Estimates

Finances5 min read

Estimates are internal cost plans on a job—sections, quantities, resources, and markup—used to sanity-check margin before you lock in a quote for the customer.

When estimates appear

Estimates are available when estimating is turned on:

• Workspace — Settings → Workspace Settings → Quotes & invoices → estimating toggle.
• Job — Job → Details → Financial defaults → inherit or override for this job only.

If you do not see Estimates under Finances, estimating is off for that workspace or job.

Build an estimate

Open the job → Finances → Estimates → New estimate.

1

Create a draft estimate

Give the estimate a clear name (e.g. “Phase 1 — groundworks”). New estimates start in draft so you can iterate without affecting customer-facing quotes.

2

Structure the work

Add sections (activities) and work items with quantities. Attach resources from the costing library or project library—materials, labour, plant, subcontract, and overheads as your breakdown requires.

3

Review roll-ups

Use roll-up and adjudication tools in the builder to check totals, markup, and margin before you share numbers internally.

4

Promote to a quote

When the scope and price are ready, create a quote from estimate (draft estimates appear in the quote creation dialog). The customer quote inherits your structured lines.

Note

Estimates are for planning and margin inside SiteHut. Customer-facing documents are quotes and invoices—estimates are not usually sent as the final offer unless you export or copy content manually.

Tips

• Keep one active draft per pricing iteration; duplicate or rename when exploring options.
• Align estimate locations or sections with how you will describe work on the quote PDF.
• After quote acceptance, track changes in Variations, not by editing the original estimate in isolation.