Introducing Estimator & House Types.

If you're a carpentry, drylining or finishing subcontractor working on housebuilder developments, you'll know how pricing usually goes. The house types come in from the developer. Someone builds a spreadsheet, works out a rate per plot for each type, multiplies it up, adds a bit for prelims and profit, and sends a PDF. If you win the job, somebody else sets the whole thing up again - plot by plot, task by task - in whatever system you run the site from.

That's a lot of typing the same numbers twice. Estimator & House Types joins the whole journey up inside DuoApp, where your projects, plots and tasks already live.

What's new

House Types: your plot templates, in one library

A house type is a reusable plot - "3-bed semi, Type B", say - saved to a library your whole company shares. Each one holds a name, code, tenure (Private, Shared Ownership, Rented or Flats), bedrooms, floor area and tags, plus the task lines for 1st fix, 2nd fix and finals, priced from your price list.

• Save any plot as a house type - if you've already priced a plot perfectly on a live job, keep it.
• Duplicate as another tenure - turn the Private version into the Shared Ownership or Rented one and adjust.

Add plots from a house type - up to 500 at a time

In the plots of any draft or live project, pick a house type and a quantity. DuoApp names the plots for you from a pattern such as "Plot {n}", places them in the block and level you choose, and shows a live preview of the value you're about to add. Every plot arrives with its tasks and rates, and the project totals update straight away.

The Estimator: a what-if price for the whole development

Pick your house types and set the quantities. Split the scheme into phases and add an uplift to later ones - for inflation, for example. Override a rate for this estimate only. Add prelims, overheads, profit, contingency or a discount, each as a percentage of labour or a lump sum.

As you edit, the total, the average per plot and the price per m² update instantly, alongside charts of value by house type, tenure mix, stage and phase. Your work autosaves, with undo and redo if you change your mind.

Materials, when you need them

Estimates are labour only by default. When a client wants a supply-and-fit price, you can add materials by hand: per-plot material lines on each house type (description, quantity, unit and unit cost), and site-wide materials such as skip hire or access. A separate materials markup is folded into the material prices, so it never appears as a line on the client PDF.

Add a material and the PDF banner switches from LABOUR ONLY to LABOUR & MATERIALS automatically - and if your exclusions still say materials are excluded, DuoApp warns you. To be clear about where this sits: materials are priced on the estimate; projects continue to track labour. There's no stock control, supplier price list or purchase ordering.

Client quotes and internal models

Not every estimate is going to a client. A client quote follows the pipeline - Draft, Sent, Accepted or Declined. An internal model lets you model a scheme or a past job without any approval steps. Internal models are kept out of the pipeline and your win rate, and their PDF is watermarked INTERNAL MODEL so nobody mistakes one for a quote.

Estimate from an existing project

You can rebuild any past or current DuoApp project as an estimate. Its plots are grouped by house type (variants that were priced differently are kept apart), its blocks become phases, and you choose whether to use the rates as priced on the project or today's price list. It's ideal for a repeat scheme: the same development again, at today's rates plus 4%.

Revisions and a simple pipeline

Once an estimate is sent it's frozen, so you always have a record of what the client saw. To change it, create a new revision - v2, v3 - and compare it side by side with the last one. Each estimate moves from Draft to Sent to Accepted or Declined, and DuoApp shows your win rate across the estimates you've decided.

A professional estimate PDF

Generate a branded PDF with a clear LABOUR ONLY (or LABOUR & MATERIALS) banner, a pricing summary by house type and stage, the plot schedule, and - if you want them - the full task breakdown and charts. Add your inclusions, exclusions and assumptions, a validity date, and an acceptance block for the client to sign.

VAT wording is configurable: standard rated, construction domestic reverse charge, zero rated, or not VAT registered - with a CIS note too. (As always, check with your accountant which VAT treatment applies to each job.)

You can also export to Excel, in two versions: a client version that matches the PDF, and an internal build-up that shows labour, uplifts, adjustments, materials cost and markup.

Create a project in one click

When the client says yes, create a draft project from the estimate. DuoApp creates a block for each phase, every plot, every task and the rates you agreed. Check it over, take it live, and you're on site - with nothing re-keyed. It works from any draft, sent or accepted estimate; if it's a client quote that hasn't been accepted yet, creating the project marks it accepted. The project carries the labour - materials and adjustments stay on the estimate.

Estimate vs actual

This is where having the estimate and the project in one system pays off. DuoApp runs the project as well as the estimate, so it already holds the actuals. On any estimate linked to a project - whether you created the project from it or built the estimate from the project - an Actuals view compares your estimated labour with the project's current value, what's been claimed and any overspend, by house type and by stage. It's labour only, and it tells you exactly where a job has moved since you priced it - useful when you price the next one.

Who it's for, and how to get it

Estimator & House Types is built for the people who price the work, so it's available to admins - and it's included for every DuoApp account, switched on by default. There's nothing to order: it's in the left-hand menu next time you sign in, and an admin can switch it off under Admin → DuoApp Features. New to DuoApp? Book a demo and we'll walk you through it with one of your own schemes.

For the full tour, including illustrations of each part, see the Estimator & House Types feature page. You'll also find the release in our changelog.