Win More Bids. With Less Work.

The fastest way to create contractor estimates is to use dedicated construction estimating software with preloaded catalogs and templates.

Traditional contractor estimate spreadsheets require manually entering every item, price, and formula—which can take 2-4 hours per bid. With BidHero's contractor bidding app, you simply search for materials by name or number, and the software auto-populates pricing, quantities, and totals. Most contractors create professional bids in 15 minutes instead of hours.

Key time-savers include: reusable labor groups with consistent rates, material catalogs with live pricing, automated calculations, and professional PDF generation. This allows you to respond to more opportunities and win more work without hiring additional estimators.

Accurate construction pricing requires three core elements: current material costs, consistent labor rates, and proper margin calculation. Many contractors lose money by using outdated prices or inconsistent markup.

BidHero's construction estimating software solves this with API-integrated pricing catalogs that reflect real-time material costs from major suppliers. Set your labor rates once in reusable labor groups, and apply them consistently across all bids—no more accidentally bidding $45/hr on one job and $48/hr on another for the same carpenter.

For residential construction bidding, calculate your total job cost (materials + labor + subcontractors), then apply your target margin percentage. BidHero automatically calculates margins and lets you adjust pricing to hit your profit goals. Most contractors see 8-15% better margins by eliminating pricing errors and inconsistencies.

The top construction bid mistakes that cost contractors money and jobs include:

• Using outdated material prices: Lumber, metals, and materials fluctuate constantly. Bids with 6-month-old pricing often lose money or appear too high compared to competitors.
• Inconsistent labor rates: Quoting different rates for the same position across jobs erodes margins and creates customer confusion.
• Missing line items: Forgetting to include demolition, disposal, permits, or mobilization costs can wipe out your entire profit margin.
• Poor presentation: Handwritten estimates or confusing spreadsheets lose to professional, branded proposals—even when your price is competitive.
• No clear terms: Failing to specify payment schedules, change order processes, and project timelines leads to disputes and scope creep.

Professional contractor estimating software like BidHero prevents these mistakes by providing structured templates, automated calculations, and consistent formatting—helping contractors win 15-25% more bids while protecting their margins.

A professional contractor bid should include these essential elements:

1. Branded header: Your company name, logo, contact info, and license numbers
2. Customer details: Client name, project address, and bid date
3. Scope of work: Clear description of what you will (and won't) do
4. Detailed line items: Materials, labor, subcontractors broken down by category
5. Pricing: Transparent costs with clear totals and any allowances
6. Payment terms: Deposit amount, progress payments, and final payment schedule
7. Timeline: Start date, duration, and key milestones
8. Terms & conditions: Change order process, warranty info, and legal protections
9. Signature area: Space for customer approval and date

BidHero's construction proposal software includes all these elements in a professional, customizable template. Your bids look polished and complete, building trust with customers and improving your win rate. Most contractors see 15-25% higher acceptance rates with professional presentation versus handwritten estimates or basic spreadsheets.

Organizing construction bids effectively requires a system that tracks bid status, customer information, and follow-up tasks. Most contractors struggle with scattered spreadsheets, email chains, and paper files that make it impossible to know which bids are pending, approved, or lost.

BidHero's contractor bidding app provides a central dashboard where you can:

• Track bid status: See all your bids organized by "New," "Sent," "Approved," or "Lost"
• Manage customers: Store contact info, project history, and communication notes in one place
• Search & filter: Quickly find bids by customer name, date, or project type
• Monitor your pipeline: Visualize total bid value by status to forecast revenue
• Access anywhere: View and update bids from your phone, tablet, or computer

This organization helps you follow up on pending bids at the right time, avoid duplicate work, and never lose track of opportunities. Many contractors report winning 15% more work simply by improving their bid follow-up process.

Calculating accurate profit margins is critical for residential construction bidding. Many contractors confuse markup with margin, leading to thinner profits than expected.

The difference:

• Markup: Percentage added to your costs (e.g., $10,000 cost + 30% markup = $13,000 price)
• Margin: Percentage of the final price that's profit (e.g., $13,000 price - $10,000 cost = $3,000 profit = 23% margin)

For healthy residential construction margins, most GCs and remodelers target 25-35% markup (which equals 20-26% margin). Specialty trades like roofing estimating or deck building estimating may run higher markups (35-50%) due to warranty risk and expertise.

BidHero's job costing tools automatically calculate both markup and margin, showing you exactly what profit percentage you'll earn on each job. Adjust your pricing to hit your target margins before sending the bid. This visibility helps contractors earn 8-15% better margins by catching underpriced work before it's too late.

Key tip: Track your actual costs vs. estimated costs on completed jobs to refine your estimating accuracy over time. BidHero's cost estimating tools for contractors make this easy.

The best estimating software for small contractors needs to be affordable, easy to use, and ready immediately—without weeks of setup or training. Many contractor estimating apps are designed for large commercial GCs and overwhelm small residential contractors with complexity.

BidHero is purpose-built for residential contractors, remodelers, and home improvement pros who need:

• Zero setup: Preloaded with sample catalogs, and labor groups, so you can start bidding in minutes
• Affordable pricing: $29.95/month (Founders Club pricing)—far less than complex enterprise systems
• Easy to learn: Intuitive interface designed for contractors, not software engineers
• Mobile access: Create and send bids from the job site using your phone or tablet
• Professional results: Generate branded, polished PDFs that win more work

For small contractors doing home renovation estimating, remodeling bid software, or residential construction bidding, BidHero delivers enterprise-level features at a small-business price. Try the 30-day free beta to see if it's the easiest contractor bidding software you've ever used.

No! The customer portal is included with every BidHero subscription. There are no per-customer fees, seat charges, or hidden costs. You get unlimited customer portal users at one price.

We have direct API integrations with Lowe's and Home Depot. When you search for materials, you get current pricing from their databases. Select your local store for accurate regional pricing.

Absolutely! BidHero is a mobile-first web application designed to work seamlessly on any device. Whether you're on your phone, tablet, or desktop, you get the full BidHero experience through your web browser. No app store downloads required—just log in from any device and you're ready to create bids, manage projects, and collaborate with customers on the go.

Absolutely. There are no long-term contracts. You can cancel your subscription at any time, no questions asked. Your data remains accessible for 30 days after cancellation.

The portal is optional. You can still send traditional bid PDFs if you prefer. However, we've found that over 85% of customers love the convenience of the portal once they try it. It's faster and easier for them than downloading PDFs.

Very secure. We use bank-level two-factor authentication with time-limited verification codes. All communications use HTTPS encryption. Customer tokens are encrypted and session management includes automatic timeouts.

Yes! You can create multiple bid templates with different formats. Choose between itemized presentations (showing detailed cost breakdowns) or total-only formats (just the bottom line). PDFs are automatically branded with your company logo and information. Select the right template for each customer's preferences.

With one click, BidHero generates a professional, print-ready PDF of your bid with your company branding, logo, and all bid details beautifully formatted. The entire process takes about 5 seconds. PDFs are automatically stored in secure cloud storage and can be downloaded or shared immediately.

Yes! Upload your insurance certificates, contractor licenses, business documents, and portfolio materials to your contractor profile. All your customers automatically have 24/7 access to download these documents from the "My Contractors" section in their portal. Upload once, share with everyone. No more emailing the same documents repeatedly.

Your contractor profile includes a team directory where you can list all team members with their names, titles, email addresses, and phone numbers. Customers can click to email or call team members directly from the portal. This helps customers reach the right person for their question without routing everything through you.

You create your standard terms and conditions once in your Settings. These terms are automatically included with every bid in a collapsible section. Customers must check an "I agree" box before they can accept your bid, providing legal protection and proof they reviewed your terms. This prevents disputes from customers claiming they "didn't know" about payment terms, warranties, or other conditions.

When assigning tasks to team members, you'll see their current workload automatically displayed with both a visual Gantt chart and detailed list. The 30-day timeline shows what they're already working on, helping you balance workload across your team and avoid overloading your best people. It prevents scheduling conflicts and helps distribute work fairly.

New accounts are pre-loaded with comprehensive sample data so you can explore BidHero without creating everything from scratch. You'll get 16 sample bids with realistic line items and pricing, 10 customers, 5 active projects with tasks, 4 labor groups with 34 predefined positions, sample catalogs with hundreds of items, and customer portal activity examples. This helps you understand how BidHero works in minutes instead of hours. When you're ready to start using BidHero for real work, simply click one button in Settings to remove all sample data instantly.

Preset Catalogs are your personal library of frequently used items. Instead of typing "2x4x8 pressure treated lumber" every time you need it, you create it once as a preset item and select it from your catalog when building bids. You can create presets for Materials, Labor, Equipment, Expenses, and Subcontractors. Presets store just the description—you add specific pricing and quantities when you use them in each bid. This makes bid creation 60-70% faster while ensuring consistent, professional descriptions across all your estimates.

Uploaded Catalogs let you import supplier price lists from Excel files in under 90 seconds. Simply drag and drop your Excel file (.xls or .xlsx), and BidHero automatically detects which columns contain descriptions and prices. You'll see a preview of the first 5 rows to verify everything looks correct, then click Import. You can apply a surcharge percentage (your markup) or discount percentage to the entire catalog. Set up automatic email reminders (monthly, quarterly, annually, etc.) to refresh your catalogs when supplier pricing changes. Once imported, all items are instantly searchable when building bids.

Connected Catalogs give you direct API access to Lowe's and Home Depot's pricing systems. Configure your local stores once, then when creating a bid, simply search for materials like "pressure treated 2x6" and see real-time pricing from both suppliers. Select the item, and the current price is automatically added to your bid. The price is "snapshotted" at bid creation, so your bid totals don't change even if supplier prices fluctuate. This eliminates phone calls for pricing verification, prevents you from using outdated costs, and protects your profit margins. It's perfect for commodity materials like lumber, drywall, concrete, and hardware.

Absolutely! That's where BidHero really shines. You can mix and match catalog types in the same bid based on what makes sense for each line item. For example, when building a bathroom remodel bid, you might use Connected Catalogs for fixtures from Home Depot (live pricing), Uploaded Catalogs for specialty tile from your distributor (imported price list with your markup), and Preset Catalogs for labor descriptions, permits, and disposal fees. Choose the right tool for each item—maximum flexibility, maximum speed.

Labor Groups organize your labor positions by trade—like General Construction, Finish Carpentry, or Specialty Trades. Within each group, you define specific positions (Carpenter, Electrician, Plumber, etc.) with their hourly rates. When building a bid, select your labor group, start typing a position name like "carpenter," and BidHero shows matching positions with their rates. Select one and the position, rate, hours (1), and total auto-populate instantly. No more retyping the same positions across multiple bids. No more inconsistent rates—sometimes $45/hr, sometimes $48/hr for the same carpenter. Your rates stay consistent, protecting your margins while making labor entry 60-70% faster. Sample data includes 4 labor groups with 34 realistic positions to get you started, which you can edit or customize for your business.