Easy Estimating: 3 Simple Ways Projul Helps in Estimating | Projul

Easy Estimating: 3 Simple Ways Projul Helps in Construction Quotes

Projul makes construction estimating faster, easier, and more accurate. Over 5,000 contractors use Projul to get the numbers right the first time. With our background as construction contractors, we understand the challenges of estimating and the importance of accuracy. Here is a closer look at how Projul helps, based on our hands-on experience in the field.

Estimating is the foundation of every profitable construction project. Get the estimate right, and the rest of the job has a fighting chance. Get it wrong, and you are swimming upstream from day one. You either leave money on the table by bidding too high and losing the job, or you win the job at a price that eats your margin.

Most contractors we talk to spend anywhere from two to six hours on a single estimate, depending on the project size. For a company writing ten estimates a week, that is 20 to 60 hours of work before a single nail gets driven. And here is the kicker: most of those estimates do not even turn into signed contracts. The close rate for construction estimates hovers around 25-35% for most companies.

So the question becomes: how do you make estimating faster without sacrificing accuracy? That is exactly what Projul was built to solve.

The Problem With Traditional Estimating

Before we get into the three ways Projul helps, let’s talk about why estimating is so painful for most contractors.

The traditional estimating process looks something like this. You get a lead, you schedule a site visit, you take measurements and photos, you go back to the office, you open a spreadsheet or a pad of paper, and you start building the estimate line by line. You call suppliers for current material prices. You calculate labor hours based on experience and gut feel. You add up the numbers, apply your markup, and send it to the client.

That process has a dozen failure points. The prices you got from the supplier last week might be different today. The labor estimate is based on how your best crew performs, not the crew that will actually do the work. You forgot to include the dumpster rental or the permit fees. The spreadsheet formula has an error you have never noticed.

And every time you start a new estimate, you are starting from scratch. Even if you did a nearly identical project last month, you are rebuilding the whole thing because your spreadsheet is not set up to be a template.

Projul fixes every one of these problems. Here is how.

1. Keeping Track of and Communicating Change Order Costs

Projul makes it simple to add, track, and communicate change order costs so nothing spirals out of control. Contractors using Projul’s estimating tools cut bid preparation time by 40% or more.

Change orders are where profits go to die for most contractors. A client asks for a small change. You agree on the spot because it seems minor. Then another change. Then another. By the end of the project, you have absorbed thousands of dollars in extra work that was never documented or billed.

With Projul, creating a change order takes about 30 seconds. You add the new line items, adjust the scope, and send it to the client for approval. The client sees exactly what changed, what it costs, and can approve it digitally right from their phone. No awkward conversations at the job site. No surprise invoices at the end. Everything is documented and agreed upon before the work happens.

Whether it is the rising cost of materials or unforeseen problems like rotted framing behind a wall, Projul tracks it all and allows you to keep your clients on the same page, avoiding final payment surprises. This real-time tracking keeps you on budget and profitable on every job.

Plus, the ability to reference past projects gives you a historical perspective, something we have found to be very important when preparing new proposals. If you did a kitchen remodel last year and ended up with $4,000 in change orders for electrical work that was not in the original scope, you know to include that in your next kitchen remodel estimate upfront. It is like having a financial roadmap for every project, and it is easy to communicate and obtain approval of any evolving costs with your customers.

Here is a practical example. You are remodeling a bathroom and the client decides mid-project that they want to move the vanity to the opposite wall. That means rerouting plumbing, adjusting electrical, patching the floor where the old vanity sat, and adding new tile. In Projul, you pull up the project, add the change order line items, the live cost database fills in current material prices, and you send the change order to the client within minutes. They approve it on their phone while they are at work. Your crew keeps moving. No delays, no confusion, no free work.

2. Seeing the Big Picture

Projul gives you a complete picture of every project, from task durations to crew needs to material timelines. With 26+ features built for construction, Projul shows how long tasks will take, how many hands you need on deck, and when materials need to be on site.

Most estimating tools treat the estimate as an isolated document. You build the numbers, send the quote, and that is it. But in the real world, an estimate is the starting point for everything that happens on a project. The labor hours in your estimate determine your schedule. The material costs determine your purchasing timeline. The total price determines your cash flow plan.

Projul connects all of these pieces. When you build an estimate in Projul, you are not just creating a document to send to a client. You are creating the foundation for the entire project plan.

This combined view allows for more accurate and realistic estimates. It helps you anticipate potential issues and plan accordingly, reducing the risk of costly surprises down the line. For example, if your estimate assumes that drywall will happen in week three but you know from experience that the drywall supplier has a two-week lead time, you can flag that in the planning phase instead of discovering it when the crew is standing around waiting for materials.

The big-picture view also helps you identify when you are overcommitting resources. If you have three projects running simultaneously and your estimate for the fourth project requires your best framing crew for two weeks, Projul shows you that the crew is already booked. You can adjust the timeline before making a promise to the client that you can not keep.

This kind of visibility is what separates contractors who grow profitably from contractors who grow themselves right into cash flow problems.

3. Clear Quotes for Customers

Don’t just take our word for it. See what contractors say about Projul.

Projul helps you create quotes that are straightforward and professional, which wins bids and builds client trust. Rated 9.8/10 on G2, Projul’s estimating tools are something our clients and contractors both appreciate.

Let’s be honest. Most clients do not understand construction estimates. They see a big number at the bottom and either say yes or no. The contractors who win the most work are the ones who make the estimate easy to understand and who build confidence through transparency.

As former construction contractors, we know how important it is to present information in a way that is easy for clients to grasp. Projul’s breakdowns show clients exactly what they are paying for, growing transparency and trust. This clarity has not only helped us win more jobs but also build lasting relationships with our clients.

Here is where Projul gets really clever. The platform has the unique ability to maintain itemized estimates with full job costing while still providing the option to only send your clients summarized estimates without itemization. Why does this matter? Because sometimes you want the client to see the big picture without getting overwhelmed by 150 line items. And sometimes, especially on commercial jobs, the client wants to see every single line item broken down.

Projul lets you do both from the same estimate. Your internal version has all the detail you need for job costing, purchasing, and scheduling. The client-facing version shows exactly what you want them to see. Maybe that is a summary by project phase. Maybe it is a simplified list of major categories. You control the presentation without maintaining two separate documents.

The digital signature feature speeds up approvals too. Instead of printing the estimate, mailing it or driving it to the client, waiting for them to sign and return it, the whole process happens electronically. Clients can review and sign the estimate from their phone. Some of our users report getting approvals within hours of sending the estimate, compared to days or weeks with the old paper method.

Using Templates to Multiply Your Speed

Estimate templates are the single biggest time saver in Projul. If you do similar types of work regularly, and most contractors do, templates cut your estimating time by 50% or more.

Here is how it works. You create a template for each common project type. A bathroom remodel template, a kitchen remodel template, a new construction template, a deck template, whatever matches your business. Each template includes all the standard line items, labor categories, and material costs for that type of project.

When a new lead comes in, you duplicate the template and adjust the quantities for the specific job. Instead of building 150 line items from scratch, you are just tweaking numbers. The template already includes the dumpster rental, the permit fees, the cleanup costs, and all the other items that are easy to forget when you start from zero.

And when material prices change, Projul’s integration with 1Build lets you update all your templates at once. One click, and every template in your library reflects current market pricing. No more spending a Saturday morning updating spreadsheets.

Why Estimating Speed Matters More Than You Think

The speed of your estimating process directly impacts your revenue. Here is the math.

If you are currently spending four hours on each estimate and you close 30% of your bids, you spend about 13 hours of estimating work for every job you win. If you cut that estimating time to two hours with Projul templates, you spend about 7 hours per won job. That is 6 hours saved per closed deal.

But it gets better. Faster estimating means you can bid on more work. If you are writing 10 estimates per week at 4 hours each, that is 40 hours, basically a full work week just on estimating. Cut that to 20 hours and you free up a full day every week. Use that day to bid on additional projects, and you are looking at a significant increase in your pipeline without hiring anyone.

The contractors who win are not always the cheapest. They are often the fastest. When a homeowner requests three quotes, the contractor who delivers first has a psychological advantage. The client is excited about the project, ready to make a decision, and the first professional estimate that lands in their inbox sets the benchmark that every other quote gets compared against.

Digital Signatures and Client Approvals

One overlooked bottleneck in the estimating process is getting the client to actually sign the estimate. You send the document, and then you wait. Days go by. You follow up. The client says they will look at it this weekend. Another week passes.

Projul solves this with built-in digital signatures. When you send an estimate through Projul, the client receives a link. They can review every detail on their phone, tablet, or computer. When they are ready, they sign electronically and you get notified immediately.

This feature alone has changed the game for contractors who used to spend a week or more chasing signatures. Some Projul users report getting signed estimates back within hours of sending them. That speed means you can start ordering materials, scheduling crews, and locking in subcontractors while the project is still fresh in everyone’s mind.

The digital trail also protects you legally. Every signed estimate is stored in Projul with a timestamp and the client’s electronic signature. If a dispute comes up later about what was included in the original scope, you have documentation that is far more reliable than a handshake or a verbal agreement.

Projul also notifies you when a prospect views your estimate. This is a small feature that makes a big difference. If you sent an estimate three days ago and the client has not opened it, you know to follow up. If they viewed it twice yesterday, you know they are interested and a phone call right now could close the deal.

Connecting Estimates to the Rest of Your Business

An estimate in Projul is not a standalone document. It connects to every other part of your operation.

When a client approves an estimate, Projul can automatically generate a project budget from the estimate line items. That budget becomes the baseline for job costing throughout the project. You do not have to re-enter anything. The numbers flow from estimate to budget to actual costs in one connected system.

The estimate also feeds into scheduling. Labor hours from the estimate help you plan crew assignments and project timelines. Material quantities feed into purchasing decisions. Everything ties together so that the work you do during estimating does not get duplicated during project setup.

When the project is complete, you can compare the estimate to the actual costs and see exactly where you were accurate and where you missed. That feedback loop is what turns good estimators into great ones. And with Projul storing all of this data, you build an institutional knowledge base that survives even when your best estimator moves on to another company.

Build Better Estimates Today

Projul makes estimating more efficient, reliable, and profitable. Contractors using Projul save 2+ hours daily on admin tasks, including estimating. It takes the guesswork out of the equation, allowing you to focus on what you do best, building and creating. With Projul, we have been able to cut our estimating time in half, keep our clients happy, and run our projects with confidence. Check out our Estimating Page on our website.

Projul’s Estimating Feature: Frequently Asked Questions

Over 5,000+ contractors trust Projul’s estimating tools to win more bids at $4,788/year with no per-user fees. Whether you are a one-person operation writing your first estimates or a growing company with a dedicated estimating team, Projul scales with you. The flat-rate pricing means you never pay more as your team grows, and every person on your staff gets full access to the estimating tools, templates, and cost database. Stop spending your evenings and weekends buried in spreadsheets and start building estimates that win work and protect your profit.

Book a quick demo to see how Projul handles this for real contractors.

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.