Construction quoting questions, answered

QuoteCloud is quoting, proposal and eSignature software for builders, renovators, trade subcontractors and commercial fit-out companies. You build estimates and contracts from templates, price labour, materials and subcontract work from a product catalogue, add plans, photos and a build schedule, and clients sign online and can pay a deposit, all in one document.

Yes. Price tables take a section heading for each stage or trade package, such as site works, base, frame and lock-up, with a subtotal under each group, tax added in the totals and a note on every line. Lines come from your catalogue or are typed in for one job. Price tables are on Essentials and above.

Mark them in the line name or note, such as 'PC sum' for the tiles or 'Provisional sum' for rock excavation, and list them again in a table block that explains what each allowance covers. QuoteCloud shows the allowances; it doesn't reconcile them. A difference at selection time goes into a signed variation.

Yes. Add upgrades such as a skylight, better flooring or an extra air-conditioning zone as optional rows. Owners tick the ones they want in the document, and the totals and the deposit update before they sign. A single-choice group works for picking one of several finishes.

Yes. Import your labour, material and subcontract rates into the product catalogue from a CSV, with a cost price beside each sell price. The team sees cost and margin; the client sees only the price. The product catalogue is on Essentials and above, and role permissions decide who can change it.

Yes. Add drawings as PDF pages or images, put site photos in a gallery and mark them up with the built-in image editor; image blocks are on Starter and above. A Gantt chart block shows the build schedule with tasks, durations and milestones on the Business plan.

Yes, for the proposal you send. Price a fit-out by trade package with preliminaries and options, add your programme as a Gantt chart, attach your compliance content and have several directors sign. QuoteCloud doesn't connect to tender portals; download the PDF or send the link as the tender asks.

On the Business plan, an approval workflow can trigger on the document's discount percentage or total value, such as a discount above 5% or any proposal over $250,000. The document goes In Review, and every required approver approves or declines it before it can be sent.

No, margin isn't a confirmed approval trigger. Set the rule on discount percentage or total value instead. Costs and margins are kept in your team's view of the price table and the catalogue, so the construction manager can check them while the document is In Review.

Yes, on the Business plan. Save them as Company blocks in the content library and switch the lock on. Locked blocks can be added to any document but not edited there, and only admins or permitted users can unlock them. Keeping the details current is up to you.

Yes. Custom user roles and teams are available from Essentials. Roles decide who can create, change or delete content library blocks, who can use the library at all, and who can change the product catalogue, so estimators price from the cost book without editing it.

Yes. Document tracking shows when an estimate is sent, opened and signed, and owners can ask questions in comments inside the document. The office sees where every estimate stands without ringing the owners first. Document tracking is on Essentials and above.

Yes. The native Xero and QuickBooks Online integrations are on the Business plan, so a signed estimate can become an invoice with the same lines, quantities and tax. On Essentials, Zapier and Make can do the same, with a per-document fee for documents created through Zapier or the API.

No, not as a two-way sync. Through Zapier, from Essentials, a signed estimate can create a job in simPRO with the client, site and sections, or a job in ServiceM8 with the contact, address and a description. Changes in the job system don't flow back to the estimate.

Yes, through Zapier. A new or signed document can create a Google Calendar event, one way from QuoteCloud, add a row to a Google Sheets job register or file the signed contract in Microsoft OneDrive. Zapier is on the Essentials plan and above.

Directly, QuoteCloud connects natively to Xero, QuickBooks Online and CRMs such as HubSpot and Pipedrive on Business. For other job management or project tools, Zapier, Make and the QuoteCloud GraphQL/REST API, from Essentials, are the routes; check which actions your tool offers in Zapier or Make, or ask our team about integration set-up.

Yes. The QuoteCloud GraphQL/REST API, from Essentials, lets any system that makes HTTPS requests create documents from a template's data items and act when they are viewed or signed. API and Zapier documents carry per-document fees, from US$2.00 each for up to 1,000 a month.

QuoteCloud eSignatures are legally binding and eIDAS compliant, and included on every plan. Owners can draw, type or upload a signature, and an optional one-time passcode can check the signer before they sign. Whether an electronic signature suits a particular contract is a question for your adviser.

Every completed document includes a certificate of authenticity and an audit trail, and each document has a unique ID. The certificate records who signed and when, and the document history shows when it was sent, opened and revised. Keep it with the job as the record of what the owners agreed.

QuoteCloud is hosted on Amazon Web Services, with personal information stored on servers in the USA. Documents are protected with 256-bit encryption, and QuoteCloud doesn't store card details: payments go through Stripe or PayPal. Enterprise adds single sign-on and IP range filtering.

Yes. Cost and margin columns stay in your team's view of the price table and the product catalogue and are never shown to the client. Sections and containers can also be hidden from the recipient, for internal notes the owners shouldn't see.