What’s the Best Way to Create Accurate Building Quotes Without Spending Hours on Spreadsheets?
If you’re still producing building quotes in spreadsheets, you’re not alone. Plenty of UK builders started that way — and for a while, it works. But as projects get more complex, prices change more often, and customers expect faster turnarounds, spreadsheets can quickly become a bottleneck.
So, what is the best way to create accurate building quotes without losing evenings and weekends to admin? Let’s break it down.
1. The Problem With Spreadsheets for Building Quotes
Spreadsheets are flexible, but they weren’t designed specifically for construction estimating. That leads to a few common issues:
Manual data entry – every measurement, price and total has to be typed in
Easy to make mistakes – one wrong formula or overwritten cell can throw off the whole quote
Hard to keep prices up to date – especially with today’s material price volatility
No built-in structure for builds – every job has to be assembled from scratch
Time-consuming revisions – changing one element can mean reworking multiple tabs
For small, simple jobs this might be manageable. But for extensions, refurbishments or new builds, it quickly becomes inefficient — and risky.
2. What Does “Accurate” Really Mean in a Building Quote?
An accurate quote isn’t just about totalling materials. For UK residential builders, a proper estimate should include:
Materials – with current UK supplier pricing
Labour – realistic hours or days per trade
Waste and allowances – not just best-case scenarios
Subcontractor costs – with room for contingency
Overheads and profit – so the job is actually worth doing
Inflation – should the job have a start date months ahead
Miss any one of these and you risk under-pricing (or over-pricing), awkward conversations with customers, or margin disappearing halfway through the build.
Accuracy is about consistency and completeness, not just maths.
3. How EstimatorXpress Builds a Full Estimate (Not Just a Price)
EstimatorXpress is purpose-built building estimating software for UK builders. Instead of starting with a blank sheet, you build your estimate using structured, construction-specific data.
You can estimate in several ways:
From drawings using take-off measurements
From scratch – choose your project time and select the calculators
Using pre-built templates for common job types (or even create your own custom templates)
Each calculator – such as Bathroom & Cloaks or Apex Roof - already includes:
Materials
Labour
Plant (if required)
Waste factors
Typical build rates
So, rather than pricing individual bits, you’re pricing complete construction tasks — the way you actually think about your building projects.
4. Price Libraries and Assemblies: Where the Time Savings Really Happen
This is where spreadsheets really fall down.
UK Price Libraries
EstimatorXpress includes UK-specific price libraries, with:
Typical material rates
Labour allowances
Regular updates reflecting market changes
You can also:
Add your own suppliers
Adjust prices to match your buying power
Create company-specific rates
So, your estimates reflect your business, not generic averages.
Estimating Calculators (Pre-Built Build Elements)
We call assemblies – workbooks or estimating calculators. They’re groups of materials and labour combined into one item — for example:
Cavity wall construction
Pitched roof structures
Bathroom fit-outs
Groundworks packages
Instead of pricing 20 individual components, you add one workbook and the software does the rest.
That’s how builders go from hours of pricing to minutes.
5. From Estimate to Professional Quote (PDF in a Click)
Once your estimate is built, turning it into a customer-ready quote is straightforward.
You can:
Generate branded PDF quotes
Show grouped sections (foundations, structure, finishes, etc.)
Include PC Sums
Apply mark-ups automatically
This means:
No copying figures into Word
No formatting headaches
No risk of totals not matching
And when the client asks for a change? You update the estimate and automatically regenerate the quote — everything stays in sync.
6. Common Quoting Pitfalls (and How Software Helps Avoid Them)
Even experienced builders fall into these traps:
❌ Forgetting Small but Costly Items
Fixings, skips, protection, prelims — they all add up. Our estimating calculators help ensure nothing is missed. Every last nail and glue gun are included.
❌ Under-allowing for Labour
Spreadsheet labour rates often stay static. We keep EstimatorXpress updated with the latest labour rates. And you can customise them for any
❌ Out-of-Date Material Prices
The prices in your spreadsheet are never going to change unless you manually add in new prices that you’ve sourced. EstimatorXpress has thousands of building resources in its library, which are kept up-to-date via our unique Price Tracker+ service.
❌ Rushing Quotes to Win Work
Fast quoting is good — rushed estimating isn’t. The super-fast engine in the EstimatorXpress software speeds up the process without cutting corners. The automation is leading edge. Instead of days you spend hours – or even minutes some times.
❌ Poor Visibility on Profit
EstimatorXpress shows margin clearly, so you know what you’re making before you hit “send”. The reports help you protect that precious margin.
7. FAQs: Building Quotes and Estimating Software
Is estimating software only for large building firms?
Not at all. Many of our customers are sole traders or small teams who simply want to quote faster and more accurately — and get their evenings back.
Can I still customise my estimates?
Yes. You can edit prices, labour, materials and workbooks to suit how you build and how you price work.
What if I’m not very computer-confident?
EstimatorXpress is designed for builders, not accountants. Plus, HBXL provides:
UK-based support
Training sessions
1:1 onboarding if needed
You’re not left to figure it out alone.
Does it work with plans and measurements?
Yes — especially when used alongside PlansXpress, which lets you measure directly from digital drawings and feed quantities straight into your estimate.
So, What Is the Best Way to Create Accurate Quotes Faster?
For most UK residential builders, the answer is simple:
Use estimating software designed specifically for construction — not general-purpose spreadsheets.
With EstimatorXpress, you get:
Faster estimates
More consistent pricing
Better control over profit
Professional-looking quotes
Less admin, more building
And most importantly — confidence that what you’ve quoted is what the job will actually cost.
Ready to See How It Works for Your Type of Jobs?
If you’d like to see how EstimatorXpress could work for your builds, we’d be happy to show you.
Book a free 1:1 EstimatorXpress discovery call and see how quickly you could be producing accurate, professional building quotes.
(Tip: You can also book a longer – and still free – demonstration, where you can see everything from the price libraries , calculators, templates to reports and quotes.)
