User guide

How to price a job in this thing.

One bucket per job to be done, in the order you would actually do them. Each one says what it is for, the steps, and the thing people get wrong the first time.

Start here

The one-instruction way

If you only read one section, read this one. Load the files, say one sentence, and the platform runs a fixed twelve-stage process — stopping for your click at every gate.

“Create a compliant quote for this project.”

YouCreate the project and load the drawings, specs and any takeoff spreadsheet into the vault.
YouOpen the AI window, pick the project, and say the sentence above. Click Apply on the workflow proposal.
ItScans your files and stages a scope extraction. You review the card and Save scope summary.
ItGenerates the draft estimate in the background — 30–90 seconds. Anything your library cannot price becomes a named gap.
Hard stopIf there are gaps it drafts one consolidated RFQ. You send it. Nothing continues until the suppliers' prices are back in. This stop cannot be skipped.
YouGreen the sections on the draft. That greened revision is the compliant quote.

Close the browser, lose your connection, come back tomorrow — the project page always shows which stage the process is at and resumes from there. A stage it skipped is written on the panel with the reason.

01 · Once, before your first estimate

Set up your price book

Everything you price comes from a database, and a database has two halves: resources (materials, labour, plant — each with a rate) and templates (the recipes that turn a quantity into a cost).

  1. Click Databases in the top bar, then New Database and name it.
  2. Set the currency before you enter any rates — an estimate inherits the currency of the database it is pinned to.
  3. Open Resources. Add groups and rows by hand, or expand Versions & import to bring in a spreadsheet you already have.
  4. An import is staged, not applied. You see the whole workbook, tick the lines you want, and apply them yourself.
  5. Press Publish… when you are happy. Until you do, your estimates keep using the last published version.

The thing people get wrong You are always editing a draft. Rates you typed but never published will not appear in an estimate, and people lose an afternoon to that. If you have made a mess, Discard puts it back.

Resources · Master LibraryDraft
CODE DESCRIPTION UNIT RATE MEM-TPO60TPO membrane, 60 milm²18.40 INS-PIR120PIR insulation, 120 mmm²24.05 FIX-PL50Plate fixing, 50 mmnr0.42 LAB-ROOFRoofer, hourlyhr38.00 Unpublished changes 4 rates edited · estimates still use R7 Publish… Discard
Nothing you type here reaches an estimate until you press Publish.

02 · Once, before your first RFQ

Add your suppliers

You need suppliers on file before you can ask anyone for a price. A supplier can hold several contacts; the primary one is who an RFQ goes to by default.

  1. Click Suppliers in the top bar, then New supplier.
  2. Fill in the name, then add contacts — name, email, phone.
  3. Mark one contact as primary. That is the default recipient for an RFQ.
  4. Retired a merchant? Archive them. Show archived brings them back if you need to.

The thing people get wrong Suppliers are the companies you buy from. The people you send quotes TO are clients, and they live on the project — the two lists are separate on purpose.

Suppliers4 on file
NAME PRIMARY CONTACT SUPPLIES KingspanR. WhitfieldInsulation TAMKOD. AlvarezMembrane SFS GroupM. KerrFixings AlseccoJ. BirdCladding + New supplier
The primary contact is who an RFQ reaches unless you say otherwise.

03 · Per job

Start a job

A project is one job. It holds that job's documents, takeoffs and estimates, and everything else hangs off it.

  1. Click Projects, then New project. Give it a reference and a name.
  2. Pin it to the database you want it priced from. That pin holds for the life of the job.
  3. Open the project and drag your files into the vault — drawings, specs, schedules, a takeoff spreadsheet, photographs of a printed quote. It reads all of them.
  4. Everything the platform later generates for you — reports, takeoff PDFs, payment documents — files itself back into the same vault.

The thing people get wrong Pin the right database before you start pricing. A project pinned to your UK book cannot be re-priced against your US book — the two share almost no codes, so a cross-database change re-prices nothing.

Ref 242 · Laughlin ISD re-roofVault
A-201.pdf Spec 07 54.docx Schedule.xlsx Quote photo Pinned database Master Library · R7 · USD 4 files read
Drawings, specs, spreadsheets and photographs of printed quotes all go in the same place.

04 · Where the two days go

Read the drawings and specs

A tender set is hundreds of sheets and you need eleven of them. This is the part that normally eats two days, and it is the part the platform takes off your desk first.

  1. Open a document from the vault in the page viewer — thumbnails down the side, sheet labels read off each title block.
  2. Ask for what you need in plain words: the roof plans, the details, section 07 of the spec.
  3. It extracts just those sheets into a set you can work from, each one carrying its sheet number and title.
  4. Scanned or photographed sheets are read too — they are labelled as scans so you know the source was an image, never silently treated as clean text.

The thing people get wrong Do not hunt through the thumbnails yourself out of habit. Asking for “the roof plans and any parapet details” is faster than scrolling, and the result carries the sheet numbers with it.

A-Series · 148 sheetsExtracting
ALL SHEETS A-101 Site plan A-201 Roof plan A-202 Reflected clg A-203 Roof details A-301 Elevations A-401 Parapet det. A-402 Door schedule S-101 Framing … 140 more EXTRACTED SET · 3 A-201Roof plan A-203Roof details A-401Parapet details
Ask for what you need; the sheet numbers travel with it.

05 · Before you price anything

Write the scope

The scope is what you are agreeing to do. Everything after it — the estimate, the RFQ, the quote you send — is built on the saved scope, so it is worth ten minutes of your attention.

  1. In the AI window, choose Create scope of works, or just ask for one.
  2. It reads the documents you loaded and drafts the scope, with each item pointing back at where it came from.
  3. Read it properly. Add what it missed, delete what is not yours, correct anything soft.
  4. Press Save scope summary. That saved version is what the rest of the job is built from.

The thing people get wrong Anything the documents did not settle is shown as an open question rather than a filled-in guess. Those are the questions an experienced estimator would have raised — answer them now, not after you have quoted.

Scope of works · draftNot saved
Strip existing built-up felt to deck Spec 07 54 §1.3 · A-201 120 mm PIR, mechanically fixed Spec 07 22 §2.1 60 mil TPO single ply, adhered Spec 07 54 §2.4 · A-203 Open question Parapet upstand height not dimensioned on A-401 — confirm with the architect.
Every item cites its source. What the documents did not settle is asked, not guessed.

06 · Getting the numbers

Take off the quantities

Measure off the drawing on screen. Areas, lengths and counts, each one tagged with where it came from so a number can always be traced back to a line on a sheet.

  1. Create a takeoff sheet from a drawing in the vault.
  2. Set the scale — from the title block if it is there, or by drawing a line across a known dimension.
  3. Trace the areas and runs. Tick a tile to cut an opening out of the area containing it; the cut-out follows the parent.
  4. Every measurement carries a tag: confirmed, needs confirming, or a gap where something could not be resolved.
  5. Confirm the sheet, and push the quantities through to the estimate.

The thing people get wrong A gap is not a failure — it is the software refusing to invent a number. Fill it with a dimension, or leave it open and price it as a provisional sum, but do not let it quietly become a zero.

A-201 · Roof plan1:100
ROOF AREA · 2,464 m² CUT-OUT 68 m² PERIMETER 220 m · needs confirming GAP upstand ht confirmed needs confirming gap — never invented
Cut-outs follow the area that contains them. A gap stays a gap until you settle it.

07 · The money

Build and price the bill

The estimate is sections, items and build-ups. Your quantities meet your rates here, and your margin goes on the top.

  1. Create an estimate on the project. It inherits the pinned database and its currency.
  2. Build the bill in sections and items. Each item's build-up lists the resources behind it — material, labour, plant, waste.
  3. Bring the takeoff quantities across; each priced line keeps its link back to the measurement.
  4. Set margin per section or per item. The sell price is worked out from the cost and the margin, and the blended figure updates as you go.
  5. Take a revision whenever you want a fixed point to come back to. Mark one FINAL when it is issued.

The thing people get wrong Margin and markup are not the same number and the platform will not let you confuse them. A 30% margin on £70 of cost sells at £100; a 30% markup sells at £91 and earns you 23.08%. Pick the one you meant.

Estimate · Rev CUSD
ITEM QTY RATE COST SELL 2 · ROOF COVERINGS TPO membrane, adhered2,39618.4044,08662,980 PIR insulation, 120 mm2,39624.0557,62482,320 Perimeter trim22031.106,8429,774 Net cost108,552 Margin 30%46,522 Sell 155,074
Sell is derived from cost and margin — never typed over the top.

08 · When your book cannot price it

Go out to market

Anything your library cannot price is a named gap with its manufacturer. The platform drafts one consolidated request, you send it, and the returned prices come back into your book.

  1. Raise an RFQ from the estimate's gaps, or build one by hand.
  2. Check the lines — manufacturer, specification, quantity and basis, written for a merchant to price without ringing you.
  3. Generate it and send it yourself. The platform does not email suppliers on your behalf.
  4. When prices come back, upload the quote in whatever form it arrived — PDF, spreadsheet, or a photograph of a printout.
  5. It reads the lines, matches each against your existing rates, and shows old price beside new with a confidence on every match. You tick what goes in.

The thing people get wrong Nothing is applied automatically. Anything the matcher was unsure about is marked rather than written into your book, and a low-confidence match is a prompt to look, not a problem to ignore.

Quote return · TAMKOMatch & apply
SUPPLIER LINE OLD NEW CONF. USE TPO 60mil white18.4017.95 high Bonding adhesive, 5gal92.0096.40 high Term bar w/ sealant—14.20 check Walkway pad 30x30—41.00 check 2 of 4 ticked · nothing applied yet Apply ticked
Old price beside new, a confidence on every match, and you tick what goes in.

09 · What the client sees

Send the quote

Reports come out on your letterhead, with your company name, logo and colours — configured once for the whole company rather than fiddled with per document.

  1. From the estimate, choose the report you want — tender summary, priced bill, a takeoff PDF showing the marked-up sheets.
  2. Export as PDF for the client, or spreadsheet when they have asked for one.
  3. Everything you generate files itself back into the project vault, so the version you sent is always recoverable.
  4. Mark the revision FINAL when it goes out. Later changes start a new revision rather than overwriting what the client holds.

The thing people get wrong If the header on an export is wrong, it is a company setting rather than something to fix on the report — change it once and every future document is right.

Tender summaryPDF
Your Company Ltd Ref 242 · Rev C TENDER SUMMARY 1 · Preliminaries18,400 2 · Roof coverings155,074 3 · Rainwater goods22,860 4 · Access31,500 Total excluding tax 227,834 Filed to the project vault · 29 Aug
Your letterhead, and a copy filed back into the job automatically.

10 · Throughout

Working with the assistant

The AI window sits alongside the job. It can read your documents, draft scope and assemblies, sort returned quotes and raise RFQs — under a set of rules that do not bend.

  1. Open the AI window, pick the project, and ask in plain words.
  2. Anything that changes your data arrives as a proposal you can read before it happens.
  3. Long jobs run in the background — leave the page, and the bell tells you when it is done.
  4. Ask it what it did and why. Every quantity it produces carries its source.

The rules that do not bend It proposes, you dispose — nothing priced changes without your click. It never invents a number: what it cannot resolve is shown as an open gap. And your rate library is yours alone — not pooled with other customers, not visible to them, not used to train any model.

Assistant · Ref 242Proposal
Create a compliant quote for this project. I've read 4 documents and drafted the scope. Three items need your confirmation. STAGED — NOTHING CHANGED YET Scope of works · 14 items Draft estimate · 39 items, 65 build-up lines 3 gaps · one RFQ ready to send Apply
It proposes. You dispose. Nothing priced moves without your click.
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