Estimating and job finance for contractors

Helping Build Better Builders.

PlanSmart reads the plan set, takes off the work, prices it from your own items, and carries the job from proposal to the last progress invoice - in QuickBooks Online, exactly. One job record, from the first sheet to the final payment.

Request a demoSee how it works
PlanSmart
PlanSmart's takeoff editor: the foundation plan with every wall and footing marked up, and the takeoff items beside it
From plan set to paid

Six steps. One record.

Most estimating tools stop at the number. PlanSmart keeps going - the takeoff becomes the estimate, the estimate becomes the schedule of values, and the schedule is what you bill against until the job is closed.

1
Take offLoad the plan set. Every wall, footing, pad, slab and holdown is read off the sheets as an object you can move, split or correct.
2
ReviewControl maps, an RFI log for everything the plans leave open, shop drawings, and a 3D model you can click - approved step by step.
3
PriceQuantities by cost code, priced from your own QuickBooks items. Net measured quantities; your rounding and your factors.
4
ProposeA proposal from your template, grouped the way you bill - footings, walls, slabs by area - pushed to QuickBooks as the estimate.
5
BillProgress invoices against the schedule of values, change orders the AIA way, purchase orders drafted when the job is released.
6
CloseBalances, payments, job cost and hours come back from QuickBooks, so every job shows where it really stands.
Takeoff

A takeoff that shows its work.

PlanSmart draws what it counted - on the engineer's sheets, as editable objects, with an id on every piece. Your field crew and your client see exactly what was bid.

  • Footings, walls, retaining walls, slabs, pads, holdowns and J-bolts, each with its own number
  • Walls by height band, footings at their scheduled width, corners mitred, steps where the footing drops
  • An RFI log for every question the plans leave open, numbered and by trade
  • Control maps with dimensions, shop drawing sheets, and the quantity books - built every run
Takeoff
A close view of the marked-up foundation plan
The model

Click anything. Know everything.

Concrete, rebar, forms, framing and steel, in one model built from the takeoff. Every item carries its card - a wall shows its volume, heights, thickness and tie count; a bar shows its size and length; a form panel says what it is.

  • Layers you can switch, group by group or piece by piece
  • Rebar placed the way it goes in: dowels, verticals, corner bars, stirrups
  • Form panels and ties counted as a yard order, not a guess
  • Dimensions that follow their pieces
3D model
The 3D model viewer: concrete, rebar and forms with the layer tree
Finance

The money side, built in.

Flip the switch from Estimating to Finance and the same job carries on: the schedule of values, the proposal, change orders, progress invoices, purchase orders - and the company view across every job.

Every job, by where it stands.

The pipeline board puts each job in its stage - estimating, proposed, accepted, approved to begin, billing - with its contract, its progress and its open balance. Below it: the open invoices, the upcoming work in crew hours and days, and how the crews are running against the estimate.

  • Pipeline, billed to date, open invoices, remaining to bill
  • Upcoming work in crew hours from your own production rates
  • Efficiency: estimated hours at the job's progress against the hours clocked
Finance
The Finance home: pipeline board, open invoices, upcoming work

Bill against the schedule. Change orders the AIA way.

Progress invoices list every line of the schedule with contract, previously billed, this invoice and remaining - type dollars or a percent, or set a whole group to 50%. Change orders become their own lines on the schedule, so the contract sum to date is always original plus net changes and the original values never move.

  • Slabs grouped the way you bill them: basement, garage, driveway, patio - any name
  • Change orders billed with the progress invoices or on their own invoice
  • Purchase orders for concrete, rebar, washouts and pumping drafted the moment a job is released
Invoices
The Invoices tab: progress invoices with their QuickBooks status
A proposal built by PlanSmart
The proposalYour template, your notes, grouped the way you bill.
A progress invoice built by PlanSmart
The progress invoiceContract, previously billed, this invoice, remaining - the total on page one.
A change order built by PlanSmart
The change orderOriginal contract, previous changes, this change, contract sum to date.
QuickBooks Online

Pushed exactly. Pulled back.

PlanSmart creates the customer, the project, the estimate, the invoices and the purchase orders in your QuickBooks Online company exactly as you see them here - and brings back what QuickBooks knows: balances, payments, job cost to date and the hours clocked to the job.

Your items, your prices

The estimate is priced from your own QuickBooks products and services list. Push a new price list and every new estimate follows it.

Progress invoicing that links

Invoices link to the estimate's lines in QuickBooks, so QuickBooks sees the same schedule of values you do.

Job cost comes home

The job's profit and loss, the open balances and the time clocked come back to the job and to the Finance home - margin and efficiency, job by job.

Trades

Start with one trade. Add the rest.

Each trade is a plug-in with its own reader, its own customs and its own books, sharing one job record. Concrete is the foundation every other trade reads; buy the trades you do.

03000
Concrete

Footings, walls, slabs, holdowns, rebar, forms - the record every other trade reads.

Available
02000
Excavation

Strip, mass excavation to subgrade, trenches, backfill, export and import from the grading plan.

Available
06000
Framing

Joists, rafters, beams, headers, posts, stud walls and trusses by level, kind and size.

Early access
05000
Steel

Columns, beams and deck by mark with nominal weights - and the bearing check against the concrete under them.

Early access
Your data

Runs on your computers. Stays in your folders.

PlanSmart is not a cloud service. It runs on your own computers and keeps every file - plans, takeoffs, estimates, proposals, invoices - in the folders your team already shares. There is no PlanSmart server and no PlanSmart account; the only thing that leaves your computer is what you push to QuickBooks.

Pricing

Per trade, or the suite.

Licensed per company, by the trades you do.

Concrete on its own, any trade on its own, or the whole suite - with the finance side and the QuickBooks connection included. We are onboarding the first companies now; ask us for pricing and a walkthrough on your own plans.

Contact us for pricing

See PlanSmart on your own plans.

Send us a plan set and we will walk you through the takeoff, the proposal and the first progress invoice - your job, your numbers.

Request a demo [email protected]