How Accurate Estimating Software Saves Builders Time and Money

Have you ever been on-site ready for a good productive day, and then realised mid-morning you’re about to run out of materials? Whether it’s that last few lengths of weatherboard or a couple of missing door handles, every time you have to jump in your ute and head back to the store, it equals lost profit.

The cost of poor estimating can really add up.

When it comes to being short on site – you need to arrange additional deliveries, or spend your own time collecting more materials. You spend more time in the evening matching extra purchase orders and invoices, and more time is needed for back-costing – not to mention the clients who start complaining about deadlines not being met, and the apprentice who spends the whole time on his phone when the supervisor is off site.

But the impact of inaccurate estimating can be so much greater than just poor material quantification – we’re talking lost time, lost money, and potential clients lost before they’ve even received the quote back from you – because it took too long to price.

When we look at the traditional way of preparing a customer quote, it might like something like; receiving a set of concepts or even a detailed design, and firstly sending it out for quoting from your subbies and main suppliers. Once those quotes are back, an old spreadsheet could be used to pull together the quotes, (and guess the ones you didn’t get back in time!). Some experience is needed to add in the estimated site-specific costs – and then all that pricing is painstakingly transferred into some sort of quote letter the customer will understand. All this can take weeks.

Now we’re in the world of emerging technology in the construction industry, this slow process is being replaced by digital twins, automated measures, and algorithms. A full estimate for a standard three-bedroom home can be completed in under an hour – with the accompanying customer quote being automatically created.

New estimating software in construction works by automating the traditionally slow, manual parts of quoting and estimating. We no longer need scale rules and manual counts. Software does this by using pre-written rules, and making sure the same inputs always produce the same results – meaning users can rely on its accuracy and nothing gets forgotten.

As a builder, having accurate, fast estimating software can save you time and make you money:

• Save time preparing quotes – when you trust the software you are working with, you know with certainty the rates and quantities are correct. Use your extra time to put your feet up in the evening!
• Get your potential client off the market quickly – in today’s fast paced, AI-driven, tech-based world people want answers, and they want them quickly! Waiting a few weeks for a new home quote to be returned is no longer a great customer experience.
• Reduce waste – Be confident you’re ordering what you need, and only what you need. No longer need to add excessive wastage to a job “just in case”!
• Be green – Using an online software to quickly model and estimate a home, make design changes, update rates, and connect online with your clients, suppliers, and designers, is saving so much time and energy. Less paper used, less time used, less carbon used.

Once you’ve got certainty with your quoting and quantification locked down, it’s much easier to plan your profit margins on each job, and then compare the estimated costs with the actual costs, to clearly see where the profit was made.

So, in a nutshell, the days of slow, “best-guess” estimating and legacy spreadsheets are over – and the builders who adopt the new technology available will have the best market advantage over the rest of the industry.