Makeoff reads the full plan set, flags contradictions and buried requirements, and traces every finding back to the source sheet, before the estimate goes out.
Where scope hides
Under deadline, even a strong estimating team gets one pass through two hundred sheets. The scope that sinks a job is rarely on the riser diagram. It hides in places like these.
Take a package hiding 20 scope items: buried Division 0 clauses, code requirements, gaps in vendor quotes. Each block below is one of them. Here's the same job, both ways.
Page-by-page review, by hand
~9 of 20
9 priced into the bid11 surface after award
Scope items surfaced before bid
The other 11 are still in the contract. They come back as change-order fights and free work; think of the one-line Division 0 note that puts all change orders at NECA-1 labor. One sentence like that can erase a job's margin.
With Makeoff
~17 of 20
17 on a ranked risk list at takeoff time
Scope items surfaced before bid
Ranked by dollar impact, every flag traced to the note, sheet, or spec section it came from. On top of the Accubid or ConEst you already run, under 10 minutes a job. Your estimator weeds out the non-issues and prices what's real.
How it works
Why estimating teams switch
When the GC questions a line item, the answer is a sheet reference, not a hunch. Every finding carries its source.
E-601 · LS-1 · SPEC 26 51 13The first full read happens before your estimators open the set. They spend their hours on judgment calls, not page-turning.
Review done before day oneA gap found on Tuesday is a line item or an RFI. The same gap found after award is your margin.
Before bid, not after award
Makeoff reads plans, specifications, general notes, addenda, and alternates as one body of work. When two documents disagree, on wiring method, responsibility, or quantity, the disagreement becomes a finding with both sources cited.
You decide what it means for the price. Makeoff makes sure you saw it.
Not every flag deserves the same hour. Makeoff orders open findings by estimated exposure, fixture counts, feeder lengths, trade hours, so the review starts where the money is.
Quantities come from the documents, never a guess. Where the set doesn't support a number, the finding says so.
Makeoff doesn't replace your takeoff or your estimating platform. Findings resolve into the artifacts your workflow already uses: an RFI with sources cited, a priced line item, a documented exclusion, or a findings log for the bid file.
When the bid goes out, the paper trail goes with it.
"It's a checkpoint. It's another me going through, looking at our estimates and projects and pointing out the things that can be very costly if missed."
Chief Electrical Estimator, multi-trade specialty contractor, Upper Midwest
Customer story
An electrical estimating group ran Makeoff bid review on live competitive bids for eight weeks and confirmed five catches their own review had not surfaced. The estimator who owned each project verified every one before pricing closed. Two of the five were sitting in addenda that contradicted a drawing note the team had already priced against.
Chief Electrical Estimator, multi-trade specialty contractor, Upper Midwest
Read the story
No setup · Runs on your live bid
Send us a current plan set. We'll run the review and walk your team through every finding it surfaces.
