OneBookPlus
Build a builder's estimate in minutes, priced from your own costs
Describe or speak the job and a sectioned estimate streams in, priced from your own recent supplier bills, with AI estimating included, not a paid add-on.
Construction estimating software for Australian residential builders. Describe or speak the job and a sectioned estimate streams in, priced from your own cost catalogue and calibrated to what you actually paid suppliers recently. Recipes, markup and margin, PC/PS allowances and wastage, then an AI reviewer catches what's missing before the estimate becomes an e-signed quote and a contract job. $99/mo, unlimited users, AI included.
Replaces Buildxact estimating, Databuild, Cubit, Excel
What's included
Everything in OneBookPlus Construction Estimating
Describe or speak the job
Type or dictate what you're building: 'single-storey extension, 48m² slab, timber frame, two bathrooms': and a sectioned estimate streams in line by line. It's a first draft you edit and approve, not a fixed quote sent to anyone.
Priced from your own costs
Every line is costed from your cost catalogue and calibrated to what you actually paid suppliers recently, using your own paid bills: not a generic national price book. Your last real Reece or Bunnings invoice is a truer number than a list price, and the estimate uses it.
Cost catalogue with CSV import
Load your materials and labour rates by CSV and keep them as your single source of cost. Import once, price every estimate from it, and update rates in one place.
Minutes
To draft a sectioned builder's estimate from a description
Your costs
Priced from what you actually paid suppliers recently, not a generic list
Markup + margin
Both, at item or section level, Buildxact is markup-only
Included
AI estimating is in the $99/mo app, not a $99–149/mo add-on
Simple setup
How OneBookPlus Construction Estimating works
Describe or speak the job
Type or dictate the scope and let the AI draft a sectioned estimate: trade by trade: into your review queue. Nothing is sent; it's yours to shape.
Price it from your own costs
Each line is costed from your catalogue and calibrated to your recent supplier bills. Swap in recipes for repeated assemblies so quantities explode into components automatically.
Tune markup, margin and allowances
Set markup or true margin at item or section level, add PC/PS allowances for undecided items, and apply wastage: until the numbers match how you actually build.
Review, then quote and contract
Run the AI reviewer to catch missing items and outliers, add anything you agree with in one tap, then send an e-signed quote and convert it into a contract job.
Construction Estimating Software for Australian Builders
The best construction estimating software australia builders can run isn't the one with the biggest price book, it's the one priced from your costs. OneBookPlus Construction Estimating lets you describe or speak the job and watch a sectioned estimate stream in, trade by trade, costed from your own catalogue and calibrated to what you actually paid suppliers recently. A generic national rate is a guess; your last real supplier bill is a fact, and this building estimating software prices from the fact. Everything the AI drafts lands in a review queue you edit and approve, it's a first draft, never a quote sent behind your back.
Residential builder estimating lives and dies on the details tools get wrong. OneBookPlus does markup and true margin, toggle either at item or section level, where Buildxact is markup-only and builders complain about the mental arithmetic. It handles PC and PS allowances for undecided items, wastage percentages on materials, and recipes that explode a stud wall or a slab into every component from one quantity. Then an AI reviewer reads the estimate like a QS, flags missing items, pricing outliers and AU compliance gaps, and lets you add anything you agree with in a single tap.
Crucially, the AI is included, not a paid add-on. Buildxact meters its Blu AI estimate generator and reviewer as extras on top of a subscription that starts at $199/mo and reaches $599/mo, and it's tax-exclusive only. OneBookPlus bundles AI estimating, GST-inclusive pricing, e-signed quotes, progress-claim invoicing and online payment into a single $99/mo builder-suite with unlimited users and free data export. Your estimate becomes a quote the client signs, then a contract job with a schedule of values ready to claim against, one thread, no re-keying.
Estimating sits at the centre of the OneBookPlus builder suite — you can feed it measured quantities from digital plan takeoff, bill the won job as progress claims, compare the estimating engine to Buildxact, or explore OneBookPlus for builders.
How we compare
Construction Estimating vs the competition
See how OneBookPlus compares to the tools you might already be using.
| Feature | OneBookPlus | Buildxact | Databuild | Excel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI drafts the estimate from a description | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| AI estimating included, not a paid add-on | Yes |
Example walkthrough
A day with OneBookPlus Construction Estimating
A worked example, an Adelaide builder pricing a single-storey extension after the site visit
Priya walks the site for a rear extension in the morning and, sitting in the ute afterwards, dictates the scope into the app: 'single-storey extension, 42m² slab on ground, timber frame, Colorbond roof, one bathroom, repaint the adjoining rooms.' A sectioned estimate streams in, sitework, concrete, framing, roofing, wet areas, painting, line by line.
Each line is priced from her own catalogue and calibrated to her recent supplier bills, so the slab and the framing timber reflect what she actually paid last month, not a list price. She drops in a saved stud-wall recipe for the new walls, sets a 22% margin on the whole job, not a markup she'd have to reverse-engineer, and adds a $6,000 PS allowance for the bathroom fit-out the client hasn't chosen yet.
Before she sends anything, she runs the AI reviewer. It flags two things: no allowance for waterproofing to the wet area, and a downpipe count that looks light against the roof area. Both are fair. She taps to add the waterproofing line, fixes the downpipes herself, and ignores a third suggestion she knows is already covered. Fifteen minutes after leaving site she turns the estimate into a quote the owners e-sign that evening, and it converts to a contract job with a schedule of values ready to claim against.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about OneBookPlus Construction Estimating.
Is the AI estimating an extra cost?
No. AI estimate generation, the AI reviewer and the assembly assistant are all included in the $99/mo builder-suite. Buildxact charges for its Blu AI, the estimate generator is roughly +$99/mo on the entry tier and the estimate reviewer around +$149/mo, on top of a subscription that starts higher than ours.
How does the pricing stay accurate?
Estimates are priced from your own cost catalogue and calibrated to what you actually paid suppliers recently, drawn from your own paid bills. That means the number reflects your real buying, not a national list price, and you can override any line before it goes out.
Can I use margin, or only markup?
Both. You can toggle between markup and true margin at the item, section or whole-estimate level. This is a common Buildxact frustration, it's markup-only, so builders who think in margin end up doing mental arithmetic. OneBookPlus shows you the sell price that returns the margin you actually want.
Australian Owned
Built in Melbourne, AU
GST Compliant
ATO-ready from day one
Encrypted & Isolated
TLS in transit, AES-256 at rest, tenant isolation at the database layer, read the security page
Free Plan Available
No credit card needed
Works great with
Other OneBookPlus products that pair naturally with Construction Estimating.
About the author
Bishal Shrestha
Founder & CEO, OneBookPlus
Bishal spent a decade running digital projects for Australian small businesses before founding OneBookPlus. He has worked directly with small businesses across Australia, from tradies and restaurants to salons and professional services, and built OneBookPlus to replace the tool stack he watched them wrestle with.
Read the founder bioReady to try OneBookPlus Construction Estimating?
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Last reviewed and updated: by Bishal Shrestha
