Everything You Need to Estimate with Confidence
Three complete pillars - structured costing, automatic profit protection, and professional client delivery. Every feature built to estimate with confidence, specifically for US contractors.
- Core Costing
- Overhead Automation
- Profit Margins
- Branded Proposals
- Client Approvals
- Revision Tracking
Illustrative example. Move the sliders to see the quote and margin health change. Your minimum here: 15%.
Every Feature Below, in the Real App
Screenshots from our live demo account, a sample remodeling company. Click through, then try it yourself.
What your client gets: a branded proposal they open without an account, then approve and sign online.
Sample company and data. Prices are worked out by the app itself.
- 3pillars: costing, profit protection, proposals
- 4cost categories on every estimate
- 12overhead categories in one rate
- 1 clickto a branded PDF proposal
Structured Cost Estimation That Leaves Nothing Out
Every project has four cost pillars. QuickEstimate organizes them into a clear, line-item breakdown - so you never miss an expense again.
Every material, perfectly priced
Add materials by quantity, unit cost, and supplier. QuickEstimate autotals everything and flags any line that looks unusually high or low based on your history.
- Line-item material input
Add each material with name, quantity, unit (m², lft, each), unit price, and supplier note. Nothing hidden in a lump sum.
- Auto-totaling with subtotals
Section and overall subtotals update instantly as you type. No formulas, no manual sums, no version errors.
- Saved material library
Frequently used materials, saved with your preferred pricing. Add them to any estimate in seconds, not minutes.
Labor Costing
Calculate labor by hourly rate × hours, crew size, or lump sum per trade. Add different rates for each phase - groundwork, finishing, management.
Equipment Costing
Track owned and rented equipment by day, week, or per-job. Crane hire, excavators, scaffolding - all itemized with hire period and daily rate.
Subcontractor Costing
Add individual sub quotes per trade. Compare multiple quotes side-by-side and lock in the winner - it flows straight into your total automatically.
Cost Summary at a Glance
Before you send anything, get a full one-screen cost overview - every category, its share of the total, and your real margin position. No surprises after you've hit send.
- Real-time cost breakdown by category
- Visual % share of each cost type
- Running total with overhead & margin applied
- Margin health indicator (green / amber / red)
Automatic Profit Protection. Set Once, Applied Forever.
The most expensive mistake contractors make is forgetting overhead. QuickEstimate makes it impossible — your company running cost rate is locked in and applied to every single estimate you ever create.
12-Category Overhead Calculator
Stop guessing your overhead %. Enter your real annual costs across 12 business expense categories — QuickEstimate calculates your exact company overhead rate and locks it in forever.
- 12 expense categories covered
Facility, admin labor, insurance, vehicles, technology, marketing, legal, licenses, equipment, HR, financial costs, and contingency.
- Exact % auto-calculated
Enter your annual $ spend per category — QuickEstimate divides by revenue and outputs your precise overhead percentage.
- Applies to every estimate automatically
Set it once in your company settings. Every new estimate you create will have overhead baked in — zero manual work required.
Target Margin — Always in View
Define the exact profit margin your business needs to grow. QuickEstimate shows live margin health as you build every estimate — green means you're good, amber means check, red means danger.
- Set your minimum acceptable margin
Input the % you need to stay profitable. QuickEstimate treats this as a floor and alerts you the moment you dip below it.
- Live margin health indicator
A colour-coded margin bar shows your real position at every step — before you've committed to a quote you can't afford.
- Margin warnings before you send
If an estimate’s margin falls below your target, the indicator turns yellow or red in the builder, so you can review your pricing before you send it.
Professional Proposals That Win Clients & Track Approvals
Stop emailing spreadsheets. QuickEstimate generates polished, branded PDF proposals in one click — and tells you exactly when a client opens, reviews, and approves them.
One click. Professional proposal.
Your logo, your colors, your name — on a polished PDF that positions you as the most organized contractor your client has ever worked with.
- Branded proposals
Send client-ready PDF proposals with your own logo and branding, and offer tiered package options on a single proposal. Available on every paid plan.
- Logo & brand upload
Upload your company logo once and it appears at the top of every proposal and PDF automatically.
- Clear proposal header
Every proposal opens with your business details, the client, the site address, the date and the job title.
Know exactly where every proposal stands
No more "did they get it?" See when each proposal is opened, how often your client comes back to it, and the moment they sign — all from your Estimates list and Dashboard.
- Real-time open tracking
The status changes to Viewed when a client opens the proposal, and its History records every visit with the date and time.
- Online client approval
Clients approve and sign directly from the proposal link, with no account needed. A banner on your Dashboard tells you when they've signed.
- Revision management
Edit and resend, and the client's link always shows the latest version. Or use Renew as Revision to create a new copy and keep the original on record.
Security Built In from Day One.
Your estimate data, client pricing, and company financials are among the most sensitive information in your business. We treat them that way, on US-based servers.
Encrypted Connections
Every page and request is served over HTTPS (TLS 1.2+), enforced across the whole site.
Protected Logins
Passwords are stored as one-way hashes, and repeated failed sign-in attempts are blocked.
Secure Payments
Card payments are processed by Stripe. Card details never touch our servers.
Team Permissions
Role-based permissions control who on your team can see and edit estimates, clients and pricing.
QuickEstimate vs. The Alternatives
See exactly how QuickEstimate stacks up against Excel and generic estimating tools — feature by feature.
| Feature | QuickEstimate | Excel / Spreadsheets | Generic Tools |
|---|---|---|---|
| Structured cost categories | Built-in, guided | Manual setup | Partial |
| Auto overhead calculation | 12-category system | Not included | Not included |
| Margin health warning | Live alerts | Manual formulas | Basic only |
| Branded PDF proposals | Custom branding | Raw spreadsheet | Generic templates |
| Client approval tracking | Real-time dashboard | Not available | Not available |
| Subcontractor quote management | Multi-sub comparison | Not available | Not available |
| Revision history | Full version archive | File versions only | Limited |
| Mobile-friendly | Full mobile support | Painful on mobile | Varies |
| Role-based team permissions | Built in | File sharing only | Varies |
| Setup time | < 10 minutes | Hours of setup | 30–60 min |
Comparing full platforms instead? See QuickEstimate vs. Buildertrend and QuickEstimate vs. JobTread.
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