February 18, 2026
4 min read
Quickestimate
Understanding Cost Categories
QuickEstimate organizes your estimate into four distinct cost categories. Keeping them separate isn't just for tidiness — it lets you see at a glance where your money is going, and helps you identify which category is eating into your margins.
🧱 Materials
Raw materials, supplies, and consumables. Priced by unit — each, per m², per litre, per metre.
👷 Labor
Your own team's time on the job. Price by hours or day rates. Supports crew-based entry.
🏗️ Equipment
Hired or owned equipment used on-site. Priced by day, week, or fixed hire charge.
🤝 Subcontractors
Third-party trades or specialists. Enter as a fixed quoted price or percentage of project value.
Adding Materials
Click Add Item → Materials to open the materials entry panel. For each material line item, you'll enter:
| Field | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Name or specification of the material | Concrete mix C25 ready-mix |
| Quantity | How many units you need | 12 |
| Unit | How it's measured | m³ |
| Unit Cost | Price per unit (ex. tax) | $185.00 |
| Waste Factor % | Optional buffer for offcuts/spillage | 10% |
The Waste Factor field adds a buffer automatically. If you add 10% waste to 12 m³ of concrete at $185/m³, QuickEstimate calculates 13.2 m³ — protecting you from underordering.
Adding Labor
Labor can be entered in two modes — choose whichever matches how you pay your team:
Hours Mode
Enter the number of hours each worker or trade classification will spend on the job, and their hourly rate. QuickEstimate will calculate the subtotal per line item.
Crew Mode
Specify a crew size and number of days on-site, along with a daily rate per person. Useful for larger projects with consistent crew deployment.
Important: Labor rates entered here should be your fully loaded labor cost — including payroll taxes, superannuation/pension contributions, and any employee benefits. Don't enter just the base wage rate.
Adding Equipment
Equipment costs cover any machinery or tools used on-site that aren't part of your overhead. This includes hired plant, specialist tools, and owned equipment where you want to recover depreciation costs.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Equipment Name | e.g. "20-tonne excavator hire" |
| Rate Type | Daily, weekly, or fixed lump sum |
| Rate | Cost per day/week, or total hire cost |
| Duration | Number of days or weeks on-site |
| Delivery Charge | Optional separate line for transport to/from site |
Adding Subcontractors
Subcontractor costs are entered as fixed quoted prices. Click Add Item → Subcontractor and enter the trade name, scope description, and the price from their quote.
If you don't yet have a confirmed quote, you can flag the line item as "Estimate — not confirmed". This adds a visual warning to remind you to replace it with an actual quote before sending the proposal.
Markup on subs: You can apply a markup percentage to subcontractor costs — commonly 10–15% — to cover your coordination time and risk. Enable this in the line item settings by toggling Apply markup to this item.
Using Templates & Saved Items
If you use the same materials or labor rates across multiple projects, save them as template items in your Item Library. Access it via Settings → Item Library. Once saved, you can search and insert any item into any estimate with a single click — quantities and rates pre-filled.
You can also duplicate entire estimate structures as Estimate Templates, which is particularly useful if you regularly quote similar job types (e.g. bathroom renovations, driveway replacements).