The importance of a building quote
The foundation of a successful home construction project lies with a detailed construction quote and resulting contract. Clarifying, via a quote to the homeowner, the project scope, specifications, costs and timeline reduces payment delays and unfortunate disagreements. The use of a building quote template leads to a higher level of customer service without becoming a time-waster for builder.
Properly defining the scope, specifications and costs requires a detailed itemization of labor costs and material charges. Custom home builders struggle finding the time to do this administrative work. This work competes with the need to be on the job site. However, smart builders have found an answer to producing the written document that the prospective client expects. They use construction management software and an associated building quote template to quote more work and win more contracts.
Moreover, it’s important to remember to charge a fair price for bidding for quoting a job. With this in mind, many builders can easily cover the cost of cloud-based construction management software. In the best cases, the software, for one monthly charge, offers a full suite of management tools. This set of tools goes beyond just offering a building quote template to include project scheduling, documentation and invoicing. So, the upfront investment benefits the entire project – from quote, contract agreement and signature to final invoice.
Advantages of a building quote template
A powerful feature of modern, cloud-based construction management software is the ability to create home building quoting templates. These templates offer a detailed breakdown that you can use over and over again. Using easy-to-use software, you can create a building quote template for all the different home construction projects you perform.
The templates keep you consistent and organized so you miss nothing when ordering materials and scheduling labor. Creating the specifications and costs that make up your quotes becomes a simple task. Also, using top-rated software, you can customize your quotes. For example, you can offer detailed terms and conditions that best suit your prospective client and your project types.
The best software also comes with preinstalled templates. These allow you to create and customize job checklists, allowing you to add and remove material and labor items as needed. The software also includes the ability to adjust for markup and other contingencies, such as material price increases.
What to include in your building quotation process
A building quote needs to be comprehensive and complete to help you avoid the time-consuming and stressful documentation of change orders. As a builder, consider the following items:
Preconstruction costs
Preconstruction costs are fees and charges that occur before construction begins. You will want to clarify in your terms and conditions if the homeowner must pay these costs before construction begins. Preconstruction covers surveys, building permits, site preparation, utility installs and business fees, among other items. Not surprisingly, these can add up to a significant amount of money. So, it’s best you detail them in an easy-to-follow professional quote that properly informs your homeowner.
Labor and material costs
By performing a material takeoff, you arrive at the proper counts of supplies. To save significant time, you will want to use construction management software that includes digital takeoff tools. Digital tools make these calculations much quicker and more accurate than using traditional pen and paper. Digital tools also allow you to perform a material quantity takeoff by unit cost, linear length, surface area, cubic volume or weight. When software does the calculations, you greatly reduce errors, saving you time and increasing your professionalism.
Of course your quote is not complete if it only contains a material estimate. You need to also include the costs paid to your subcontractors and work crews, who are typically organized by the phases of your project (site work, foundation, framing, landscape, etc.). The best construction management software allows you to break out these costs in separate line items. The software also lets you include overhead costs associated with maintaining your payroll. You decide how detailed your quote breaks out this information for the homeowner.
Advantages of using software quote templates
The best construction management software directly flows the individual costs calculated from your material takeoff, labor estimates and markup into a building quote template. You can customize the quote template with preloaded product and material sample images as well as your business logo and letterhead.
Templates cut down on the administrative time you spend to build professionally looking quotes. Once built, you can send quotes to potential clients by email or traditional mail. It’s the kind of detail that makes your customer service an important competitive advantage in today’s ever-changing construction market.
How to find the best construction quote template software
Recently, Buildxact software ranked among the best construction management software as reported by both Gartner Digital Markets and Forbes magazine. In the case of Forbes, Buildxact topped the list. Editors considered Buildxact’s multiple quoting and job management features, affordable pricing and excellent customer reviews.
Interested in seeing for yourself how Buildxact quoting templates can improve your business? Register here for a 14-day free trial or book a demo to see how Buildxact can help your business grow.
