Custom Construction Estimating Solutions That Fit the Way You Work
If your estimating software feels rigid, overbuilt, hard to adapt, or frustrating to report from, you aren’t alone.
Custom Excel Speadsheets
CES Construction Solutions vs. SaaS Construction Software
Many contractors move to using SaaS platforms like Procore, Buildertrend, CoConstruct, HeavyBid, or PlanSwift expecting a clean upgrade. The rich features, powerful applications and sleek designs of these systems can be extremely attractive, especially when migrating from manual estimating or clunky spreadsheets.
Upgrading to these platforms often feels great– at first– yet for many construction businesses, these solutions create a new problem: the software is powerful and has tons of features, but at the cost of forcing you to change your estimating approach and limiting what you can present to your customers.
If you want the freedom to do things your way– if you want full control over what is and isn’t shown in client-facing estimates and how it gets displayed, as well as the ability to determine exactly how estimates are built– these otherwise powerful tools will leave you wanting more.
That’s why at CES, we’re building truly customized software for construction businesses. Our custom estimating tools for contractors allow them to quickly and easily put together estimates their way and then to create reports that are professionally formatted and presented exactly the way they want them to be.
If your business, or even your industry, is too unique to be ideally served by the one- size-fits-all construction software platforms on the market, consider booking a free consultation with our team to see the difference a custom solution could make for your construction business.
When SaaS Estimating Software Is Not a Great Fit
Construction estimating is too important for the success of your business to be forced into the wrong system. Many SaaS platforms are feature-rich, but that comes with tradeoffs. They are often adjustable, but not truly customizable. They can give you settings and options, but they still expect your business to operate within their pre-defined structure and workflow.
That becomes a real problem when your estimating process has specific requirements for:
- Alternates
- Scopes
- Inclusions and exclusions
- Qualifications and assumptions
- Overhead and profit summaries
- Labor and equipment rate visibility
- Subtotaling and roll-up summaries
- What the customer sees versus what stays internal
- Custom branding needs beyond company name and logo
If those details matter to your business, then estimating software is not just about entering numbers. It is about how your company thinks, prices, controls margin, and presents itself to potential and existing customers. What many construction companies are realizing today is that a platform can be highly impressive and still be the wrong fit for them.
A Better Alternative: Estimating Software Built Around Your Business
We build custom construction estimating solutions around your businesses’ operations and preferences, while also helping you improve weak points, tighten standards, and create a more consistent process.
This is the secret to the success of our offer: we provide full customization plus experience based consultation. That means you don’t just get a tool that does everything you already think it should, but that in the process of working with us, you discover what your ideal tool looks like.
Instead of asking you to adapt to a platform, we adapt the tool to your business while offering insightful suggestions and recommendations which you can choose whether or not you want to be incorporated.
That means your estimating system can be built around:
- Your pricing logic
- Your markup structure
- Your estimate breakdowns
- Your labor and equipment assumptions
- Your preferred internal review process
- Your customer-facing proposal style
- Your actual terminology, categories, and workflows
When something does not make sense in a SaaS system, your team has to change its thinking and approach which almost always results in increased friction, efficiency loss and a downgrade in overall estimating and reporting quality.
When something no longer makes sense in a custom estimating system, we change the tool for you and your team– not the other way around. That is a major difference.
Custom Excel Speadsheets
The reason we can build these custom tools at a fraction of the price and development time compared to other software companies is that we utilize the user-interface and structure of Microsoft Excel as a development platform.
Long-Term Benefits to Going Custom
There are three major benefits to going with a custom solution over a SaaS product, which can make a big difference for you in the long haul.
#1 - Responsive Flexibility
We’ve already addressed how the tool you start out with is tailored to your business’ needs and preferences. But in the real world, that isn’t fixed– as your business grows and new ideas pop up, you will want to make changes to your estimating system. With some SaaS solutions, you may be able to submit a request for a desired change and if enough people have requested the same thing, an update may come out in 6 months or 6 years from now to implement that change.
With a custom solution from CES, you can give us a call or send us an email and have the desired change rolled out within a week or two. That’s what we mean by responsive flexibility.
#2 - Reduced Cost
The cost of SaaS solutions can be hard to predict (or even understand), but the one thing they all have in common is recurrence. You are charged monthly or annually indefinitely and if you ever stop paying, you lose access to the service and possibly a whole lot of information you’ve put into it.
With a custom solution from CES, there are no recurring payments to continue using the tool and there’s no confusing sliding scales that impact your cost as your business grows or expands. After your initial investment for the tool’s development, which typically ranges between $2,500 to $5,000, the only long-term cost is for updates or expansions that you would like to have built into the tool.
#3 - Reduced Liability
Relying on 3rd party SaaS software for a key part of your business comes with certain inherent risks. The core problem is that you have no direct control over the software’s availability or pricing. Most SaaS companies are formed with the intent to scale the business to a size that attracts the attention of a larger company and then to sell to that larger company which can result in substantial changes for the users.
Whatever the cause, these software companies reserve the right to substantially increase prices, remove features or even discontinue the software altogether.
Who This Is Best For
Our custom construction estimating solutions are especially valuable for contractors who:
- have outgrown generic estimating tools
- are frustrated by the limitations of SaaS platforms
- need tighter control over pricing, markups, and estimate structure
- want polished, specific, fully-customizable proposals and reports
- are tired of workarounds and disconnected systems
Custom estimating solutions from CES tend to work especially well for small to medium sized businesses in the construction industry. This includes general contractors as well as contractors specializing in sub-disciplines such as electrical contractors, roofing contractors, carpenters, kitchen and bath, residential remodeling, pools and patio contractors, paint and coating applicators and many others.
Customized Solutions
Frequently Asked Questions
A custom construction estimating solution from CES is an estimating system built around your company’s pricing logic, workflows, reporting preferences, and proposal needs that provides you with maximal flexibility instead of forcing your team into a standard software structure designed by someone you’ve never met.
SaaS estimating software is built for broad use across many companies. A custom system is tailored to your business, which gives you more control over every facet of your estimating process.
Yes, we have had many clients switch from SaaS platforms like these to a custom solution from CES. However, it is not always the right move which is why we spend time upfront exploring options and verifying fit before proceeding.
Custom solutions typically cost between $2,500 – $5,000 depending on customer needs. Before getting started, you will be provided with an estimate for your specific project to set expectations regarding project costs.
Contractors who need tighter control over estimates, markups, proposal presentation,
and internal reporting often benefit the most.
Book Your Free Consultation
What Happens on the Free Consultation Call
Our consultation calls are exactly what they sound like– consultations. They aren’t screening calls where we try to assess whether or not its worth pairing you with a professional from our team.They are not sales calls where we spend the time trying to convince you to purchase something.
Instead, you’ll get to spend 30 to 45 minutes with an experienced professional from our team who will help bring clarity to where you are and where you want to be, with respect to an estimating solution. We’ll listen carefully and ask good questions to uncover where the real friction is in your current system and where the most potential for improvements lie.
Based on that, we can point you in the right direction and provide meaningful recommendations regarding the fit of SaaS solutions on offer compared to going custom. If a custom solution seems like a good fit to you, then we can answer questions about that and put together a project scope and quote for you.