specification, the asking price can be captured.

In connection with the previously mentioned Office programs, a genuine calculation of prices can also be carried out at any time by means of the spreadsheet. To do this, the construction company exports the GAEB service specification to an Excel table, for example, and calculates the unit price, the price component and surcharges there.

When exporting to MS Excel, the position numbers, short description, quantity and units are always transferred from the service specification. In Excel itself, the wage and surcharge calculations are simplified significantly, since this method always offers additional, individual price break options for material requirements and possible rebates, wage minutes, etc.

The unit prices determined in this way can simply be imported back into GAEB-Online 2016 and the program will create out of it a quotation file in the DA84 file format. The quotation is printed and the DA84 file is transferred back to the architects who can read in the prices from the file directly into the AVA program they are using to create their price comparison automatically.

GAEB-Online 2016 runs on Windows 7 or higher under 32-bit or 64-bit Windows. The GAEB-Online 2016 program as well as its online help program and the PDF handbook are only available in the German language.

For all users who prefer to work on mobile devices, there is an additional variation of the program called “GAEB-Online 2016 USB” available on a USB stick. This mobile solution makes it possible to perform a “seat-of-the-pants calculation” on any Windows PC that has a USB port.
In addition, for larger teams, special terminal server versions are available for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Windows Server 2012.

The free version of GAEB-Online 2016 can be tested for 8 days. The demo version can be downloaded from the website www.gaeb-online.de for free. After the test phase, an activation key can be ordered online at a cost of 95.20 Euros including VAT. For more information goto www.gaeb-online.de.