General contractor estimating software that carries the whole job.
A GC bid is not one trade, it is the orchestration of a dozen plus the cost of running the site while they work. billWright builds the bid by unit price, carries and levels your subcontractor quotes, holds general conditions, allowances, and contingency as standing lines, and applies overhead and profit the right way. Approve it and that number becomes an invoice and a job budget you can cost against. Built by a working contractor, free through the beta.
Free for the duration of the beta. Your data is yours - export it any time, in a format that opens anywhere.
The whole job, not just the visible trades.
A GC estimate is direct costs plus leveled sub quotes plus general conditions, allowances, and contingency, then overhead and profit on the stack. The lines that sink a job are the ones a spreadsheet leaves thin.
General conditions go thin
Supervision, the dumpster, temp power, the super's windshield time, final cleanup. They belong to no single trade, so they get left out or carried light - and you pay the super out of your profit.
Markup is not margin
Add 20 percent thinking you keep 20 and you keep 16.7. On a hundred-thousand-dollar job that gap is real money you thought you had. The error repeats on every bid.
Scope gaps in sub quotes
One sub excluded the panel upgrade, another assumed the owner's fixtures. Bids that are not leveled to the same scope become a change order you eat. Every uncarried exclusion is your liability.
Ballpark a small addition, right now.
This is a shell-and-finish takeoff for a 400 sq ft single-story addition - self-performed framing and finishes, an electrical sub and a finish allowance carried as flat lines, the way a GC really carries them. Adjust the quantities and your own rates. In the app these become reusable assemblies in your price book.
billWright vs a spreadsheet, for a GC bid.
Everything that makes a bid fast, complete, and worth keeping after you win the award.
| For a GC bid | billWright | Spreadsheet / generic tool |
|---|---|---|
| Unit-price takeoff from your own assemblies | Built in - price book + calculators | Manual, and stale |
| Carry and level subcontractor quotes by scope | Built in | Notes in another tab |
| General conditions & contingency as standing lines | Always there | Easy to forget |
| Allowances for owner selections | Built in | Manual placeholder |
| Markup on cost to a real target margin | Automatic conversion | Mental math, often wrong |
| Approved bid becomes an invoice + job budget | Automatic | Re-enter everywhere |
| Cost the real job against the estimate | Built in job costing | No |
| Price | Free through the beta, honest after | Varies |
Self-perform a trade? See remodeling or concrete estimating, or compare billWright to the tools you know.
The estimate is the start, not the end.
Estimating
Price from your own numbers, carry your subs, send a branded proposal, and watch the bid close.
Crew time
The crew punches in from a phone; you approve a whole week in one pass, job-costed.
Invoicing
Bill from the approved estimate in one click, record payments, chase overdue.
Books
Expenses, income, and tax already coded - so you know the job made money.
GC estimating, answered.
What is the best estimating software for general contractors?
The best one is the one your team keeps current: fast unit-price takeoffs, a clean way to carry and level subcontractor quotes, general conditions and allowances held as standing lines, and overhead and profit applied correctly as markup on cost, not margin. The enterprise platforms target large GCs; a small GC usually wants something lighter that handles assemblies, allowances, and O and P without the five-figure contract. billWright does this in one tool and is free through its closed beta.
How is general contractor estimating software different from a spreadsheet?
A spreadsheet does not know the difference between markup and margin, will not flag a missing division, and silently breaks the day a formula gets dragged wrong. Estimating software carries your unit prices and assemblies, keeps general conditions and contingency as standing line items so you stop forgetting them, and recalculates the whole bid when one quantity changes.
How much should a general contractor mark up a job?
Most GCs run a total markup of 20 to 40 percent, built as overhead plus profit. The key is to mark up on cost to hit a target margin: a 25 percent markup yields a 20 percent margin, so if you want to keep 20 percent you cannot just add 20. billWright does the conversion for you instead of leaving it to a mental shortcut that quietly costs you money.
Can it handle subcontractor quotes and allowances?
Yes, and that is most of the value for a GC. You carry each sub number as a line, note the exclusions so you can level competing bids to the same scope, and drop in allowances for owner selections that are not final, so nothing falls through the cracks between the bid and the contract.
Bid the whole job, hold your margin.
Built by a working contractor, answering to the people who use it - not a board chasing a quarterly number. Your data stays yours.
Prefer email? hello@billwright.app