Keep your estimating software. Your bid becomes the budget.
Bring your estimate in by cost code and it becomes the job budget. You see estimate against actual from the first cost posted. It works on top of the QuickBooks Online you already use.
We email you when CFOS for QuickBooks opens, plus a few updates before then. Your address stays with Run On CFOS. One click unsubscribes.
30 days free, a 90-day money-back guarantee, and cancel anytime. It opens January 2027. We email you the day it opens.
From the estimate to the budget
Your estimators spend days building a number, and then the budget gets retyped into a spreadsheet or into no budget at all. By the time the job is half done, no one can say which line of the estimate is over. CFOS fixes that by taking the estimate in as the budget, line by line.
Each estimate line comes in by cost code and cost type, so labor, material, equipment, subcontract and the rest each have their own budget. When costs post from QuickBooks, CFOS compares them to that budget and updates every hour. The PM sees the estimate against actual on day one, not at the end of the job.
Importing a sheet works today
Most estimating software can export a spreadsheet, and importing that sheet into CFOS works today. You map your columns to cost code, description, cost type and amount once, and we save that map for the next job. A typical import takes a few minutes, and you review the budget before you approve it.
If your estimate uses cost codes that don't match your chart of accounts, we sort that out in writing before the first import. It's a better use of an hour than finding out on the third job that labor was coded two ways. Our job costing setup service can build the cost code list with you.
A live link to your estimating software
A live link goes through your estimating software's API, or through a file it exports to a place we can read. That depends on the tool having a documented API with API access on your plan, or an export we can read on a schedule. Your admin approves the link and we never ask for a password.
We say the link depends on the tool because some estimating software has an open API and some has none. Where there's no API, a file export does the same job with one extra step from your estimator. What moves is agreed in writing before we start.
How long it takes
Most software connects in 5 business days or less. A sheet import doesn't need any waiting at all. A live link follows the conditions below.
- The tool has a documented API and your plan includes API access.
- Your admin connects it. We never ask for a password.
- What moves where is agreed in writing before we start.
- If the tool's maker has to approve us first, the clock starts the day they approve.
- If there is no API, we set up a file import instead.
Get on the list for the day it opens
30 days free, a 90-day money-back guarantee, and cancel anytime.
We email you when CFOS for QuickBooks opens, plus a few updates before then. Your address stays with Run On CFOS. One click unsubscribes.
30 days free, a 90-day money-back guarantee, and cancel anytime. It opens January 2027. We email you the day it opens.
What people ask
Can I change the budget after the estimate comes in?
Yes, through approved changes. The original estimate stays on record, so you can compare what you bid to what you now expect. Change orders add to the contract and the budget.
What if my estimate has no cost codes?
We help you assign them before import. Cost codes are what make estimate against actual work. It's worth doing once and reusing on every job.
Does CFOS replace my estimating software?
No. Your estimators keep building bids where they do now. CFOS takes in the result and measures the job against it.
Is the bid pipeline part of this?
It can be. A bid in the CFOS pipeline becomes a job with its contract value when it's won. The estimate then imports as that job's budget.
- Keep the tools that work. Connect the rest.
- Keep your CRM. Won bids still go on the job.
- For estimators who want to see how the bid really did
- Keep your profit
- One price. Every module. Priced by your revenue.
- Use all of it, or just the part you need
QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Run On CFOS isn't affiliated with Intuit.