What if our history is thin?

Then we tell you before you engage, not after. A read built on too few jobs is a guess wearing a number, and we would rather say so. In that case the honest first step is usually getting the win, loss, and margin record into one place, which is worth doing whether or not you ever score a bid with it.

For subcontractors and specialty trades

Forty invitations a week. You bid the ones you had time to read.

Q: Is this a takeoff or estimating tool?

No. Everything funded in this space fights over the takeoff, which is the work you do after you have already decided to bid. This is the decision before that: which of this week's invitations deserve your estimator's hours at all. If you say go, you still bid it however you bid it today.

Q: What history do you need?

The jobs you bid, whether you won them, and how each one actually finished against what you priced. Job type, general contractor, size, and margin are the useful columns. An export from your accounting or project system is ideal, a spreadsheet an estimator keeps is fine, and if the margin data is patchy we say what the read can and cannot see rather than pretending.

Q: Does a machine decide what we bid?

No. Every read comes with its reasons in plain language, a person reviews it before it reaches you, and you decide. The point is that a decision you make in twelve seconds gets made against your own record instead of against how the day is going.

The invitations arrive faster than anyone can open them, so the pile gets sorted by whichever general contractor called, whichever email was on top, and how the day went. That is bidding by gut, and it costs twice: you win work that eats your crew and your margin, and you never see the job that was right for you sitting three emails down.

Every funded tool in this business fights over the takeoff. Nobody helps the decision before the takeoff. We build a go or no-go read from your own history of wins, losses, and margin by job type, then score every incoming invitation against it and hand back the reasons in plain language, reviewed by a person.

Get your bid history read Book a call first

Your own history, not an industry benchmark. Exports are fine and no system access is needed.

How it works

Three steps, and only the first one is yours

You send

Your win and loss record

The jobs you bid, whether you won them, and how each one finished against what you priced. Job type, general contractor, size, and margin are the columns that carry the weight. An export from your accounting or project system is ideal, and the spreadsheet an estimator keeps in a drawer works too.

We build

A read that is yours, not the industry's

What the record shows about where you actually make money: which job types, which general contractors, which sizes, which schedules. It usually contradicts the received wisdom in a shop, because a hunch remembers the loud jobs and the record remembers all of them.

You screen

Every invitation, scored, with reasons

New invitations come in and go back out with a go or no-go read and the reasons written in plain language. A person reviews every read before it reaches you. You still decide, and if you say go, you bid it exactly the way you bid today.

This is not a takeoff tool and it does not price your work. It answers the question that comes before both: does this one deserve your estimator's hours at all.

What comes back

A verdict you can argue with, in words

Verdict

Go, no-go, or worth a phone call before anyone opens the drawings.

Why

The reasons in plain language, tied to your record. This job type has run thin for you three times running. This general contractor pays on time and scopes cleanly. This size sits under where your crew stops being efficient.

What to check

The one or two things in the invitation that would change the verdict if they turn out differently, so a quick look answers it instead of a full takeoff.

What it cannot see

Said out loud. If your history is thin on a job type or the margin data is patchy, the read says so rather than dressing a guess up as a number.

A verdict with reasons attached is one you can overrule. That is the point: you know something the record does not, and the read is there to make sure the record gets a vote too.

Honest answers

The questions an estimator actually asks

Is this a takeoff or estimating tool?

No. Takeoff is what you do after you have decided to bid, and there is no shortage of software fighting over that minute. This is the decision before it: which of this week's invitations are worth your estimator's hours. If the read says go, you bid it however you bid it today, in whatever you bid it in.

What history do you need, and what if ours is thin?

Bid jobs, won or lost, and how each finished against what you priced, with job type, general contractor, size, and margin where you have them. If the record is too thin to say anything honest, we tell you that before you engage instead of after. In that case the first useful step is getting the win, loss, and margin record into one place, which pays for itself whether or not you ever score a bid with it.

Does a machine decide what we bid?

No. Every read arrives with its reasoning in plain language, a person reviews it before it reaches you, and the decision stays yours. What changes is that a call you currently make in twelve seconds gets made against your own record rather than against how the week is going.

How is this different from a gut we have earned?

Your gut is real and it is usually right about the jobs it remembers. The trouble is which ones it remembers: the disaster, the rescue, the one the general contractor still owes you for. It does not remember the ordinary jobs that quietly made or lost money, and there are far more of those. The read is not smarter than you. It just remembers everything.

Do you see our pricing?

You choose. The read works on relative margin, so you can send indexed figures rather than actual ones if you would rather not share numbers with anyone outside the shop. We never share your history, it is never used to train anything, and it is deleted at the end of the engagement.

Do you need access to our systems?

No. We work from exports you send. No logins to your accounting or project software, no integration project, nothing installed. Invitations can be forwarded to one address and the read comes back the same way.

Start here

Tell us your trade, and we will tell you what to export

If the wider problem is the paperwork arriving faster than anyone can read it, from submittals to contracts to certificates, that is a different lane: Documents & Knowledge covers it.

Bid Triage

Rather talk it through first?

Thirty minutes, free, in plain English. Bring a rough sense of how many invitations you get and where your job records live, and we will tell you whether your history can carry a read before you export a thing.

Book the free 30-minute call

Or start even smaller: the free two-minute readiness check. No email, no sales call, just an honest readout.

hello@clariqadvisory.com