AI estimating and tendering software for UK construction

In detail

Tendering and estimating, in detail.

Nexley reads the tender pack — drawings, specification, preliminaries and the pricing document — measures the take-offs, and builds a bill of quantities structured to NRM2 and priced from your own labour and material rates, not a generic price book. Work that costs days of evenings, or an external QS fee on every bid, comes back to you the same day, ready for your review before anything is submitted.

• NRM2-structured bills
• Your own labour and material rates
• You review before it goes out

Losing a tender should not cost you £1,200

Here is the sum that makes tendering brutal for subcontractors: you pay for the estimate whether or not you win the job. One contractor we work with paid an external quantity surveyor £1,200+VAT to measure and price a single tender — and the bid lost. That money is gone, and the next tender costs the same again. Price five tenders a quarter that way and the losing bids alone are a serious line in your accounts. Our guide to tender cost itemises one lost bid and has a calculator for your own numbers.

The alternative most firms choose is worse: the owner prices tenders at the kitchen table after the day's work, quantities get squeezed into whatever hours are left, and jobs that deserved a bid go unpriced because there was no time to measure them. Either way, the tendering function is the bottleneck between the business you have and the bigger contracts you want.

What Nexley actually does with a tender pack

You hand over the documents you were sent — drawing PDFs, the spec, the preliminaries, the employer's pricing schedule if there is one. From there:

• Take-offs are measured from the drawings. Quantities come off the PDFs themselves, itemised so you can check any line against the drawing it came from. You can ask for a measure by voice from site if that is where you are. See take-offs and bills of quantities for how that works.
• The bill is structured to NRM2 — proper work sections, measured quantities, provisional sums flagged where the information is incomplete, in the format main contractors and their consultants expect to open.
• Pricing uses your rates, not a generic book. Your labour constants, your supplier prices, your allowances for access and attendances. Margin and risk stay your call — Nexley assembles, you decide.
• Quality responses get drafted too. On public sector and framework tenders, up to 70% of the score can sit on quality and social value rather than price. Nexley drafts those responses from your real capability and track record, for you to edit and own.

What the Estimator measures, trade by trade

The method is the same for every trade: the pack goes in, every quantity is measured from a named drawing, and the bill is priced from your rates. What gets measured is not. Here is the first line of the bill for each trade.

Each trade links to its tendering guide in Off the Tools, with worked examples, what to qualify, and where AI helps and where it doesn't. There are guides for 20 trades.

Can Nexley use my own labour and material rates?

Yes. Nexley prices every line of the bill from your own labour and material rates: your labour constants, your supplier prices and your allowances for access and attendances. It doesn't use a generic price book, and you check the finished bill before anything is submitted.

Whichever tool you use, check an AI price before it goes out. Our guide to what to check before using AI for tender pricing walks through the 8 checks.

Bid on more work without hiring an estimator

When the cost of pricing a tender falls to near zero, the maths of bidding changes. Tenders you would have declined for lack of time become worth an hour of review. JCT and NEC packages that felt too document-heavy stop being intimidating, because the document burden is exactly the part that is handled. For M&E packages, where the tender also wants RAMS and a commissioning plan, see M&E estimating software. Firms stuck at the size one owner can price can finally chase the larger contracts — without the salary, the recruitment, or the wait. Smaller jobs that need a quick price rather than a full tender go through automated construction quoting instead: a branded quote from your own price list, sent the same day.

Time is the other squeeze. In the Nexley Tender Clock, our study of 581 UK construction tenders, main contractors gave subcontractors a typical 12 days to price a package. Starting from a priced draft is what makes a window that short workable.

Nexley is one flat monthly plan with a 7-day free trial, and tendering is one of four jobs it covers — see pricing for the whole plan, or the honest comparison with hiring a quantity surveyor if that is the decision on your desk.