Built for the tender deadline.
Friday at 4. The bill goes in. Then it has to mean something when we win.
You're running the take-off, comparing sub quotes, pricing prov sums, and handing the whole job off to delivery when you win. Costex, Buildsoft, RIB, EstimateOne, Excel. Each one a different file format. None of them talk to the budget register the PM will use to track the job. Deep Space gives you preconstruction and delivery on one platform, so the BOQ you priced is the budget the PM inherits.
What your day actually looks like
Tenders have deadlines. Everything else fits around them.
against scope
In bigger mid-tier builders, you specialise. You don't touch delivery. In smaller builders, you dual-hat as a PM after the tender is won. Either way, the handover from estimate to delivery is the moment your work either gets respected or gets re-keyed.
"We were on Costex. Used Buildsoft before that. Used RIB before that. Six different formats over the last decade. I just want one."
What you're dealing with
Estimating tools were built for estimators in isolation. They don't know what happens after the win. The handover to delivery is where your work usually disappears.
Three windows open. You're flipping between them. Friday's getting closer. The take-off doesn't push to the BOQ. The BOQ doesn't push to the quote comparison. Each step is a re-key.
You compare them by hand. The format differs. The exclusions differ. You're building the comparison table in Excel, line by line, hoping you caught the differences.
You priced the prov sum at forty thousand. The CA drew it down at forty-five against actuals. The difference is in your project margin. Nobody asked you why the original price was what it was.
You win the job. Then delivery rebuilds the cost plan in their own system. The BOQ you spent six weeks on is reference material. The cost codes don't match. The trades are restructured. The detail is lost.
How Deep Space helps Estimators
Take-off, BOQ, sub tendering, quote comparison, and handover to delivery on one platform. The BOQyou price is the budget the PM tracks.
Preconstruction Workspace
BOQ, take-off, and scope per trade in one register. Connected to the drawing pack on one side and the delivery budget on the other.
Project-level workspace from the drawing receipt through award- Drawing pack with version control built in
- Scope of works per trade, derived from the BOQ structure
- Cost codes and trade structure that survive the handover to delivery
- Full tender history exportable for the next bid
Project folders on shared drives, the take-off tool with no connection to the BOQ, the cost code restructure at handover.
BOQ Builder
Build from the drawing pack. Version-controlled. Connected to the cost codes the delivery team will use. The BOQ is the budget.
- Build the bill of quantities from the drawing pack, with line items linked back to drawings
- Version control on every revision, with reason and timestamp
- Cost code structure inherited from the workspace, not improvised
- Quantity take-off tools integrated, no separate file format
- Push-to-budget at award. The PM inherits your structure.
Excel BOQs, the BOQ that gets rebuilt in delivery, the version-history question with no answer.
Subcontractor Tendering
Issue ITTs with the drawings and the scope attached. Receive quotes via the portal. Compare side by side, in one view.
- Invitation to Tender (ITT) issued with drawings, specs, and scope in one click
- Subs respond via the portal, with their quote attached to the scope items
- Side-by-side quote comparison per trade, exclusions surfaced
- Award the package and push it directly to the Subcontract Register
- Subcontractor database carried across projects, with performance history
Quotes in PDF format in your inbox, comparison tables built in Excel, the question 'did this sub include the rebar?' with no clear answer.
Provisional Sums
Priced in preconstruction. Drawn down in delivery. The same prov sum, the same allowance, traceable across the lifecycle.
- Prov sum allowances priced in the BOQ with reasoning attached
- Allowances survive the handover to delivery without re-keying
- Drawdown by the CA recorded against the original allowance
- Final account variance traceable to the original pricing decision
- Learning loop: post-project prov sum performance feeds the next tender
Prov sums re-priced at delivery, the variance you find at final account, the lesson that doesn't make it to the next bid.
Push-to-Budget
Win the tender, push the BOQ to the project budget. Cost codes, trade structure, prov sums, all inherited. Delivery starts where preconstruction ended.
- One-click conversion from awarded tender to project budget
- Cost codes and trade structure inherited intact
- Sub quotes flow into the subcontract awards directly
- Prov sums carried with their original allowances
- Handover meeting becomes a review, not a rebuild
The cost plan rewritten in the delivery tool, the trade structure restructured, the six weeks of your work treated as reference.
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Used by Estimators at ANZ commercial builders.
Mid-tier commercial builders. Estimators running between four and twenty tenders a year. Tender values from half a million to a hundred million.
the PM tracks against. I'm not
losing the detail in the
handover."
Senior Estimator, ANZ commercial builder
with exclusions surfaced. I'm not building the table by hand
anymore."
Estimator, NZ commercial builder
The work survives the win. That alone changed how the delivery team thinks about preconstruction."
Principal Estimator, AU commercial builder
Tender Friday. Live Monday.
Thirty minutes, no install. We'll walk through the BOQ builder, the quote comparison, and the push-to-budget flow on a tender like yours.
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