Solved
Priced from last year’s rates. Won below cost.
Whole price lists moved by a percentage in one action.
Advanced Estimating
Price from one library,
Price from one library,
not five spreadsheets.
Advanced Estimating is Unibuild’s estimating and schedule of rates software for UK trades. Prices, fit times and labour costs sit in one dated library, and every job is checked against what it cost.
Problems we solve
Eleven estimating problems. All eleven solved.
From the tender won on last year’s rates to the fit time that lives in one head.
Solved
Fit times in one person’s head.
Fit, task and strip-out times held on every item in the library.
Solved
Two estimators, two prices for the same job.
Everyone prices from one dated library.
Solved
Nobody knows what an hour of labour costs.
Dated labour costs, stamped onto every timesheet line.
Solved
Items missed from the estimate.
Kits and templates carry every item, every time.
Solved
Never checked what the last job actually cost.
Estimate against actual, section by section.
Solved
The same material priced three ways.
Every supplier’s price on the item, with one default.
Solved
A rate change quietly rewrites a tender already sent.
Markup is fixed onto each estimate when it is created.
Solved
Framework rates in a spreadsheet of their own.
Each contract’s schedule of rates priced from the same library.
Solved
A copied price file for every client.
Named price lists from one catalogue, each moving on its own.
Solved
Cost prices visible to everybody.
Who sees purchase prices and labour costs is set per role.
11/11Solved in one module
Book a demo →
In plain terms
Estimating software prices work before it is won. It holds the materials, plant, labour rates and fit times a contractor works with, and applies markup to them. The result is an estimate, a tender or a priced schedule of rates.
Advanced Estimating is the Unibuild module that does this for UK contractors and trade subcontractors. It keeps those rates in one dated library rather than in spreadsheets. Every price carries the date it was set and the person who set it. A whole price list can be moved by a percentage in a single action.
What a price file becomes
Nobody has reviewed that rate since 2023.
It was right when it was set. Looking at it since has been nobody's job.
Two estimators
Same source file, three years apart. Two different prices for the same job.
Inconsistent
The same material
Priced three ways: the estimator's sheet, the supplier's email, the order that goes out.
Quoted below cost
The question
What does an hour of an electrician cost this business? Nobody can say.
Margin is a guess
Fit times
In one person's head. They take a fortnight off and the job goes unpriced.
Tender missed
Annual uplift
Somebody must open every workbook and edit every line. So it never happens.
Drifts each year
When a rate changes
The old value is overwritten. Last year's reported margin was never real.
History moves
What is in the module
Six things estimating software does that a workbook cannot.
One item
database
Plant, materials and access equipment in one categorised catalogue, each item carrying its cost, its charge rate, its unit and the time it takes to fit.
- Two-level category tree
- Fit, task and strip-out times
- Units of measure from a list
- Everyone prices from one file
One price, not five opinionsLive
Prices from
several suppliers
A material can hold a price from every supplier who quotes for it, each with that supplier's own part number, and one flagged as the default.
- One default, read everywhere
- Switch supplier in one action
- Alternatives shown against the item
- No searching the inbox
Buying with evidenceLive
Uplift in
one action
Move an entire price list, or one category inside it, by a percentage from a single box. Creating a list clones the catalogue at current prices, so it starts as a true copy.
- Annual review in five minutes
- Whole list or one category
- A separate list per client
- No second catalogue to maintain
The review that gets doneLive
Drift you
can see
Every price list line shows the percentage by which it differs from the base catalogue price, signed and coloured, green above and red below.
- Shown per line and category
- A lagging list flags itself
- Caught before the job is priced
Made visible, not calculatedLive
Dated labour
costs
Each person's hourly cost is held with an effective-from date, and the rate in force on the day worked is stamped onto the timesheet line as it is saved.
- April's rise leaves March alone
- Rate stamped on every line
- Past job costs stay put
- The true cost of an hour
Last quarter's margin stops movingLive
Kits for
repeat work
Bundle the materials, plant, sundries, fit times and markup for an assembly you install regularly into one pickable line.
- Running fit-time total
- Markup per line inside the kit
- Shared by estimating and stores
- One line on the estimate
Built once, used twiceLive
Schedules of rates
Schedule of rates pricing, from the same library.
Term maintenance, repairs, frameworks and measured term contracts are usually priced from a schedule of rates. It lists every likely item with a unit and a rate, and the quantities are measured as the work is done. Unibuild prices the schedule, applies your tender and values every order at the agreed rate.
- Priced at tender, either way
- Either you build a rate for every item, or the client issues a priced schedule and you tender a percentage above or below it. That percentage often differs by section. Both are handled in the same library.
- A build-up behind every item
- Composite items are built as kits: materials, plant, sundries, fit time and markup on one line. The labour an item assumes is held against it, so every rate can be checked and defended.
- Each contract on its own schedule
- A client's schedule is loaded as that contract's own price list, with its item codes, units and rates. Two frameworks never share a rate by accident.
- The tendered percentage in one action
- Move the whole schedule, or one section of it, by the percentage you tendered, with the lines agreed at a fixed rate locked. Anniversary uplifts are applied the same way, and every change carries its date and the person who made it.
- Measured on site, at the scheduled rate
- In rate valuations, the measure is captured where the work is done, priced from the contract's rates and signed by the client on the device. On estimate-driven jobs, claimable hours are capped at the estimated allowance. Approved work goes into the application for payment once.
- Day works on their own card
- Work that cannot be measured against an item is recorded as day works and priced from the contract's day works rate card.
Term contract B · schedule of rates
1 · The client's schedule is loaded
E14-020 Double socket, flush£38.40 nr
B22-105 Plasterboard patch repair£46.10 m²
Items on the schedule412
2 · The tender is applied by section
Electrical section+6.5%
Building section+4.0%
Lines locked at an agreed rate12
3 · An order is measured on site
E14-020, 6 nr at £40.90£245.40
Signed by the client17 Sep 2026
Every order is valued at the rate you tendered, not at whatever a spreadsheet says today.
Bring the workbook you price from.
In the demo we show how its rows map into the library: sections, units, suppliers and schedules.
Book a 30-minute demo
Migration is carried out by us and included in the fee.
The detail estimators notice
Markup is snapshotted onto the estimate when it is created.
A rate change next month cannot alter a tender you have already issued. That is the difference between a price file and a pricing system.
- Markup classes, taken at creation
- Change a markup class afterwards and every tender already sent keeps the markup it was built with. A routine housekeeping edit cannot rewrite what you quoted somebody last week.
- Per-line locking
- A line can be locked so a bulk repricing pass leaves it alone. Negotiated rates survive the annual uplift, which is what makes a percentage move safe on a live library.
- Sectional build-ups
- An estimate is a schedule of sections rather than a flat list, priced from your own catalogues and price lists. Kits price a whole assembly on one line. Sections are what make an estimate comparable with the actual, and what let a claim be capped.
- Templates and autofill
- An estimate structure is saved once and imported into the next job of the same type. Years of pricing knowledge carry forward instead of being rebuilt for every tender.
- Estimate against actual
- A discrepancy view compares estimated hours with hours logged, and estimated quantities with quantities used, section by section. The next tender is priced from what the last job cost.
- The completeness report
- A report counts every item still missing a fit time, a purchase price, a retail price, a labour rate or a task time, and each gap can be filled inline. The quality of the price file becomes a number a director can chase.
Markup, taken at creation
1 · The estimate is built
Estimate 2411 raised6 Mar 2026
Markup classContract A
Applied to the estimate18.0%
2 · The class is edited a month later
Contract A becomes21.5%
Changed2 Apr 2026
3 · The tender already sent
Estimate 2411 still reads18.0%
The tender you issued in March is still the tender you issued in March.
In production
Pricing live contracts every week since 2016.
The estimating build-up has priced measured work at a temporary site services contractor since 2016. The catalogue, supplier pricing and dated labour costs have run at a construction contractor since 2023.
Temporary site services, since 2016
Sectional build-upsNamed price listsBulk repricingPer-line lockingMarkup classesKitsDay works rate cardsEstimate templatesEstimate versus actual
Construction, since 2023
Plant catalogueMulti-supplier pricingSupplier part numbersDated labour costsUnits of measureCompleteness report
See a schedule priced and valued, start to finish.
The demo runs on the platform that has priced measured work every week since 2016.
Book a 30-minute demo
Or call +44 7587 557546, UK hours
Moving your price file
What moving a price file involves.
Migration is carried out by Unibuild and included in the fee. This is the shape of it, from the workbook you have today to the first uplift.
The library is set up around the way your estimators already price. Anything else you need is built for you, and changes asked for after go-live are included in the monthly fee. More on how Unibuild is built to each firm.
The file you already have is the starting point
Most firms pricing measured work already own the catalogue. It sits in two or three workbooks, a folder of supplier emails and the memory of the longest-serving estimator. The migration is built from that file, and years of pricing knowledge come across with it.
Mapping comes before importing
Your existing columns are mapped to categories, units of measure and suppliers. The category tree is two levels: deep enough for a stranger to find a fitting, shallow enough to agree in an afternoon. Units come from a maintained list, so each, ea and no. do not survive as three units of the same thing.
Supplier prices and part numbers attach to the item they belong to. A client's schedule of rates is loaded the same way, as that contract's own price list.
Fit times are usually the gap
Fit times, task times and strip-out times are the fields most often missing, because most businesses never wrote them down. Purchase prices for slow-moving lines and hourly costs for recent starters are often thin too. None of it holds up the import.
Completeness becomes a number
The completeness report shows exactly which of those gaps remain. The library is finished week by week, with a figure a director can follow, rather than left at eighty per cent.
The first uplift proves the exercise
Once the catalogue is loaded, lock the negotiated lines and move a whole price list, or one category, by a percentage. The annual review takes five minutes instead of a fortnight of opening workbooks, so it happens.
Questions
Asked by whoever prices
Asked by whoever prices
your work.
Why use construction estimating software instead of an Excel price file?
Because a spreadsheet cannot say when a price was last reviewed or who changed it. It cannot hold three suppliers' prices for one part, and it stops working when the person who built it is on holiday. Unibuild holds the same information with a date, an owner and a change history, and moves a whole list by a percentage in one action. Your spreadsheet is the starting point for the migration.
Will it price our work from our own rate library?
Yes. Estimates are built as a schedule of sections, priced from your own catalogues and price lists, with kits pricing a whole assembly on one line. Markup is fixed onto each estimate when it is created, and locked lines are left alone by a bulk reprice. The estimating build-up has priced live contracts every week since 2016.
What estimating software should a UK subcontractor use for pricing jobs?
One that prices from a single dated library. Unibuild's Advanced Estimating holds your materials, plant, fit times, supplier prices and labour rates, each with the date it was set and the person who set it. Estimates are built in sections, kits price an assembly on one line, and markup is fixed onto the estimate when it is created. A whole price list moves by a percentage in one action. A main contractor's schedule of rates is priced from the same library, and estimate against actual shows what the last job used.
What is a schedule of rates in construction?
A schedule of rates is a list of the items of work a contract is likely to need, each with a unit and a rate but no quantity. The work is measured as it is done and valued at those rates. A bill of quantities fixes the quantities before work starts. A schedule of rates leaves them open, which suits repairs, maintenance and framework work.
Can we price a client's schedule of rates, or tender a percentage on it?
Yes, either way. The client's schedule is loaded as that contract's own price list, and your tendered percentage is applied to the whole schedule or to each section. Measured work is then valued at those rates on site, signed by the client and carried into the application for payment.
Can different clients have different prices?
Yes. Named price lists hold the same catalogue at different rates, so a framework client and a one-off client price from separate lists. Nobody maintains a second copy of the catalogue, and each list moves independently, whole or by category.
What happens to our old job costs when we put wages up?
Nothing. Each person's rate is held with an effective-from date, and the rate in force is stamped onto the timesheet line when it is saved. In live use, eighteen people carry more than one dated rate and their past job costs have not moved. Without this, a rise in April would quietly change what January's jobs cost.
Do we have to price everything from the library?
No. The library is available, not compulsory. A rate can be typed straight onto a quotation where that suits the work, and the plant register runs in full without a materials library behind it.
Can we control who sees cost prices?
Yes. Access is granted page by page, and cost data sits on specific pages rather than across the system. Which roles see purchase prices, supplier prices and hourly labour costs is set during implementation. Site-level roles receive onsite quotes as a document with no prices on it.
How much work is it to load our prices?
Unibuild carries out the migration, and it is included in the fee. Your existing file is mapped to categories, units and suppliers, imported and reviewed with you. Your team then fills the gaps the completeness report shows, such as missing fit times, at its own pace.
If we load a decade of prices in, can we get them back out?
Yes. The catalogue, the price lists and the estimates built from them export as CSV, XML or JSON at any time, without asking us first. If you leave, the full dataset is handed back within five working days.
The commercial modules
The rest of the money side.
Same platform, same login. These are the modules that price the work, buy for it, measure it, claim it and collect it.
One level down
The price was decided
The price was decided
before the software opened.
Estimating software makes a rate quicker to build. These are the decisions that stay with the estimator.
How to price a construction job without guessingMeasuring, building a rate from first principles, recovering overhead, and setting margin as a decision rather than a habit.
→
Preliminaries, the cost most firms forget to priceThe most under-priced part of a tender, built from the programme rather than guessed as a percentage.
→
How to tell whether you are underpricingComparing tendered against actual, testing your recovery rate, and the signs that show up before the accounts do.
→
Quote or estimate, and which one binds youWhich of the two binds you, and how a quote becomes a fixed price without anybody intending it.
→
Day rate or fixed price, and when each one costs youWho carries the risk in each, and the hybrid that handles a job with one genuinely unknown element.
→
Materials went up after you quotedValidity periods, fluctuation clauses and provisional sums, and why an average index is the wrong thing to plan against.
→
Next step
Bring the workbook everyone prices from.
A 30-minute live demo: the library, an estimate built from it, and the job checked against what it cost.
All elevenSolved
- Priced from last year’s rates
- Fit times in one head
- Two estimators, two prices
- Labour cost unknown
- Items missed from the estimate
- Estimates never checked against actuals
- One material, three prices
- Sent tenders rewritten
- Schedules of rates kept separately
- A price file per client
- Cost prices seen by everybody
Ask for a quote
Tell us a little about the firm.
Tell us a little about the firm.
We do the rest.
Two minutes. A written figure by email, usually the same working day. One flat monthly fee, fixed for three years.