How it works
From the drawing set to a proposal, in eight steps
Each step is one screen with one job. ESTIMA does the reading, counting, pricing and math, and shows its work. You check it, change anything, and move on. Every number it fills in can be overridden.
Stage 1 · Know the job
Upload the drawings. ESTIMA reads them and tells you what it found; you confirm it.
- 1
Upload drawings
ESTIMA does
Reads every sheet’s number and title, so the set becomes a list you can click through instead of a 60-page PDF.
You decide
Drop in the PDF set. Open any sheet from the list.
- 2
Project basics
ESTIMA does
Pulls the project name, address, market and square footage from the title block and code sheets.
You decide
Check them. If the set shows more than you’re building, say which part (or outline it on the plan) and ESTIMA reads only that area.
- 3
Project summary
ESTIMA does
Reads the scope trade by trade, the specialty items (lockers, saunas, equipment), and what’s not in this job, which becomes your proposal exclusions.
You decide
Add or remove anything. Read it again any time the drawings or the work area change.
Stage 2 · Build the number
Quantities, prices, bids and general conditions, each one checked before you move on.
- 4
Quantities
ESTIMA does
Takes off quantities from the drawings: partitions, doors, ceilings, flooring, finishes. Each one says where it came from and how sure it is.
You decide
Accept, change or measure it yourself on the drawings with the plan takeoff.
- 5
Pricing
ESTIMA does
Prices each line with material and labor costs researched for your market and refreshed every month, or your company’s own prices where you’ve set them.
You decide
Override any price. Every line shows what it’s based on.
- 6
Bids
ESTIMA does
Reads each subcontractor’s bid PDF: bidder, base bid, alternates, exclusions. Shows a local ballpark for each trade so an outlier stands out.
You decide
Pick the bid you carry, or carry the ballpark until bids come in.
- 7
General conditions
ESTIMA does
Prices general conditions the way they’re billed: staff by the week at their share of time, services by the month, cleaning by the square foot, dumpsters by the haul, with local commercial or residential rates.
You decide
Set the schedule, how many of each person (two superintendents, a project coordinator), and your markups, tax, bond and fee.
Stage 3 · Review and send
The number, checked and approved, on your letterhead.
- 8
Review and proposal
ESTIMA does
Lays out the total by division in your cost codes, flags anything unassigned or assumed, and builds the proposal with your exclusions, clarifications and terms.
You decide
Submit it for review. An executive approves it or sends it back with notes, then it goes to the client as a PDF.
Behind every estimate
What your company sets up once, so every estimate starts from your standards.
Company settings, set once
Your markups, general conditions rates, labor burden, waste and coverage, proposal language and letterhead. Every estimator starts from the same numbers, and executives approve changes.
Your cost codes
Upload your code list. ESTIMA groups it into divisions and matches every trade, crew line and general conditions item to one of your codes. Move anything you’d book differently.
Prices that stay current
Material, labor and general conditions rates are researched for each market, commercial or residential, and refreshed every month. Your own prices always come first.
A team, with a review
Executives create projects and assign estimators. Estimators see their own work by stage. Every proposal is approved before it goes to the client.
See it on one of your own jobs.
Request early access and we’ll walk through a drawing set you’re bidding now.