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Automated takeoff and bidding

Upload the plan set. Get a quantity takeoff and a priced bid before your competitor has printed the drawings.

Biddy measures quantities from the PDF plan set, flags drawing conflicts, and prices the bid against your own historical costs with an itemised scope letter. For drywall, electrical, mechanical, concrete, glazing and framing subcontractors.

No account. No card. No sales call.

  • Takeoff measured from the plan set
  • Priced against your own historical costs
  • An itemised scope letter with every bid

The problem

A subcontractor receives forty bid invitations a month and can only estimate six, because a takeoff from a 200-page plan set takes two days of measuring by hand.

So they bid the jobs they have time for rather than the jobs they would win, and hit rate stays low because volume is impossible.

Estimating software still requires a human to click every line.

Who it is for

  • Specialty subcontractors

    Drywall, electrical, mechanical, concrete, glazing and framing subcontractors doing 1m to 30m a year.

  • Owners and estimators

    The owner or the single estimator drowning in bid invitations they have no time to measure.

How much work goes unbid because takeoffs take too long?

Put in your bid invitations, how many you estimate, how long a takeoff takes by hand, your estimator's cost, your hit rate and contract size. See the days spent measuring and the work you never bid. Runs in your browser. No account, no card, no call.

Your estimating month

Example numbers to start. Runs in your browser. Nothing is sent.

You bid 6 of 40 invitations and spend 12 days a month measuring. Won at your hit rate, the 34 you skip would be $204,000 of work a month.
Invitations not bid a month
34
Cost of measuring by hand a month
$4,500
Unbid work at your hit rate, a month
$204,000

How the month adds up

Share of invitations you bid
15%
Days measuring takeoffs a month
12 days
Estimator cost a working day
$375
Days needed to measure every invitation
80 days
Estimators needed to measure every invitation
4.0

Take this with you

No email required. It is your result.

Biddy — unbid work calculator
· 6 of 40 bid invitations estimated a month
· 12 days a month measuring takeoffs by hand
· 34 invitations a month never bid

Run it yourself: https://biddyai.com

Method: unbid invitations = invitations - bids. Days measuring = bids x days per takeoff, and their cost uses the estimator's yearly cost spread over months and working days. The value of unbid work = unbid invitations x your hit rate x average contract value, which assumes your hit rate would hold on jobs you did not choose to bid.

Estimators who review instead of measure

Automated takeoff from the PDF drawings, so a subcontractor can bid the jobs they would win, not just the ones they have time for.

  • 01

    Scope identified

    Upload the PDF drawings and it identifies the scope for your trade.

  • 02

    Measured for you

    Linear feet, square footage, counts and assemblies are measured from the plans.

  • 03

    Specifications cross-referenced

    It cross-references the specification sections that change the price.

  • 04

    Conflicts flagged early

    Drawing conflicts and missing details that become change orders are flagged before you bid.

  • 05

    Your costs, not a book

    Bids are priced against your own historical costs rather than a generic cost book.

  • 06

    A bid ready to send

    It produces a bid with an itemised scope letter, including inclusions and exclusions.

Pricing

Priced by the number of takeoffs a month.

Starter

15 takeoffs a month.

$599
per month
  • Automated takeoff
  • Priced from your costs
  • Itemised scope letters
Get in touch

GrowthRecommended

40 takeoffs a month.

$1,290
per month
  • Everything in Starter
  • 40 takeoffs
Get in touch

Unlimited

For busy estimating teams.

$2,900
per month
  • Unlimited takeoffs
  • Historical cost database
  • Multi-estimator seats
Talk to us

Prices in USD.

How it works

Biddy, from the first step to the result.

  1. 1

    Upload the plan set

    The PDF drawings for the job.

  2. 2

    Takeoff is produced

    Scope, quantities and specification references for your trade.

  3. 3

    Review and adjust

    Check the conflicts flagged and adjust the numbers.

  4. 4

    Send the bid

    Priced from your own costs, with an itemised scope letter.

Questions people actually ask

What does Biddy measure?
Linear feet, square footage, counts and assemblies for your trade, identified from the PDF plan set.
How are bids priced?
Against your own historical costs, not a generic cost book.
What does the bid include?
An itemised scope letter with inclusions and exclusions.
Does it catch problems in the drawings?
It flags drawing conflicts and missing details that tend to become change orders, and cross-references the specification sections that change the price.
Does the estimator still have a job?
Yes. The estimator reviews and adjusts rather than measures by hand.
What does it cost?
599 dollars a month for 15 takeoffs, 1,290 dollars for 40, and 2,900 dollars a month for unlimited takeoffs with a historical cost database and multi-estimator seats.
Which trades is it for?
Specialty subcontractors including drywall, electrical, mechanical, concrete, glazing and framing.
Why should I trust the unbid work calculator?
It is arithmetic on your own figures, worked out in your browser. The value of unbid work assumes your current hit rate would hold, which it may not. It does not read drawings; the free first takeoff does that on a real plan set.

How much work goes unbid because takeoffs take too long?

Put in your bid invitations, how many you estimate, how long a takeoff takes by hand, your estimator's cost, your hit rate and contract size. See the days spent measuring and the work you never bid. Runs in your browser. No account, no card, no call.

Open the free tool

It runs in your browser. Biddy never sees your inputs.