CED Fort Worth: From 2-week takeoffs to 45 minutes with Countfire

Introduction

CED Fort Worth operates as a mid-sized electrical distributor in North Texas, generating approximately $40 million in annual sales with a team of 33 employees. Their estimating department consists of just two people: Jonah Eddleman handling lighting and controls takeoffs, and a colleague managing switchgear quotations.

The branch has built its reputation on commercial projects whilst establishing strong relationships with general contractors in the multifamily sector. Managing between 300-400 projects annually, ranging from $10,000 to $5 million, the team handles everything from university campuses and school districts to high-profile projects like the Arlington Grand Prix street lighting.

However, as multifamily opportunities increased, their manual estimating process became a critical bottleneck.

The challenge: Manual counting created a capacity crisis

Before Countfire, CED Fort Worth's takeoff process was entirely manual. Jonah would print drawings on 11x17 paper, spread them across his L-shaped desk, and work through them with highlighters and tally clickers. "It would sometimes take me two weeks to do a multifamily 300-unit apartment complex," Jonah explains. "I was getting to the point where I'd get a multifamily project that needed a takeoff done. If I had a week that was moderately busy, I would have to no-quote that project. I couldn't get it done in time."

The team attempted to scale by involving trainees and interns, but this created new problems. Multiple people would count different sections of the same project, hoping they'd found everything. Accuracy suffered and they missed fixtures in landscapes, overlooked common area lighting, and struggled to catch discrepancies between schedules and plans.

Jonah tried estimating software Bluebeam, but found it unusable without proper training, and  generic YouTube tutorials didn't address his specific needs. For nearly a year, the team continued struggling with the same inefficient manual process while opportunities slipped away. "We knew we needed an alternative," Jonah recalls. "We needed Countfire."

The Solution: Countfire transforms efficiency 

After evaluating multiple takeoff platforms, Countfire consistently appeared as the standout option. Following outreach from Countfire's sales team (Jonah particularly credits Product Specialist Kieran's tenacity over more than a year during his decision process), CED Fort Worth finally had capacity to implement the system at the end of 2025.

The impact was dramatic from the first project, Jonah recalls "I did a 376 unit multifamily takeoff just the other day. I think it took me maybe 45 minutes total to do the entire project." That's a 95% reduction in time, from two weeks to under an hour.

The speed gains weren't limited to multifamily. A 10-building project with different fixture counts and orientations throughout took Jonah approximately two hours in Countfire. A contractor working on the same project took two and a half weeks to complete their manual counts. Jonah says, "I sent it back to the client within the first two hours of having gotten the request. It blew their minds so much they wanted to see what system I'm using."

Organisation and accuracy improvements

Beyond speed, Countfire revolutionised how Jonah organises takeoffs and how it catches items that manual counting often misses. When fixtures are hidden behind other annotations on drawings, Countfire's system still identifies them.

"It will find fixtures that would likely get missed. Like maybe it's covered by another fixture stamp. When you go through and start adjusting things and editing out your selections, it will still find that fixture against the wall that's covered by something else. I wouldn't have seen it, but Countfire caught it."

The speed of Countfire creates a powerful impression too. When Jonah returns counts within hours whilst contractors are still planning their approach, it signals capability and commitment:

"It would shock the contractors because they would think, I must already have some other contractor on this that's bidding against me. No, I just went through and did your counts real quick and it baffles them!"

The return on investment has been immediate and substantial, Jonah says, "in the two projects that I've quoted just through Countfire, they made us over a hundred grand in profit. So the software more than paid for itself."

Future goals and market expansion

For 2026, CED Fort Worth has set an ambitious target: engage with 30 general contractors in the multifamily sector. The strategy involves working through existing electrician relationships, completing takeoffs proactively, and presenting comprehensive bids directly to GCs. 

"Our goal is to approach 30 generals in this area that are doing multifamilies." Without Countfire, this growth strategy simply wouldn't be feasible, Jonah explains, "Countfire is really the only way that we can do that because otherwise we're no different than another contractor doing the exact same thing – just a man trying to count manually."

Implementation and training: Overcoming technology concerns

Despite being new to automated takeoff software, Jonah found Countfire remarkably intuitive. Coming from failed attempts with Bluebeam, Jonah particularly values Countfire's straightforward design: “The user interface is so clean, so organised. Whereas if you look at any other takeoff software, for the most part, it's very messy. There's buttons everywhere. You really don't know what they do. You can quickly delete everything by accident."

The Countfire support team, particularly trainer Katie, received high marks and Jonah calls her “super knowledgeable." The chat support feature provides quick answers between training sessions, though Jonah notes that with the high quality level of training, he rarely needs it. Overall he notes the "whole team are the nicest people to deal with”.

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Training new estimators

As someone who trains interns and new hires, Jonah has developed a thoughtful approach to introducing Countfire:

"I still believe that they need to know how to look at a page and do a manual takeoff. But the minute that they show me that they are capable of doing a takeoff and they understand what they're looking at on a piece of paper, I would be introducing them to Countfire immediately at that point."

This approach ensures new estimators understand the fundamentals while quickly accessing tools that make them productive. It also creates appreciation for what the software achieves:

"They get these really big jobs and they're counting for hours and hours. And then they get Countfire and there's just the huge amount of respect they have for it because of how quickly it can go through and make their life just that much easier."

CED Fort Worth’s results summary

• Multifamily projects: from 2 weeks to 45 minutes – a 95% reduction
• Complex multi-building sites: from 2.5 weeks to 2 hours
• Secured over $100,000 in profit on projects that wouldn't have been possible without Countfire
• Supporting 2026 goal to engage 30 multifamily general contractors
• Two-person estimating team now handles 300-400 annual projects efficiently
• More time for customer service and email responses

Final thoughts

After just two months with Countfire, Jonah has become a strong advocate for the software because "it's such a time saver and such an effective and intuitive system. I can't believe this hasn't exploded here." His advice to estimators hesitant about digital takeoff tools is direct:

"It's worth every penny. The time saved is worth it alone. Countfire is so simple and the user interface is so clean, and so organised. That's what pushes a lot of folks away from technology for things like doing your takeoffs. So I would show them that ‘hey, look at how simple this is!’."

For contractors worried about the learning curve, Jonah points to the business reality: "That means more money and being able to turn around and quote more jobs. There's not enough good things I could say about Countfire."

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