Cost categories
Material, labor, equipment, subcontractor, permit fees, general conditions and other direct costs, calculated on the server with consistent rounding.
PRECONSTRUCTION
Estimate, bid and contract with one unbroken record.
In QuotaPartner, the estimate you approve is the estimate your bid is built from, the bid your contract comes from, and the baseline your project budget starts with. Each step keeps its version, its approval and its history.
ESTIMATE → BID → CONTRACT LINEAGE
Why the lineage matters.
When a price is questioned months later, you can trace it back to the exact estimate version, the rates it used and who approved it. Revisions never overwrite what was already approved or submitted.
- 01Opportunity
- 02Estimate version
- 03Approval
- 04Bid
- 05Proposal
- 06Contract version
- 07Award
Illustrative sequence. Each conversion requires the prior step to be approved.
ESTIMATING
Built for how contractors price work.
Structure
Organize estimates by division, section, assembly and line item, with alternates and CSI classification where you use it.
Line detail
Waste, freight, delivery, tax, escalation, crew size, production rates and labor burden on the lines that need them.
Pricing
Choose markup or target margin for each estimate. The system rejects both at once, so the price means one thing.
Rate libraries
Company rates move through draft, review and approval. Replacing a rate creates a successor, so history stays intact.
Templates
Start from company, trade, project-type, assembly, cost-code or scope-package templates.
BIDS, PROPOSALS AND CONTRACTS
Approval gates that match how your company decides.
An estimate version is approved before it becomes a bid. A bid is approved before it is submitted. A contract is approved before it is executed, and an owner or administrator records the award. Proposal documents can be regenerated for presentation without changing the price, the approval or the contract.
- Bid strategy and adjustments start from the approved cost snapshot, not a copied spreadsheet.
- Proposals print company, customer, quantities, units and a complete item schedule.
- Contract terms, parties and retainage are versioned.
- Delivery and signature are recorded with who, when, how and a supporting document.
WHAT IS AVAILABLE TODAY
Current preconstruction capability.
Plans & Takeoff is currently being validated in controlled internal pilot use. It is not yet available to customers, and its accuracy on customer drawings is still being evaluated. Until it is, most teams keep their current takeoff tool and bring quantities into the estimate.
| Area | Availability | What that means today |
|---|---|---|
| Versioned estimates and rate libraries | Pilot | Immutable approved versions; revisions create new versions. |
| Bid strategy from the approved estimate | Pilot | Aggressive, competitive, standard, premium, negotiated or custom, from a frozen cost snapshot. |
| Proposal documents | Pilot | Governed PDFs with a readable item schedule. A proposal stays marked as a draft until delivery is recorded. |
| Contract versions and retainage | Pilot | Contract terms are versioned without rewriting the accepted bid or estimate. |
| Purchasing needs from estimate lines | Pilot | Approved estimate lines can become purchasing requirements for the project. |
| Gnoveris-assisted estimate drafts | Limited | Drafts use only sourced rates and records you provide, and ask when information is missing. A person reviews and approves. |
| Plans & Takeoff | Internal pilot | Being validated in controlled internal pilot use. Not available to customers yet. |
| Customer e-signature and online acceptance | Coming | Delivery and signature are recorded with evidence today. |
| Subcontractor bid invitations and bid leveling | Not included | Not an invitation-to-bid network. Sourced quote references can be attached to estimate lines. |
GNOVERIS IN PRECONSTRUCTION
Help with the draft, never the decision.
Gnoveris can inspect your sourced rates, scope and records, ask about what is missing and prepare a draft estimate for review. It cannot approve an estimate, submit a bid or sign a contract. Totals are always calculated by QuotaPartner, not by the AI model.
See Gnoveris authority levelsILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE
Preparing a draft estimate
- Inspect the inputs
Scope, quantities and approved rates you already have.
- Ask about gaps
Missing quantities or rates become questions, not guesses.
- Review the draft
An estimator reviews, edits and approves the version.
BEFORE THE ESTIMATE
Decide what is worth pricing.
Estimating time is limited. Our bid/no-bid scorecard for general contractors helps you decide which jobs to price, and records why. For the stages before and after the bid, see the construction sales pipeline guide. If your team uses estimate, bid and proposal interchangeably, our guide to estimate vs bid vs proposal explains how the documents connect.
CONTRACTOR PILOTS
Price the work once and carry it forward.
Bring a recent estimate and we will show how it would move from version to bid to contract in QuotaPartner.