EstiMate for beginners: from first walk-round to paid invoice on one job

This is the guide we send to every new user. It takes one real job from the first phone call to the final payment, and shows where each step happens. Do it once on a live job and you will not go back to Word and a calculator.

Before you start: ten minutes of setup

Add your company name, logo, address, VAT and CIS status, and your payment details. Set your default labour rates and the margin you want. That is it; everything else you can add as you go. Import old quotes if you have them, and the quote memory learns your prices from day one.

Step 1: the enquiry

A client rings about a kitchen extension. Create the job from the dashboard or straight from the phone app: client name, address, what they want. If the enquiry came from a TenderPilot planning lead, it is already there.

Step 2: the walk-round

At the house, open the job on your phone and do the walk-round: photographs room by room, voice notes as you go ("rear wall is cavity, boiler's in the garage, drains run left"), and measurements. Everything syncs to the job. Back at the desk you have the survey without typing a word.

Step 3: the scope and the take-off

Ask the AI to draft the scope from the walk-round. It writes the schedule of works in your words, element by element, for you to edit. If the client has drawings, upload them and the AI take-off measures the quantities with each one tied to the sheet it came from.

Step 4: the price

Build up the price by element: labour at your rates, materials from the price watch or your own, plant, subcontractors and prelims as a list. Add provisional sums for the unknowns and optional extras the client can tick (the bigger rooflights, the underfloor heating). The margin is applied the way you set it. Switch between domestic and commercial modes depending on how itemised the client needs it.

Step 5: send the quote

One tap produces the branded PDF and a link the client can open on their phone. They see the breakdown, the extras, the programme and the payment schedule, and they accept online. You get notified the moment they open it, and follow-ups go automatically if they do not reply.

Step 6: the contract

When they accept, generate the build contract from the quote: scope, price, dates, payment stages, variation procedure. The client signs it electronically. The deposit is invoiced and paid by card the same day.

Step 7: running the job

The site documents come from the job: construction phase plan, RAMS, COSHH, toolbox talks. Keep the site diary daily with photos; the client sees progress in their portal. When they ask for the extra window, price the variation on your phone and they approve it with a tap. Supplier invoices and receipts are photographed in and posted to the job, so job costing shows estimate against actual every week.

Step 8: getting paid

Each stage becomes an invoice when you mark the milestone reached, payable by card or bank transfer, with automatic chasing if it goes overdue. Bank statements import and match to the invoices, so you know what is paid without a spreadsheet.

Step 9: finishing

Snag the job with numbered pins on the drawings, let the client report their own, and sign off together. The handover pack assembles the certificates, warranties, photographs and 360 tour into one document. Invoice the final stage with it attached, and ask for the review.

Step 10: the accounts

Everything above has been recorded, so the accounts are already done: profit by job, VAT return figures, CIS deducted and suffered, aged debtors and the year-end summary for your accountant.

Where to find the next job

TenderPilot sits alongside EstiMate: live tenders for every trade and approved planning applications near you, with the letters and the bid tools. The enquiry it produces becomes the next job, and the loop starts again.

Create your free account and try all of this on a real job.