Estimating software shaped to your trade
Stop rebuilding the same Excel quote forty times a week. We'll bake your pricing logic into a tool.
50% on kickoff, 50% on delivery · 30 days of free revisions · you own the code
Estimating is the most expensive spreadsheet in your business. Every percentage point of margin you lose on a quote is profit you'll never see — and most estimators are still rebuilding the same workbook from a template, badly, in a hurry.
The fix isn't a generic SaaS that asks you to retype your rate card into someone else's schema. It's a thin app that knows your trade, your rates, your suppliers, and your discount logic — and produces a clean client PDF in under a minute.
We've seen junior estimators go from 6 quotes a day to 20, with tighter margin discipline, because the tool stops them undercutting by accident.
Recent work
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Why we wrote this. We ship work like this ourselves — not as a reseller or a marketplace. The timelines, deliverables, and price bands below come from real engagements we've run end-to-end at Smartly Built Ventures Limited (trading as Vibed Ventures).
How we'd actually build this
- Steal your best workbookWe take the spreadsheet your senior estimator actually uses and dissect every formula. That becomes the spec — no Notion document needed.
- Model rates and assembliesPostgres-backed rate library with version history. Edit a unit rate once, every open quote updates.
- Margin guardrails by roleJuniors can't quote below your floor without manager approval. Soft warnings, not blockers — they still learn.
- Branded PDF in one clickServer-rendered PDF with your cover sheet, T&Cs and signature block. Win/loss logged the moment it's marked.
Who this is for
- Estimators rebuilding the same spreadsheet daily
- Trade contractors quoting hundreds of jobs a month
- Owners who want consistent margin discipline across their team
What you get
- Quote builder using your real rates, materials, and labour codes
- One-click client-ready PDF with your branding and T&Cs
- Margin guardrails so juniors can't quote below floor
- Win/loss tracking baked in from day one
What this tends to look like in practice
- ScenarioA landscaping subbie quoting ~40 jobs/week from a master Excel.Typical resultTime per quote drops from 35 min to 8 min · estimator capacity ≈ 3× without hiring.
- ScenarioAn M&E contractor with three estimators all using slightly different rate cards.Typical resultQuote consistency hits 100% within two weeks · ≈ 2.5% margin recovered across a $4m pipeline.
Ranges are typical of work we've shipped at Smartly Built Ventures Limited. Your number will differ — the /solve report calculates it from your team size and inputs.
"But what about…"
- We use Buildxact / Causeway / HBXL already.Keep them if they fit. We get called in when the off-the-shelf rate libraries don't match your trade or your suppliers, or when the PDF output looks nothing like your brand.
- Our pricing logic is too complex to model.Usually it isn't — it just lives in one person's head. We sit with them for half a day, write the rules down, and you end up with a more defensible quote model than you had before.
- What if our rates change weekly?Good — a database handles that better than a spreadsheet ever will. Bulk-update from a supplier CSV, every open draft picks it up.
Dig deeper
Frequently asked
Is this a template?
No. Every build is bespoke to your workflow — nobody else gets the same tool. That's the whole point.
Do we own the code?
Yes. Every line is pushed to your GitHub from day one. No licence-back, no source-code escrow tricks.
How does payment work?
50% on kickoff, 50% on delivery. Revisions are free for the first 30 days. We only invoice the second half if we hit the timeline.
Can you maintain it afterwards?
Optional monthly maintenance: bug fixes, small tweaks, dependency updates, and uptime monitoring. Drop it any month.
What we won't take on. Full takeoff from PDF drawings (use Bluebeam or PlanSwift for that), or BIM quantity extraction. We can import the totals — we don't replace the takeoff tool.
References & standards
What happens next
- Step 1Tell us the problem60 seconds in the /solve box. You don't need a brief.
- Step 2Get a tailored reportROI, build plan and a rough price band — emailed to you.
- Step 3Book a 25-min callWe talk it through honestly. If it's not for us, we'll say so.
Related in solutions
- Construction software, built around how your site actually runsThe bespoke platform that replaces five spreadsheets, a WhatsApp group, and a filing cabinet.
- A construction dashboard your directors will actually openLive margins, manpower, and programme slip across every site, on one screen.
- Project management tools that fit your site, not Procore'sIf the off-the-shelf tools don't match how your team actually works, we'll build the one that does.
- Compliance software that won't get you a fineCSCS, RAMS, insurance, training records — all current, all in one place, all evidenced.