In residential construction, material costs can swing wildly between the time you quote a project and the moment you place an order. Lumber, copper, drywall and insulation often move by the hour. Without fast data, your carefully calculated margin can disappear. CountBricks price alerts solve this problem by warning you when a material or task cost exceeds your preset threshold, then guiding you to update your estimate or automatically doing it for you. Learning how to set price alerts inside CountBricks is one of the highest-impact habits a project manager can adopt.
• Monitors real-time supplier feeds and CountBricks’ national cost database
• Compares current rates against the cost you locked into your estimate or template
• Flags any line item that breaches your chosen percentage or dollar variance
• Pushes instant desktop, mobile and voice notifications so you can respond before issuing a final proposal or purchase order
• Optionally auto-adjusts the line item cost and rolls the change through labour, overhead and profit mark-ups
1. Create or open the Estimate or Template you wish to monitor.
2. Confirm that each material line includes a supplier name and SKU so CountBricks can match live feed data.
3. Assign labour tasks with crew rates so downstream adjustments are accurate.
4. Visit CountBricks.com/services if you need onboarding help with data imports.
1. From inside your Estimate, click the Price Monitoring icon in the right-hand panel.
2. Choose Enable Alerts. A wizard opens and displays two options: percentage variance or fixed dollar variance.
3. Enter a threshold. Example: 5 % or $150. This means CountBricks will alert you if a tracked cost rises above the threshold compared with the figure stored in the Estimate.
4. Select Notification Channels: Desktop, SMS, Email or Voice (hands-free via CountBricks Voice).
5. Tick Auto-Apply Cost Change if you want the system to update the line automatically. Leave unticked if you prefer manual review.
6. Save. CountBricks begins scanning your items every 15 minutes and pushes your first status report within the hour.
• Global: Applies the same variance rule to all materials and labour in the Estimate or Template
• Line-Level: Lets you specify tighter thresholds for high-risk commodities like copper and wider ones for stable items like drywall screws
CountBricks Voice enables field supervisors to manage cost surveillance without a keyboard.
• Say “Hey CountBricks, show price alerts on the Jefferson Remodel” to hear a quick variance summary.
• Say “Update framing lumber to current best price” and the system will swap supplier pricing, re-calculate labour mark-ups and read back the new total.
• Set tighter thresholds (2-3 %) during volatile market periods or when quoting long-lead contracts.
• Pair price alerts with the Lock Quote feature so you can honour bids for a fixed window while visibility remains high.
• Use Template-based alerts for recurring scopes such as decks or basement finishes—your team never re-enters rules.
• Schedule a monthly audit via CountBricks.com/consultation to refine thresholds as your material mix evolves.
The CountBricks estimating team recently supported Cedar Ridge Homes on a 1,200 sq ft addition. They enabled a 4 % global price alert and a 1 % alert on structural lumber. Mid-bid, SPF framing rose 6 %. CountBricks flagged the change, auto-applied the new unit price and adjusted overhead and profit. The revised quote was issued within ten minutes, preserving a $3,800 margin that would have been lost under static pricing.
• Average time saved per estimate: 1.5 hours
• Average margin protected per project: 2.7 %
• Reduction in change-order disputes: 35 %
“My alert fired but the cost didn’t change.”
Check if Auto-Apply Cost Change was left unticked. You will still get notifications, but manual approval is required.
“Alerts are too sensitive.”
Edit the variance percentage or group low-impact items like consumables under a wider threshold.
“No alerts are firing.”
Confirm supplier SKUs are present and that your subscription includes live feed access. Contact CountBricks.com/support for help.
When an alert fires and you approve an update, CountBricks automatically tags the revised items in the Procurement dashboard. One click converts the items into purchase orders with the updated supplier and price. The field team sees the new cost on their mobile app, removing guesswork and ensuring site-level purchase cards stay within budget.
Ready to protect your profits? Log in to CountBricks and activate price alerts on your next residential estimate. Need assistance? Visit CountBricks.com/services or book a free workflow audit at CountBricks.com/consultation.
CountBricks price alerts work straight out of the box, but seasoned estimators can unlock even greater value by layering them with additional CountBricks features.
1. Create project milestones—Permit, Framing Start, Dry-In, Substantial Completion.
2. Tie each milestone to a price-freeze date inside CountBricks Scheduling.
3. When an alert fires after a freeze date, the system highlights the variance as a risk, prompting a client change-order conversation instead of silently eroding margin.
• CountBricks grades suppliers on price volatility, lead-time accuracy and service.
• If a price alert is triggered by a historically unstable supplier, CountBricks suggests alternative vendors ranked by stability and geographic proximity.
• Franchise and multi-lot builders often run dozens of similar plans.
• Enable a master template with global alerts; any update cascades to child estimates automatically, saving hours of repetitive edits.
1. Before issuing a bid, duplicate the estimate.
2. In Version A, keep your original pricing; in Version B, let price alerts auto-update.
3. Compare profit forecasts in the Financials dashboard. Present both to the owner, demonstrating transparency and your proactive cost management.
• Set separate alert profiles for labour and materials to reflect different volatility patterns.
• Use a tighter dollar variance on high-value one-off items like custom steel beams.
• Schedule a quarterly data cleanse to archive inactive SKUs; the smaller dataset speeds up alert processing.
CountBricks experts are available to tailor an alert strategy that fits your build style, whether you handle bespoke custom homes or churn out high-volume spec houses. Book a free 30-minute optimisation session at CountBricks.com/consultation and start locking in profits before the next price swing hits.
