Takeoff to estimate: how quantities move into prices, supplier quotes and the proposal

Four lists, four readers

A takeoff, an estimate, a proposal and an order hold the same job in four different shapes, and each is read by somebody different.

The same path runs for each trade you bid, picked in Settings: interior finishes, concrete and wood framing. The example on this page is a drywall partition; see what drywall and interiors takeoff software covers.

The quantity that moves

A takeoff line is one material in one division, for the whole job. It is summed across the walls it came from, it already includes the waste set on the wall type, and it is rounded up once. Its note, on the Takeoff tab and in the export, names each wall and its share, the sum and the rounding. Each wall's own working, with its net area and the waste, is on the wall in Measure.

Quantities are for the job, not by floor. The waste is yours to set, and how to set a drywall waste factor covers where the figure comes from.

Which price prices a line

Each estimate line is priced from one source, and its badge says which. The first of these that applies wins:

1. A sub's quote. On Takeoff → Sub quotes, an owner or manager enters a sub's lump sum for a scope or a division. It locks that scope on the estimate at the amount entered, with no waste, formulas or markup added, and the takeoff export marks those lines Covered by quote.
2. The selected supplier quote, badged Supplier quote.
3. A price you type on the line, where no selected supplier quote prices it.
4. Your standing price from Settings → Material prices, badged Your price, with your “Where from?” note in the line's explanation.
5. Otherwise no price. The line reads Not specified, never $0, and the totals show as unavailable rather than as a partial sum.

Whichever of the second, third and fourth wins, the estimate's waste factor and markup then apply to it.

Supplier quotes

Supplier quotes are on the Team and Business plans.

1. On the Suppliers tab, type the supplier's name and press Add quote. The form asks for nothing else, so the app keeps no quote number, quote date or valid-until date. Keep the supplier's own quote for those, and ask them how long their prices hold.
2. Press Pull in takeoff items. The takeoff's descriptions and quantities are copied onto the quote with the prices blank. Press it again as the takeoff grows and only the new items are added.
3. Type each unit price from the supplier's quote into the grid. A row nobody priced reads Unpriced, never $0, and the sheet counts how many of its rows are priced. A supplier pricing only part of the takeoff is normal.
4. Select every supplier you are buying from. Where two or more priced the same item, the comparison lists it with a Buy from choice, the cheapest by default, and says what your choices cost over buying each item from whoever is cheapest on it.
5. The selected quotes' unit prices then price the matching estimate lines.

Three things to know before you rely on it

• A discount stays on the Suppliers tab. A discount entered on a quote, as a percentage or a fixed amount, shows in that quote's totals only. The estimate is priced from the undiscounted unit prices, so if the discount is one you will get, type the discounted unit prices instead.
• Pasted rows never price the estimate. Paste from a spreadsheet adds rows to a quote, and they count in its totals and are compared with other quotes by their description. They are not tied to a takeoff line, so use Pull in takeoff items for anything the estimate should carry.
• Nothing is sent from the app. To get the list to a supplier, export the takeoff as an XLSX or CSV file, delete the Source text, Flagged, Flag reason and Notes columns, check the quantities, and send it from your own email.

Labour, markup and tax

• On the Team and Business plans, crews price labour: a crew's cost an hour and a production rate on a material give each line its labour, and Labour by scope prices a phase of the work in crew-hours.
• The Waste factor and Markup formulas apply to one division or to the whole project. Press Rebuild and the estimate is priced again. Burden is set on each crew, in Settings → Crews, and is already inside its hourly cost.
• Margin is shown to owners and managers only.
• Tax is typed on every job. 0 is an answer and blank is not, and no rate is ever filled in for you.

Your wall types already carry waste, so a new project's estimate starts with no waste factor of its own. Add one there as well and the price is raised again while the quantity shown stays the takeoff's, so keep one or the other.

The proposal

• Generate proposal makes one from the whole estimate, from one trade's lines, or from the divisions you choose.
• Every line prints with its quantity, unit, unit price and amount, grouped by division, with your markup inside the unit price. There is no lump-sum layout.
• A line you mark as an optional extra leaves the total, and the client can add it when they accept.
• What your bids include and exclude by default, written once in Settings → Company, prints on every proposal under What this includes and What this excludes.
• A line excluded on the estimate leaves the proposal without a word to the client, so put job-specific exclusions and clarifications in the proposal's Notes.
• It is refused while a line in it has no price, or while the tax is blank.
• It goes to your client as a share link or a PDF.

What you hand to purchasing

The app stops at the proposal. It has none of these:

• requests for quotes sent to suppliers, or a list of supplier contacts
• purchase orders
• delivery tracking
• release by floor or by phase
• a way to import a supplier's price list (standing prices are typed one at a time)

When you win the job, the handoff is yours:

1. Build the order from the takeoff export.
2. Split it by floor or phase yourself. Each line on the Takeoff tab opens to the walls it came from, with their shares and their sheets.
3. Convert each line to how it is sold. The takeoff carries tape in linear feet, compound in gallons and studs as pieces; your supplier sells rolls, pails or boxes and stock lengths, in their own pack sizes.
4. Check the order against the drawings and the latest addendum before it is placed.

Worked example: Riverbend P1

The P1 partitions on A-101 of the sample set, 5 walls, come to these lines, worked out here by the product's own code from the partition legend as the sample ships. Suppose two suppliers quoted the board, one quoted the studs, and painting is let to another sub. How each line would then be priced is the example; no amounts are shown, because only your own prices mean anything.

Why the studs are summed before rounding is worked on the job's P1 total.

Questions estimators ask

Does it send requests for quotes or purchase orders?

No. Nothing is sent to a supplier from the app. Export the takeoff as an XLSX or CSV file, send it from your own email, then enter the prices they quote on the Suppliers tab. Ordering happens outside the app.

Can a supplier's prices price my estimate?

Yes, on the Team and Business plans. Pull your takeoff into their quote, type their unit prices into it and select the quote. Rows pasted from a spreadsheet are compared on the Suppliers tab, but they do not price the estimate.

What if a supplier priced only part of the takeoff?

That is normal. The lines they priced take their price. The rest fall to a price you typed or your standing material price, or carry no price until something prices them.

Which price wins?

A sub's quote locks the scope it covers. Everywhere else the selected supplier quote comes first, then a price you typed on the line, then your standing material price. A line none of them prices has no price, never $0.

Is waste added twice?

Not unless you add it twice. Wall types carry their waste into the quantity, and a new project's estimate starts with no waste factor of its own. If you add one on the estimate as well, it raises the price again while the quantity shown stays the same, so keep one or the other.

Can the proposal show one lump sum?

No. Every line prints at its quantity and unit price, grouped by division, with your markup inside the unit price.