Outsource Estimating Services Outsource your estimating. Keep your own estimator.

Outsourced estimating means a team outside your company prepares your takeoffs, pricing and bid documents. With Bidding Enterprise you get a dedicated estimator who works only on your bids, in your software, templates and cost data, like an in-house estimator without the hiring, payroll and overhead.

Bidding Enterprise charges one fixed monthly fee for a dedicated estimator, typically about a third of what an in-house estimator costs once salary, payroll tax, 401(k), health insurance, recruiting and overhead are counted. The exact fee depends on your trade and how much of the bid process you hand over, and we confirm it on the free assessment call. Qualified contractors can try it free for 15 days.

Per-project services send each job to whoever is free, so you re-explain your standards every time. A dedicated estimator learns your company, your past bids and your pricing, stays on your account, and reports directly to you.

If you're turning down bids, the owner is doing takeoffs at night, or you've spent months trying to hire, outsourcing to a dedicated estimator usually pays off. If you only bid a few jobs a year, a per-project takeoff or doing it yourself is likely cheaper. See when outsourcing makes sense, and when it doesn't.

Not on its own. General chatbots like ChatGPT can explain estimating methods, draft scope language or check arithmetic, but they don't measure your drawings, don't know your crews' production rates or current supplier pricing, and can produce confident numbers that are simply wrong. A bid you sign needs quantities taken off the actual plans and prices tied to real quotes and your own history. Our estimators use purpose-built AI instead: Build Intel speeds up takeoffs, and Dexter answers questions about the drawings and specs with the sheet or section cited. An experienced estimator checks every output, and our QA team reviews it before it reaches you.

Because good estimators are scarce and the job is hard to do well. It takes field knowledge, plan reading, math, software skills and pricing judgment, and one missed scope item can wipe out the margin on a job. Demand outruns supply: by typical industry estimates there are more than 12,000 open estimator positions across the US, and an estimator's salary runs around $100K-$120K before benefits, payroll taxes and overhead, varying by region and role. That cost is why many contractors outsource estimating to a dedicated estimator for a fixed monthly fee instead.

Most estimating references group them into four: (1) order-of-magnitude or conceptual estimates, based on the cost of similar past projects; (2) square-foot or cubic-foot estimates, a cost per unit of area or volume for early budgets; (3) assembly or systems estimates, which price complete systems such as a wall type or roof assembly; and (4) unit-price or detailed estimates, built from a full quantity takeoff with material, labor and equipment priced line by line. Accuracy and effort both rise as you move down the list. Bid-day numbers are almost always unit-price estimates, and that's the core of what our estimators produce, along with conceptual budgets when you need an early number.

It depends on the market. On small residential jobs, many contractors give free estimates as a cost of winning work, while some charge a fee and credit it back if the customer signs. In commercial work, subcontractors and general contractors usually bid at their own cost, and paid estimating tends to appear as preconstruction or design-assist services. Either way, most estimating is unbilled overhead, so keeping its cost predictable matters. A fixed monthly fee for a dedicated estimator is easier to plan around than a salary plus benefits.

You do. Your estimator prepares the takeoff and pricing using your templates, rates and rules, our QA team checks it, and you review and approve the final number, including overhead and markup, before anything is submitted.

Yes. Your drawings, pricing, historical cost data and templates are treated as confidential information under our terms and used only to perform your work. Your estimator is exclusive to your company, so your numbers aren't shared across other clients' bids.

Every estimate is prepared by an experienced estimator, sped up by AI takeoff tools, then checked by our QA and technical managers before it reaches you. You review and approve the final number.

Yes. Your estimator is exclusive to your company, works your hours in your time zone, uses your company email, and works in your estimating software and templates, so to your GCs and suppliers they are part of your team.

Over 50 trades and scopes, from concrete, site work and steel to drywall, flooring, MEP and full general-contractor bids, in the 100+ estimating and takeoff tools contractors already use.

The free assessment and setup take about an hour, and most clients have their estimator on live bids in under 7 days.