Hire vs buy · USD · North America
Avoid the hire. Keep most of the savings.
Every plan shows loaded headcount first, then the desk, then what you keep. Full USD ladders for Specialty trade, Residential GC, Commercial GC, Public-work GC, and Developer. Land Takeoff first; Full office hire framing opens after live proof. Prefer annual (two months free). Fourteen-day trial.
Unlocks Estimator
Takeoff
Premium Estimator desk — quantities you can stand behind.
Instead of hiring: Estimator and precon
Hire avoided
~$6,000 /mo loaded
This desk
$14,900 USD/yr
≈ $1,242/mo effective · 2 months free
You keep
~$4,758 /mo
Premium desk. Defended quantities you approve before they issue.
- ✓Unlocks recurring Estimator role
- ✓Full division takeoff or a single-trade pack
- ✓Reads drawing schedules and supplier quotes for you
- ✓Measures walls, rooms and doors from CAD-exported PDFs
- ✓Your review before you issue a bill of quantities
- ✓Neat vs order quantities · evidence on every line
- ✓Your jobs stay saved when you sign in
- ✓USD · North America · 14-day trial
Unlocks PM
Project desk
Add the Project desk — run the office load without hiring another project manager.
Instead of hiring: Project manager (office)
Hire avoided
~$13,500 /mo loaded
This desk
$27,900 USD/yr
≈ $2,325/mo effective · 2 months free
You keep
~$11,175 /mo
Premium desk. A fraction of a project manager hire — you keep most of the savings.
- ✓Everything in Takeoff (Estimator)
- ✓Unlocks recurring PM role
- ✓Segment-true duties, RFIs, POs, submittals
- ✓Critical path, float and delay-notice tracking
- ✓Contract review: risk clauses and notice clocks, cited
- ✓Portfolio day plan for lean operators
- ✓Up to 3 people
Unlocks Project Coordinator
Commercial
Add a premium Project Coordinator — buyout and chase that reaches people.
Instead of hiring: Project coordinator and buyout chase
Hire avoided
~$19,000 /mo loaded
This desk
$37,900 USD/yr
≈ $3,158/mo effective · 2 months free
You keep
~$15,842 /mo
Premium desk. A fraction of a coordinator hire — you keep most of the savings.
- ✓Everything in Project desk (Estimator + PM)
- ✓Unlocks recurring Project Coordinator role
- ✓Award trade packages or level supplier quotes
- ✓Chase follow-ups that reach people — you approve before send
- ✓Submittal register built from the project specifications
- ✓Upload links so subs and suppliers send documents in
- ✓Email and minutes become actions, RFIs and change events
- ✓Up to 5 people
Unlocks Admin / AP
Full office
Add a premium Admin desk — progress draw through books export.
Hire-replacement framing held until the desk clears live proof.
$47,900 USD/yr
≈ $3,992/mo effective · 2 months free
Full office hire framing opens after we confirm delivery on a live office across all five Who-we-are postures — Specialty trade, Residential GC, Commercial GC, Public-work GC, and Developer.
- ✓Everything in Commercial
- ✓Unlocks recurring Admin / AP role
- ✓SOV / draws, holdback, invoice matched to purchase orders
- ✓Job cost and WIP: forecast, over/under billing, margin fade
- ✓Export for your books
- ✓Up to 10 people · priority support
Unlocks Firm ops
Firm
Several construction offices, one standard.
Instead of hiring: Multi-office standardization
Custom
Standardize Estimator, PM, Coordinator, and Admin desks across offices.
- ✓Everything in Full office
- ✓Unlimited seats · company sign-in when you need it
- ✓Your unit costs and assemblies
- ✓Guided setup with our team
Higher tiers include every role below. Ladders are published; Full office hire framing unlocks after live proof. Pick your segment on Who we are. Stay because the desk becomes what must clear today — time and money, not lock-in tricks.
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The buying logic
Each tier is one seat you don’t fill
The ladder is not a feature ladder. Each step opens the desk for one office role, in the order a growing contractor actually feels the pain. Loaded cost below is an indicative North American figure — wages, burden, software, desk and management time.
| Office role | Loaded / mo | What that person does today | What the desk does instead | Opens at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Estimator / precon | ~$6,000 | Measures off drawings, builds the quantity sheet, levels quotes, assembles the bid. | Measures from the PDF's vector linework, reads door and finish schedules, levels supplier quotes and feeds your own rate library. You approve before anything is issued. | Takeoff |
| Project manager (office slice) | ~$7,500 | Holds the programme, reads the contract, watches notice clocks, keeps the cost report honest. | Runs the critical path with real float, flags clauses against CCDC and AIA norms, starts the notice clock when the triggering event is read, and keeps budget-to-forecast current. | Project desk |
| Project coordinator | ~$5,500 | Builds the submittal register, chases subs and suppliers, turns email and minutes into actions. | Builds the register from the specs, drafts RFIs from email with the line they came from, and gives every sub a one-link upload page that needs no account. | Commercial |
| Administrator / AP | ~$5,000 | Prepares progress draws, tracks holdback, matches invoices to POs, prepares WIP for the bank. | Builds the draw from your own estimate, tracks holdback, matches invoices against commitments, and produces the WIP schedule your surety expects. | Full office |
| Four seats, loaded | ~$24,000 | About $288,000 a year before a single job is won. The Full office desk sits well under one of those seats. | ||
If a year is too big a first step
Run one live job through it before you commit
Bring a job you are bidding or building now. We set it up with your drawings, your specs and your cost codes, and you compare what comes out against what your office produced by hand. If the quantities don’t stand up to your own check, there is nothing to discuss and you owe nothing further.
Fair questions
The four things people ask before signing
- Why isn't this priced like project-management software?
- Because it isn't replacing software. Project-management tools are priced per seat because they help the people you already employ do their work. This is priced against the salary, because the work it does is the work that person was doing. If you would still make the hire after running it, the price is wrong and you should not renew.
- What if it gets a number wrong?
- Then the trail tells you where. Every derived figure opens to the input, the version and the person who approved it. Nothing is issued, ordered or billed without a person approving it first, so a wrong number is caught at an approval rather than in a pay application.
- What happens to my work if we stop?
- It leaves with you. Quantities, estimates, schedules, cost reports and pay applications all export in the formats your accounting system and your bank already read. There is no export fee and no notice period on the export.
- We already have people in these seats.
- Then the question is capacity, not replacement. The same desk lets the estimator you have bid three jobs in the week they used to bid one. Price it against the bid you are currently turning down.