There’s a moment every contractor knows all too well. The estimate is solid, you win the job, the team mobilises, and then the on‑site reality of requisitions, purchase orders, deliveries, and invoices starts to pull the numbers in different directions.
That’s where a connected workflow of Cubit Estimating for preconstruction and LiveCosts for day‑to‑day cost control keeps the original intent of the job intact and helps you ensure profitability.
Below is a practical, end‑to‑end look at how these two systems fit together on a typical project, and where the time savings and cost certainty come from.
Perform your takeoff and build an accurate estimate in Cubit Estimating
Everything starts with a clear structure. In Cubit Estimating, build the estimate with the trades and items you’ll need to deliver the project. Perform your quantity takeoff using your project plans in either 2D, 3D, or by using a BIM model if the project calls for it. Drag and drop your takeoff into your estimate and add your quantities and rates.
The structure of your estimate is the backbone of your project data that will follow through the lifecycle of your project. Using Cubit Estimating’s reporting tools, finalise your estimate and create your custom-branded report, ready to share with your team, and use in your tender.
Submit the tender. Win the job.
Tender day is when your preparation pays off. The clarity you’ve built into Cubit Estimating makes your pricing easy to explain and stronger to stand behind. When the call comes and you’re awarded the contract, the win isn’t just a number on a letterhead – it’s a handover that already makes sense to the team who will deliver it.
Instead of starting a new spreadsheet life for the project, you keep the same logic that won the job. Everyone arrives on day one with shared context: the quantities, the rates, the scope notes, and the way costs are coded. That continuity is what stops budget drift before it starts.
To help you write the perfect tender cover letter, we’ve prepared a template that you can work from. Download your copy: A Sample Tender Cover Letter.
Integrate your data with LiveCosts
Using our custom integration, your Cubit Estimating job flows into LiveCosts with minimal effort. The cost codes you curated, the line items you priced, the quantities you measured, and the budgets you set are carried into LiveCosts to create a live budget that mirrors the estimate. There’s no double entry, no re‑building the budget in a separate system, and no risk of losing the logic you worked so hard to create.
Map once, check your structure, and your LiveCosts project is ready for procurement, deliveries, and invoices. The estimate doesn’t get filed away; it becomes the spine of day‑to‑day control.
Control project costs in LiveCosts
Once the project is up and running, LiveCosts steps in to help you maintain financial control of what’s happening on site. You’ll have access to instant insights into how your actual job costs compare to your planned budget, construction-specific procurement workflows and flexible time tracking. Invoices are captured, coded, and matched automatically, then synced to your accounting platform – so finance and site are looking at the same picture, not competing versions of it.
Your cost control extends on site to your mobile, making raising Purchase Orders, logging labour, and receiving deliveries even easier.
Because commitments and invoices land against the live budget, you see budget versus actuals in real time. Variances don’t arrive bundled into a month‑end surprise; they surface while there’s still time to act. You can trace a cost to its origin, make an informed decision, redeploy budget, adjust scope, raise a variation, and keep the project moving.
Close the loop back to estimating
The last invoice isn’t the end of the story; it’s the start of the next estimate. Working with both Cubit Estimating and LiveCosts, you’ll be able to sharpen your accuracy for your next tender. Patterns emerge over time, and you’ll be able to use that information to influence how you make up your Price Lists back in Cubit Estimating. Estimators price with lived experience from site, project teams inherit a structure that reflects how they actually deliver, finance teams get cleaner data and fewer exceptions, and your next tender reads less like a guess and more like a promise you know you can keep – and still remain profitable.
From first estimate to last invoice, the workflow of Cubit Estimating and LiveCosts empowers your team to tender, build, and deliver with confidence.
If you’re curious how this would look for your jobs, we’ll show you how it can enhance your workflows and give you more opportunity to do your best, most profitable work.
Click the link below, register for a demo, and get ready to build with confidence – from first estimate to final invoice.
