Estimating & Cost Control System

Build an estimate you can defend, line by line.

One Excel workbook takes you from scope and quantities to labour, materials, subcontract, plant, travel and risk, then shows the margin before the quote goes out.

What it fixes

• Remote and FIFO costs that never make it into the price: flights, travel time, allowances.
• Productivity guessed in your head instead of written down where a reviewer can challenge it.
• Margin you only find out about after the job's started.

See it filled in

The worked example prices a remote WA mining electrical scope for a fictional contractor: Perth–Newman flights, 185 mm² XLPE take-off, HV jointing subcontract, productivity factors and remote allowances. It lands at about A$1.35m price, A$1.05m cost and 22% margin across roughly 3,480 labour hours, and the handover budget reconciles to the estimate to the dollar.

What's in the files

• 22-sheet Excel estimating workbook, blank and ready for your job (250 rows on every cost sheet)
• The same 22 sheets fully worked as the example above
• Labour and crew rates, material take-off and supplier quote comparison
• Subcontract, plant, travel and indirects, each by cost code
• Risk, contingency and margin scenarios
• Commercial review, revision control, handover to delivery and a cost database for closed jobs
• Dashboard with model checks that flag anything not ready to issue
• Word guides: Start Here Guide, Method and Implementation Guide (with a 90-day rollout plan), Worked Example Walkthrough, and a Templates and Forms Pack of 8 editable forms
• Print-ready PDFs of every guide and both workbooks

Who it's for

Electrical, mechanical and civil contractors pricing jobs from about A$50k to A$2m+. Estimators who want a consistent method. Owners who want to review a price without rebuilding it.

Not for: rate-only jobbing work. You don't need 22 sheets to price a switchboard swap.

Format: Microsoft Excel, Word and PDF. Opens in desktop Excel.

Licence: One business. See terms.