Commercial estimating services: buying a takeoff, and what still has to be yours
- Work order total
- $863.16
- Labour
- $510
- Parts, marked up
- $288
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs entered, by the method stated below it. Jobcardo publishes no tax rate, no wage figure and no trade standard: the rate, the markup and the tax on the parts line are yours, and the defaults are a worked example to replace with your own figures.
Commercial estimating services sell a takeoff and often a priced bid, per project or on a retainer. For a contractor without an in-house estimator they can be the difference between bidding four jobs a month and bidding one. What they cannot sell is your cost base: the quantities can be bought, the labour units can be argued about, but the rates, the burden and the margin are yours, and a bid submitted on somebody else's assumptions is a bid you cannot defend.
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Buy the measurement, keep the pricing
The takeoff is the commodity and it is genuinely time-consuming, which is why buying it works. Hand over the drawings and take back quantities; apply your own rates, your own crew productivity and your own margin to them.
Check the scope the service worked to
Most disputes about a bought takeoff are scope rather than arithmetic: which drawings, which revision, which sections included, what was assumed about alternates. Agree that in writing before the work starts and check the returned quantities against it.
Keep the quantities when you win
The takeoff you bought is the document the material order and the subcontract scopes come from. Filing it with the bid and never opening it again means paying for the same measurement twice, once at bid and once on site.
Commercial estimating services: common questions
How are estimating services usually priced? Per project as a percentage of the bid value or a flat fee by size, or on a monthly retainer for a number of bids. Retainers suit firms bidding regularly; per-project suits occasional work.
Do they guarantee accuracy? Typically to the drawings provided, which is the honest limit. Nobody can guarantee a quantity for a condition that is not drawn, and the contract will say so. Read that clause before relying on it.
Is it worth it for a small contractor? If it lets you bid work you would otherwise decline, the arithmetic is straightforward. If it replaces learning your own numbers, it is expensive, because the rates you apply are what decide whether the bids you win make money.
Jobcardo Pro
Keeping what you raise
The worksheets are free forever. Pro turns them into the record: every order you raise kept against the customer with its status from raised to done to invoiced, every change dated, your company name and logo on the sheet, no watermark, and an export when the bookkeeper asks.
- Download as PDF
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- Save every work order and sales order and reopen it later
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- Connect your QuickBooks Online or Xero
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