Getting started with QuoteCloud

QuoteCloud implementation for building businesses

Cost book, templates, locked compliance content, roles and approvals, then training: a building company's rollout, with estimates still going out while it happens.

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A QuoteCloud implementation for a building business imports your labour, material and subcontract rates into the product catalogue from CSV, converts your estimate and contract templates (one free during the trial), locks your licence and insurances as company content, sets roles, teams and approvals, connects payments and accounting, and trains the team in a 45-minute session.

The cost book of a fictional builder, Corbel Building Co., in QuoteCloud's product catalogue after a CSV import of supplier rates (22 rates updated, 1 marked inactive): labour, materials, subcontract and allowance items, each with a SKU, category, unit, sell price, the builder's cost and margin (team only) and a status of Active, Draft or Inactive.

A building company's rollout, in seven steps

A sample plan for a fictional 12-person builder doing renovations and small commercial fit-outs. Each step says what you bring, what QuoteCloud gives you and how you know it's done.

  1. Phase 1, Week 1

    Import the cost book

    You bring
    Your rates spreadsheet: labour, materials, subcontract and allowance items, with your cost beside each sell rate.
    QuoteCloud gives you
    CSV import with column mapping and validation into the product catalogue: SKU, category, unit, price and cost, with margin kept from the client. Superseded rates are marked Inactive.
    Done when
    Every rate an estimator uses is a catalogue item, and the old spreadsheet retires.

    Product catalogue: Essentials and up

    Cost book, rates & margins

  2. Phase 2, Weeks 1–2

    Convert the estimate and contract

    You bring
    The Word estimate and contract you send most, with your stages, inclusions, exclusions and payment schedule.
    QuoteCloud gives you
    One template converted free during the trial on Essentials, Business or Enterprise. More conversions are a paid add-on, per template.
    Done when
    An estimator can start a branded, staged estimate from the company template.
    Construction templates

  3. Phase 3, Week 2

    Lock licences, insurances and terms

    You bring
    Your licence number, current policies, safety documents and the contract wording you already use.
    QuoteCloud gives you
    Company blocks in the content library, locked so every estimate can use them and no one can edit them in a document.
    Done when
    Each new estimate and contract carries the same, current details.

    Content locking: Business plan

  4. Phase 4, Weeks 2–3

    Set roles, teams and approvals

    You bring
    Who estimates, who supervises, who approves, your discount limit and the job value that needs a director.
    QuoteCloud gives you
    Custom roles and teams (Essentials and up) with library and catalogue permissions; approval workflows that trigger on discount percentage or total value (Business).
    Done when
    A commercial proposal over your limit waits In Review until it's approved.

  5. Phase 5, Week 3

    Connect payments and accounts

    You bring
    Your Stripe or PayPal account, and Xero, QuickBooks Online or the job system you use.
    QuoteCloud gives you
    Deposits on signing through Stripe or PayPal (Essentials); native Xero and QuickBooks on Business; Zapier, Make and the API from Essentials for simPRO, ServiceM8 and the rest.
    Done when
    A signed estimate takes its deposit and reaches accounts without retyping.
    Accounting & job management

  6. Phase 6, Weeks 3–4

    Run a pilot job

    You bring
    One real renovation estimate, its owners, and the variation that will inevitably follow.
    QuoteCloud gives you
    Document tracking, comments in the document, Revise Last Version, and version history on Business.
    Done when
    The pilot estimate is signed, the deposit is paid and the template is tuned from what you learned.

  7. Phase 7, Week 4

    Train the team and go live

    You bring
    Estimators, supervisors and the office, plus a page of your own how-we-quote rules.
    QuoteCloud gives you
    A 45-minute training session on paid plans, extra 60-minute sessions as a paid add-on, and the user guide.
    Done when
    Every estimate, contract and variation goes out of QuoteCloud.

Sample planning, not a promise: your timing depends on your templates, the size of your cost book and the systems you connect.

Approval rules in place before the first big tender

Corbel set two rules on day one: a residential estimate with a discount over 5% and any proposal over $250,000 both go to the construction manager and the director. The document waits In Review and can't be sent until every approver says yes.

Roles decide the rest: estimators price from the cost book and use locked blocks as they are, while the director owns the templates, the company content and the rules.

  • Triggers on discount percentage or total value
  • Approvers approve or decline in the document
  • Custom roles and teams from Essentials
  • Costs and margins stay in the team's view

Approval workflow: Business plan

Approval workflow
Corbel Building Co.Fit-out proposal CB-C-0412 Approver view · sample data

Document workflow

In Review

Triggered when Total value greater than $250,000

  • Tessa GrayConstruction managerApproved
  • Ruth HammondDirectorWaiting

Must be approved by all approvers before it can be sent.

  1. Approval request sent by Dan Okafor
  2. Approved by Tessa Gray

Approval workflow · Business plan

Help from the QuoteCloud team when you want it

Most builders set up themselves with the trial and the training session. When a rollout needs more hands, these are the services to ask about.

  • Onboarding services

    One template converted during the trial and a 45-minute training session on paid plans, to get the first estimates out.

    Onboarding services

  • Professional services

    More template conversions, extra 60-minute training sessions, and consultancy and set-up for Zapier, APIs and other platforms. Ask us for prices.

    Professional services

  • Premium support

    Premium 24×7 support with guaranteed SLAs as a paid add-on. Enterprise includes implementation support and a dedicated account manager.

    Premium support

  • The user guide

    Hundreds of step-by-step guides for estimators and admins, from building a price table to setting up a workflow.

    QuoteCloud user guide

Start the trial, send us your estimate template

Free for 14 days, no credit card required. Your first template conversion is on us on Essentials, Business and Enterprise.

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What changes for each person in the business

The value of the rollout, role by role, for the same fictional builder.

The jobBefore rolloutAfter rollout
Estimator Copies last job's spreadsheet and retypes the rates into a Word quote. Starts from the company template, prices from the cost book and drops in locked blocks as written.
Construction manager Checks big quotes from an email attachment, when someone remembers to send one. Approves or declines estimates In Review, over the discount or value limits you set (Business).
Director Finds out about a deep discount after the contract is signed. Owns the templates, the locked company content and the approval rules.
Site supervisor Writes a variation on a notepad and gets it signed days later. Raises it from the variation template on site; the owner signs it on the tablet.
Office & accounts Chases deposits and keys every signed job into Xero by hand. Sees opens and signatures, deposits paid through Stripe or PayPal, and invoices passed to Xero or QuickBooks.

Included on Essentials, Business and Enterprise

One session, and the team is sending

A complimentary 45-minute virtual training and Q&A for your estimators, supervisors and office. More 60-minute sessions are available as a paid add-on.

Onboarding services
45 min training session on every paid plan

What each plan includes for a building company

Essentials and Business start with a 14-day free trial and no credit card. What you can set up depends on the plan (USD per user per month, from the pricing page).

  • Essentials ($39): price tables, the cost book with CSV import, templates and the content library, deposits through Stripe or PayPal, custom roles and teams, Zapier, Make and the API, one free template conversion during the trial and a 45-minute training session.
  • Business ($59): everything in Essentials, plus approval workflows, content locking, Gantt build schedules, version history, custom branding and native Xero, QuickBooks and CRM integrations.
  • Enterprise (custom pricing): implementation support, a dedicated account manager, premium 24×7 support, single sign-on and IP range filtering.
  • Add-ons on any paid plan: extra template conversions, extra 60-minute training sessions and premium support. Ask us for prices.

Implementation questions from builders

How long does it take a builder to get set up in QuoteCloud?

It depends on how many templates you bring, the size of your cost book and which systems you connect. Plan it in steps: cost book, templates, locked company content, roles and approvals, payments and accounts, a pilot job, then training. QuoteCloud doesn't promise a fixed duration, and you can keep sending estimates throughout.

Can we import our rates spreadsheet as a cost book?

Yes. Save it as a CSV and import it into the product catalogue, mapping each column to a field such as SKU, name, category, unit, price and cost. QuoteCloud validates the rows before importing. The catalogue is on Essentials and above, and costs and margins are never shown to clients.

Will QuoteCloud convert our estimate and contract templates?

One of them, free, during the trial on the Essentials, Business and Enterprise plans; most builders choose the estimate they send most. Further conversions are a paid add-on, billed per template. You can also rebuild templates yourself from content blocks or start from a library template.

What training is included?

Paid plans include a complimentary 45-minute virtual training and Q&A session, which suits estimators, supervisors and the office together. Additional 60-minute sessions are available as a paid add-on, and the QuoteCloud user guide has hundreds of step-by-step guides for estimators and admins.

Can we set approvals for large jobs and discounts?

Yes, on the Business plan. An approval workflow can trigger on the document's total value or discount percentage, for example any proposal over $250,000, or a discount above 5%. The document goes In Review, and approvers approve or decline it before it can be sent.

Who helps connect Xero, simPRO or our own systems?

Native Xero and QuickBooks integrations are on Business; Zapier, Make and the QuoteCloud API are on Essentials, with document creation fees for API and Zapier documents. For consultancy and integration set-up on Zapier, custom APIs or other platforms, contact sales through professional services.

What does Enterprise add for a larger building company?

Enterprise adds implementation support, a dedicated account manager, premium 24×7 support with a guaranteed response SLA, single sign-on and IP range filtering, with flexible per-seat or per-document pricing. Talk to sales about your team size and the number of templates.

More construction questions

Everything your team will use

Every page of QuoteCloud for construction.

Set up once, quote the same way every time

Free for 14 days. No credit card required.

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