Estimating intelligence for a Sydney architectural builder
A high-end residential builder delivering projects up to about $24M, where every tender response was assembled by hand. We scoped, prototyped and are now building an estimating pipeline that reads the architect's tender pack and hands the estimator a review-ready position, inside the builder's own systems.
The estimate workbench, rebuilt with demonstration data.
The screen below is a demonstration build. The company, the job and the numbers are invented. The mechanics are the ones running in the client's business: every line carries where its rate came from, every adjustment is logged with a reason, and the tool declines to price what it cannot defend.
| Category | Method | Qty | Rate | Line total | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 Preliminaries | Programme weeks × crew | 38 wks | $6,400 | $243,200 | Confirmed |
| 04 Demolition | Allowance per m² | 188 m² | $310 | $58,280 | Xero, 6 jobs |
| 07 Concrete and formwork | Measured from drawings | 142 m³ | $1,480 | $210,160 | Confirmed |
| 09 Blockwork | Measured from drawings | 612 m² | $265 | $162,180 | Confirmed |
| 18 Windows and doors | Schedule count × reference rate | 46 units | $4,900 | $225,400 | Ref. jobs, band ±22% |
| 22 Render | Measured, corner loading applied | 540 m² | $118 | $63,720 | Xero, adjusted +10% |
| 31 Joinery | Declined to price | - | - | Question raised | Swings >40% across jobs |
| 40 Landscaping | Provisional sum | - | - | $85,000 | PS, architect |
| 44 Home automation | Excluded by estimator | - | - | Excluded | Logged 14:02 |
Window schedule shows 46 units, elevations show 44.
Preliminaries: confirm 38 week programme.
Tenders built by hand, against forms that did not match the business.
The estimator copied specifications and drawings into up to 24 trade folders per job. Architect tender forms did not match the builder's own 48 trade categories, so every pack was re-mapped by hand. Some tender letters arrived as scanned images and had to be retyped.
The deeper issue was that the rules behind the estimate, which trades are measured, which are allowed per square metre, which get a corner loading, lived in one person's head. The business could not scale its tender response, and it could not say with confidence how a past estimate compared to what the job actually cost.
Scoped, prototyped, then built inside the builder's own systems.
Rules captured across three working sessions
We sat with the owner and the estimator and wrote down the estimating method for all 48 categories: what is measured, what is allowed, what is excluded and why. That became the knowledge base the tool runs on, and a document the business now owns.
Rates calibrated against fifteen completed jobs
We reconciled the estimating files for completed projects against the builder's Xero actuals, so each derived rate carries a band from real jobs rather than a guess, and the tool says which categories swing too widely to price.
A pipeline that reads the tender pack
Architect packs are ingested, including scanned documents, requirements and provisional sums are extracted, the architect's trade forms are mapped to the builder's 48 categories, and supplier quote requests are drafted. The estimator receives one review pack instead of 24 folders.
Validated on live tenders, then into production
The prototype was reviewed by the owner and the estimator on eight real tender packs, including a blind test on a job the tool had never seen. Production build is now under way inside the builder's own systems, with Alvo's three-phase model and an exit at every gate. Day to day, the estimator keeps working in their existing estimating software and spreadsheets; the review pack lands in the job folder they already use.
Estimating rules capture · $3,000 to $5,000
Three working sessions with your estimator to write down the method for every trade category, handed over as a document you own. Useful on its own, and the foundation for everything else.
$15,000 to $30,000 · 8 to 16 weeks
Rates calibrated to your actuals, the tender-pack pipeline, and the review pack, as three to five milestones with an exit at every gate. Production engineering by Syfre, Brisbane-based, under Alvo's scope.
Smaller jobs, different tender formats
The method is the rules capture plus calibration to your own completed jobs, so it carries to a $3M fitout as readily as a $24M house. What changes is the trade list and the document formats, which the first milestone captures.
Fees exclude GST, fixed per milestone, payable only when the milestone reaches its measure. Data, pricing and who does the work ›
Honest about accuracy.
A stated band, not a promise
The tool prices the measured part of a job within a stated band and declines to price categories that swing widely between jobs. It raises questions on those instead.
Measured figures only when measured
Estimating a tender took about four weeks before the engagement. The engagement is measured on bringing that to one to two. The measured figure will be added here once the production build has run across a full quarter of tenders, with the client's agreement, and it will be the same figure everywhere on this site.
The estimator owns the number
The estimator still owns the number. The tool's job is to get them to a defensible first position faster, with every assumption visible.
Run a construction business with the same problem?
Estimating, variations, handover documentation: if it lives in one person's head, we can usually get it into a system you own inside eight to sixteen weeks. Architect packs and QS bills of quantities are both tender formats the rules capture covers.