5 Steps to Create Estimates Faster | Projul

Faster Estimates: 5 Steps to Quick and Accurate Project Quoting

Faster estimates win more jobs. Contractors using Projul’s estimating tools save 2+ hours daily by cutting manual work and delivering accurate bids before the competition. Here are strategies and tips to create estimates faster without compromising accuracy.

Every hour you spend on an estimate is an hour you are not spending on a job site, meeting with a client, or growing your business. For most contractors, estimating is the single biggest time sink in their operation. It is also the most important activity, because every dollar of revenue starts with an estimate that a client says yes to.

The problem is not that estimating takes time. The problem is that most contractors spend way too much time on tasks that could be automated, templated, or eliminated entirely. Building line items from scratch for the fifteenth bathroom remodel this year. Calling three suppliers to get current prices on the same materials you bought last month. Formatting the estimate in a spreadsheet and then reformatting it again because the formulas broke.

These five steps will cut your estimating time in half while actually improving your accuracy. That is not a typo. Faster and more accurate. Here is how.

1. Use the Right Technology

Gone are the days of manual calculations and hand-written quotes. Embracing digital tools not only speeds up the process but also strengthens accuracy. Software like Projul offers tailored solutions for the construction industry, with features designed to simplify and expedite the estimating process.

Let’s be specific about what “the right technology” means. It is not a spreadsheet. Spreadsheets were great in 1995. They are a liability in 2024. Here is why.

Spreadsheets do not connect to anything. Your estimate lives in a file on your computer, disconnected from your schedule, your job costing, your invoicing, and your CRM. Every time you need to use information from the estimate somewhere else, you are copying and pasting. Every copy-paste is a chance for an error.

Spreadsheets do not update automatically. If lumber prices went up 8% last month, every template you built before the increase has the wrong numbers. You have to manually find and update every affected cell in every template. Most contractors do not bother, and their estimates slowly drift out of alignment with reality.

Spreadsheets break when multiple people use them. If your estimator and your project manager both have the file open, someone’s changes get overwritten. If someone accidentally deletes a formula, the whole sheet produces wrong numbers until someone notices.

Projul was designed to help construction companies become more efficient and profitable. It offers many features that will help construction companies increase their overall revenue. The estimating features increase accuracy and decrease time spent on creating estimates. Everything is cloud-based, always current, and accessible from any device.

2. Know Your Scope Inside Out

A well-defined project scope is the foundation of a good estimate. Understand every aspect of the work required, materials, labor, and time. Projul’s 26+ features help you document scope details and avoid costly oversights. Familiarize yourself with the project site and the client’s specific needs to prevent underestimations.

Scope creep starts with a vague scope definition. If your estimate says “install new kitchen cabinets” but does not specify who is removing the old ones, who is patching the walls behind them, or whether the new cabinets require electrical relocation for under-cabinet lighting, you have gaps. Those gaps become unplanned work, which becomes lost profit.

Here is a practical approach to scope definition that takes less time, not more.

Create a scope checklist for each project type. For a kitchen remodel, your checklist might include demolition, framing modifications, electrical, plumbing, HVAC modifications, drywall, cabinets, countertops, backsplash, flooring, painting, fixtures, appliance installation, and cleanup. Run through the checklist on every site visit.

Take photos of everything during the site visit. Not just the kitchen that is being remodeled, but the electrical panel, the water heater, the access points for plumbing, and anything else that might affect the scope. Upload those photos directly to Projul so they are attached to the project record. When you are back at the office building the estimate, you have visual references for everything.

Talk to the client about what is not included, not just what is. “This estimate includes new cabinets but does not include appliance replacement” is a sentence that prevents arguments later. Projul’s estimate templates make it easy to include standard exclusions so you do not forget them.

3. Use Templates and Standardized Processes

Create or use existing templates for common project types. This approach can drastically reduce the time spent on each estimate. Projul offers customizable templates that you can adjust to fit the specific needs of each project.

Templates are the single biggest time saver in estimating. Full stop. If you are not using them, you are leaving hours on the table every single week.

Here is the math. Say you build bathroom remodel estimates regularly. A typical bathroom remodel estimate has 80-120 line items covering demolition, plumbing, electrical, tile, fixtures, vanity, mirror, painting, and cleanup. Building that from scratch takes 2-3 hours. With a template, you duplicate it in seconds and spend 30-45 minutes adjusting quantities and making project-specific modifications. That is a 70% reduction in estimating time on every single bid.

Using templates to create estimates can cut your estimating time in half. All of those hours spent creating estimates from scratch could be opened up, giving you more time to get other tasks completed. More time for site visits. More time for client meetings. More time for actually running your business.

Read real contractor reviews and see why Projul carries a 9.8/10 on G2.

Here is how to build effective templates in Projul. Start with your most common project type. List every line item you typically include. Set default quantities, labor rates, and material costs. Add standard notes and exclusions. Save it as a template. Then do the same for your second most common project type. Then your third. Within a week, you will have a template library that covers 80% of your work.

The key is to keep templates updated. When prices change, when you discover a line item you keep forgetting, when your labor rates increase, update the templates. Projul’s integration with 1Build’s live cost database makes this even easier by automatically pulling current pricing into your templates.

4. Detail, Detail, Detail

Detailed estimates build client trust and protect your margins. Itemize materials, labor hours, and any other costs involved. Projul’s itemization features, rated 9.8/10 on G2, break down these details effectively.

“But wait,” you might be thinking. “You just told me to be faster, and now you are telling me to add more detail? How does that work?”

Here is the thing. Detail does not mean starting from scratch. Detail means having the right line items in your template so that every cost is accounted for. It actually saves time because you are not going back to the client with change orders for things you should have included in the original estimate.

One of the major benefits of using a system like Projul is having the ability to quickly create a detailed breakdown of materials and labor costs, but not overwhelm your customers with information overload. With unique customer display options, you can automatically convert an itemized breakdown and budget into a professional, easy-to-digest, customer-facing estimate.

Your internal estimate might have 120 line items with specific material quantities, labor hours by trade, and cost breakdowns. The version your client sees might show six summary categories with clean pricing. Both views come from the same data. You get the detail you need for job costing and project planning. The client gets a clean, professional quote they can understand and approve.

This dual-view approach also speeds up client approvals. When an estimate is clear and professional, clients make decisions faster. They do not need to schedule a meeting to ask you to explain what “RSM 4x8 1/2 DW” means. They see “Drywall Installation” with a clear price and they move on.

5. Use 1Build to Regularly Update Cost Line Items

Material and labor costs fluctuate constantly. Projul’s integration with 1Build keeps your price lists current with real market rates. Over 5,000+ contractors use Projul to avoid unexpected cost overruns from stale pricing.

This is the step that most contractors skip, and it costs them the most money. You build beautiful templates, you detail every line item, and then you let the prices go stale. Six months later, you are bidding with numbers that are 10-15% below actual costs. That is a profit-killing mistake.

Instead of always being on the phone with suppliers to stay updated on cost line items, 1Build offers an updated cost database. This allows you to always be up to date with cost line items, which can help improve estimation accuracy and cost line management.

Here is the workflow. 1Build updates its database monthly with current market prices for materials, labor, and equipment across 3,000+ U.S. counties. When you open Projul, you can update all your templates with one click. Every line item across every template gets refreshed with current, localized pricing. The whole process takes seconds.

Compare that to the old way. You call your lumber yard for current framing prices. You check with the plumbing supply house. You ask your electrician what their current rate is. Each call takes 10-15 minutes, and you are still not getting a complete picture. With 1Build and Projul, you skip all of those calls and get better data in the process. Learn more about live construction costs here.

Avoiding the Most Common Estimating Mistakes

Speed without accuracy is just faster failure. As you adopt these five steps, watch out for the mistakes that trip up contractors most often.

Forgetting to include overhead in your pricing. Every estimate needs to carry its share of overhead costs: truck payments, insurance, office expenses, marketing, software, and everything else that keeps your doors open. If you only price direct costs (labor and materials) plus a markup, you might be working for free after overhead is accounted for. Our markup vs. margin guide walks through this in detail.

Skipping the site visit. Templates are powerful, but they are not a substitute for seeing the job in person. A bathroom remodel in a 1920s home with plaster walls and cast-iron plumbing is a very different scope than the same remodel in a 2010 tract house. The site visit is where you catch the details that change the price.

Not following up on sent estimates. You spend 90 minutes building a great estimate and send it off. Then nothing. No follow-up call, no check-in email, no reminder. Meanwhile, the client is sitting on three bids and waiting for someone to make the next move. Follow up within 48 hours of sending every estimate. A quick call or text to ask if they have questions can be the difference between winning and losing the job.

Pricing from memory instead of data. “I think we charged about $12 per square foot for tile last time” is not a pricing strategy. It is a guess. Pull actual costs from your last three similar jobs and use those numbers as your baseline. If you are using Projul with job costing, those numbers are already captured and ready to reference.

Ignoring your win rate. If you are sending 20 estimates a month and closing 3, your win rate is 15%. Is that good? It depends on your trade and your market, but for most contractors, anything below 20% means something is off. Maybe your prices are too high. Maybe your proposals do not look professional. Maybe you are bidding work that is not a good fit. Track your win rate monthly and look for patterns. The CRM in Projul tracks this automatically so you do not have to run the numbers by hand.

Putting It All Together

These five steps work together as a system. Technology gives you the platform. Scope knowledge gives you accuracy. Templates give you speed. Detail gives you protection. Current pricing gives you confidence.

When all five are in place, here is what your estimating process looks like. A lead comes in. You schedule a site visit, using Projul’s CRM to track the lead. At the site, you walk through your scope checklist and take photos. Back at the office, you duplicate the appropriate template, adjust quantities based on the site visit, review the auto-populated pricing, add any project-specific notes, and send the estimate to the client with a digital signature request.

Total time: 60-90 minutes for a typical residential project. Compare that to the 3-4 hours you used to spend, and you are looking at a 50-75% improvement.

That time savings is not just about efficiency. It is about revenue. Faster estimates mean you can bid on more work. More bids mean more wins. More wins mean more revenue. It is a simple formula that starts with getting your estimating process right.

What Faster Estimating Means for Your Business

The benefits of faster estimating go beyond just saving time, though the time savings alone are significant.

When you cut your estimating time from 4 hours to 90 minutes, you can send twice as many bids in the same week. If your close rate stays the same, that means twice as many signed contracts. More signed contracts means more revenue. More revenue means more room to hire, invest in equipment, and grow.

Faster estimating also means faster response times. When a potential client requests an estimate and you deliver it the next day while your competitors take a week, you stand out. You look organized. You look professional. That impression starts before you ever swing a hammer.

There is also a compounding effect. As your templates get better, your estimates get faster. As your estimates get faster, you bid more work. As you bid more work, you collect more job costing data from completed projects. As your data improves, your templates get more accurate. The cycle feeds itself, and within a few months you will wonder how you ever tolerated the old way.

For contractors who want to go even deeper on estimating technology, our construction estimating software guide covers what to look for when choosing a platform and how to make the switch from spreadsheets without disrupting your business.

Conclusion

Writing estimates quickly and accurately is a skill that can significantly improve the productivity and credibility of your contracting business. By using technology like Projul, understanding the project scope thoroughly, using standardized templates, detailing every aspect, and keeping your price lists updated using 1Build, you can get your estimates done in less time. Remember, the goal is to provide estimates that are not just fast but also reflect the true scope and cost of the project. Adopting these strategies will not only save you time but also help make more sales and close deals faster, paving the way for a successful and sustainable business. Check out Projul’s Estimating Page for More Information

Try a live demo and see how Projul simplifies this for your team.

DISCLAIMERWe make no warranty of accuracy, timeliness, and completeness of the information presented on this website. Posts are subject to change without notice and cannot be considered financial advice. Rated 9.8 out of 10 on G2 for ease of use and quality of support.