Starting a budget

Construction budget without starting from a blank sheet

Have a budget in Excel? Upload it and check the items. If you are starting from scratch, pick a template or describe your project and get a first draft. Either way, you can keep adding and editing items afterwards.

You do not need to know everything that belongs in a budget. You only need to know what you are building.

Start a budget See the example
I have a budget in Excelupload and check
I want to start from a templatea ready list of work
I can only describe the project so fara first draft of items

Choose your start

Three ways to start One budget

Click the situation that fits you and see what it turns into in the budget.

Budget editor
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Empty budget

Choose your situation above. From there on, everything works the same way.

A blank sheet is the most common reason a budget never gets made

If you are building or renovating for the first time, you do not know everything that belongs in a budget. Scaffolding, waste removal, delivery of materials and inspections get forgotten. Yet a missing item overruns the budget just as much as a badly estimated price, it simply shows up later and more painfully.

You have a budget from your designer or a building firm

You do not need to retype it. Upload the Excel file as you received it, and Quotioo takes over the codes, descriptions, units of measure and quantities and prices. You check the recognised items before saving.

Then you request quotes from suppliers for the items, and during the build you record costs from invoices and receipts against them.

You are starting from scratch

A template gives you a ready list of work for the chosen type of build or part of it. Enter the dimensions and you immediately see the quantities and an indicative price.

Adjust quantities and prices to your project, remove the items you do not need and add work the template does not cover. A template is a starting point, not a fixed list.

You can only describe what you want

Write in plain language what you are building or renovating. Quotioo asks follow-up questions about the scope and dimensions and suggests budget items.

It is not a finished budget and does not pretend to be. You check the suggestion, add any missing work and adjust quantities and prices to your project.

Example sentence: “I am renovating the loft. I need new insulation, plasterboard and a roof window.” In this example it produced six items, from demolition to painting.

Frequently asked questions about starting a budget

Which files you can upload, what you get from a template or a project description, and what to check afterwards.

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Cannot find your answer?

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A budget or bill of quantities in Excel (.xlsx or .xls) that you received from your designer, cost estimator or building firm. Quotioo recognises the usual table layout from estimating software, where each item has its own row with a code, description, unit of measure, quantity and price. If it does not recognise the file layout, it tells you. You can send us a sample of such a file through the contact form.

Before saving, you see the recognised items. Compare them with the original file: check that all rows came across, that the units of measure and quantities match, and that the prices correspond to what you received. You fix any rows that do not match before the budget is saved.

Choose the closest one and delete the items you do not need. Or describe the project and Quotioo suggests items based on your description. You check them and add to them to fit your project.

Quotioo estimates the scope of work from your description, asks you a few follow-up questions and suggests items. It works out quantities from your answers. It is not a finished budget: check that the suggestion has not left out work your project needs, and that quantities and prices match your dimensions and quotes. The more specific the description, the better the suggestion. “Bathroom renovation, 6 m², new tiles and a walk-in shower” gives more than “new bathroom”.

How you start is not a fixed decision. Whichever way you begin, you end up with an ordinary budget in which you keep adding, deleting and editing items.

Read next

You have a budget What comes next

The outline of a budget is only the start. Next come quantities from the bill of quantities, prices from the price list and quotes from suppliers.

Construction budget What a budget should contain, which items get forgotten and how much contingency to add. Bill of quantities How to add quantities to the items a template or AI prepared for you. Price list of work and materials Where unit prices come from and why labour and materials are kept apart. Supplier quotes Turn your finished budget into an unpriced list of items and send it to several suppliers.

First draft of your budget

Choose how you start Then build it up as the work goes on

Once the budget is ready, you request quotes from suppliers and record costs against it during the build. The free plan includes one Excel import and two suggestions from a project description per month. Cost tracking and quote comparison are part of the paid plans.

Start a budget Free plan, no card required.

Want to see how it works first? Have a look at the examples on the home page.

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