The Estimate Review Audit
The Estimate Review is a $12,000 fixed-price written analysis of your estimating process: scope-gap exposure and repeated error patterns, read across three of your recent bids. A PDF within 5 business days; pays for itself on a single $7K scope miss.
$12,000 one-time · 5 business days
An estimator on a public construction thread missed a $7K mobilization cost on an $850K bid because the close was rushed and the review was manual. One miss is over half this audit fee.
Where bids leak margin
Most estimating errors are not math errors. They are scope gaps, items that were implicitly in-scope in the field but never made it into the number. By the time the gap surfaces, the contract is signed and the cost is yours.
The pattern repeats across project types and firm sizes. An operator running lean rarely has time to review three bids side by side and notice which categories they consistently undercount. The errors compound across projects without a name.
What this can recover
A junior estimator on a public construction thread described missing a $7K mobilization cost on an $850K bid because the close was rushed and the review was manual. One miss is over half this audit fee.
At the operational level, contractors widely report that a 1% lift in bid accuracy moves $50,000 on a $5M shop and $250,000 on a $25M shop. The audit names the scope categories your bids consistently undercount: the patterns that compound across every bid you submit until they get a name.
What you send
Three recent bids, varied in scope if possible. A short description of how you build estimates, your process, the software you use, how you handle allowances and exclusions. No dollar amounts attached to client names are required; bid descriptions and line structures are sufficient.
What you get back
A written PDF analysis identifying scope-gap exposure patterns across the three samples, recurring error categories specific to how you estimate, and process recommendations for closing the gaps. Delivered within 5 business days of intake.
Who this is for
Solo GCs, small firms, and specialty subs running lean estimating, typically without a dedicated estimator reviewing the work. Most useful if you have noticed margin eroding on jobs that should have been profitable, or if you are scaling bid volume and want a second set of eyes on the process before the errors scale with it.
Credited toward a Build
If you act on what this audit finds, the full fee is credited toward a Datumel Build, where we install the fix (automations, a tuned assistant, or a configured workbook) directly into your own tools. The audit is the map; the Build is the work.
$12,000 one-time
Pays for itself on a single $7K scope miss.
This audit is currently under construction and we are gauging demand. Join the waitlist to be first to know when it becomes bookable.
Builds: we install the fix in your own tools
An audit names where margin leaks; a Build installs the fix and the partnership keeps it running. Any audit fee you've paid credits toward a Build.
Change-Order System Install
From $8,000A working change-order system in your own tools: a documentation workflow, memo templates, and a tuned assistant that turns field directives into billable change orders.
Anchored to the T&M leakage it recovers.
Job-Costing Workbook Install
From $6,000A configured job-costing workbook in your own Sheets or Airtable: cost codes, estimate-versus-actual, WIP, and over/under billing, with training to run it.
One job caught going over usually covers the build.
Estimating & Scope-Gap System
From $8,000An estimating and buyout system in your own tools: a scope-gap check, a bid-leveling workbook, and tuned assistants that catch missed scope before it costs you.
A single caught scope gap usually covers the build.
Operations Partner
From $2,000/moAn ongoing retainer that rolls your systems out and keeps them running: monthly tuning of your automations, assistants, and workbooks, with a working call when you need one.
The systems only pay off if they keep running.