Calculating rates for a Bill of Quantities is a tedious process! Fortunately, with the Internet and increased access people in South Africa have to it, it presented the opportunity to develop an online-based estimating product, allowing easy access and convenience for building industry professionals to do their rate-build ups online.

Costabill is an innovative, all online solutions platform, to assist contractors and building professionals when it comes to calculating rates for Bills of Quantities.

Costabill is exclusively online, allowing 24/7 access with a safe and secure login system. Fast, efficient access to Costabill will provide live pricing, which includes all 9 South African provinces and Namibia, to calculate the Bills of Quantities.

Costabill operates online, which means you have access 24/7.

1. Simply REGISTER yourself at the website, and login to have access to the demo features of Costabill. Alternatively purchase Costabill via credit card to have instant access, or contact Costabill upon a Bank Transfer so you can be granted access.

2. Choose your Region at the top right “Select Region” (this will open the prices for all the South African Provinces & Namibia)

3. You can now work through the Bills on the left hand side (the Costabill database, under 'trades & levels').

4. Keep clicking the items till you find the item with the suitable master bill description to add. Click on it and click the 'add item' icon at the bottom of the screen

5. The item will be added to your project on the right hand side of the screen (project view).

6. To view the formula breakdown, click on the item, and click on the 'view formula' icon to the bottom of the screen

7. To edit an item you’ve added, click on the item, and click on the 'edit formula' icon to the bottom of the screen, and click 'save changes' once complete

8. You can edit your Quantities directly as well in Costabill. In the main screen once you have added an item, click the default figure under “Qty” and ensure it is relevant to the Unit of measurement indicated for that item “UOM”. When you change the amount, the Total displayed will change at the end of the item row.

9. Projects are saved offline on your local PC, click on the 'download project' icon to download and save the file to your computer, and click the 'upload project' icon to restore your project to the live project view

10. There is a take-off sheet that can be downloaded in an excel format, click on the take-off sheet in the drop down on the left hand side, and click download. Populate the excel document and upload once complete for the automatic generating of a cost estimate. Once uploaded, you can still edit the items in your project and or add additional items from the database drop down 'trades & levels' on the left hand side.

Note: once logged in, the icons to the top of the page will be disabled until you add items to your project. This is because the 'new project' icon resets your workspace to start a new project and with no items in your project view, there will be nothing to reset. Important to always download your projects once complete to secure your data. Projects will not be stored online, with the exception of the last live project in your workspace.

You can now trial the Demo to accustom yourself with Costabill’s user-interface and features.
*Note: Specialist trades not included in current version.