Quotestimate is cost-estimating software built for fabrication shops that work to code — piping, pressure vessels, heat exchangers, and structural steel — where a flat weight-based price per pound simply doesn't hold up.
Most quoting tools price a job as material weight times a single blended rate. Quotestimate prices it the way a shop estimator actually would: operation by operation. Cutting, forming, fit-up, welding, machining, PWHT, and NDE are each their own line item, driven by real parameters — weld position, joint count, furnace vs. local heat treatment, inspection coverage percentage — instead of a guessed markup.
The software is built around the codes fabrication shops already quote against: ASME B31.3 piping, ASME Section VIII Division 1 pressure vessels, TEMA heat exchangers, AISC structural steel, and AWS welding standards. Estimate classification follows AACE 18R-97 (Class 1–5), with contingency and expected accuracy range tied to the classification selected — not applied as a flat percentage.
Shops import BOMs directly from Autodesk Inventor, AutoCAD Plant 3D, and other common CAD exports, nest and optimize material cutting, track job travelers and PO generation, and sync to QuickBooks Online. A built-in Business Intelligence dashboard compares estimate to actual cost across completed jobs and flags categories that consistently run high or low.
Quotestimate is best suited for fabrication and machine shops doing ASME/AWS-scope work — pressure equipment, piping spools, structural steel, and precision machining — rather than general contractors or simple sheet-metal shops outside that code scope.
A 30-day free trial with full feature access is available, no credit card required to install.
