Residential construction lives and dies on speed and accuracy. Nothing derails a timeline faster than hunting for current material prices or waiting for head-office sign-off. CountBricks solves this pain with pre approved catalogs—curated, price-locked material and task libraries that plug straight into our AI estimating engine. The result is instant, defensible quotes that win projects and protect margins.
Think of a pre approved catalog as your personal construction playbook. Each catalog contains up-to-date SKUs, labor tasks, productivity rates and cost codes that have already been vetted by company leadership, accounting and suppliers. Because they are pre approved, field teams and estimators can drop items into an estimate without waiting for second opinions.
• Material line items with negotiated price ceilings
• Labor assemblies matched to regional productivity factors
• Equipment rates and minimum run times
• Default waste percentages for framing, drywall, roofing and finishes
• Cost codes aligned to your accounting platform
Our voice-driven interface lets you talk through a scope while CountBricks listens, selects catalog items and calculates totals in real time. Because the catalog is pre approved, every item fetched by the AI is already compliant with company standards. No more spreadsheet gymnastics or last-minute phone calls to procurement.
1. Start a new project in CountBricks and select the relevant pre approved catalog
2. Speak your scope—“Install 1200 sq ft of ½-inch drywall, Level-4 finish”
3. CountBricks pulls the matching assembly, applies waste and labor productivity
4. Live supplier pricing refreshes automatically
5. The estimate is totaled, flagged for margin thresholds and saved to your dashboard
6. One click generates a branded quote ready to email or e-sign
• Faster estimates: Slash takeoff time by up to 70 percent
• Risk reduction: Use pricing that management has already blessed
• Consistency: Every estimator speaks the same cost language
• Negotiation leverage: Locked pricing strengthens supplier relationships
• Seamless invoicing: Approved catalog codes flow straight to CountBricks invoices
• Set quarterly reminders in CountBricks.com/dashboard to refresh volatile commodity items like lumber and rebar
• Create specialty catalogs—for example, green-build products or luxury finishes—to upsell clients without scope creep
• Use CountBricks.com/services to map catalog cost codes to your accounting GL for friction-free exports
• Tag high-margin assemblies so AI suggests them first during voice estimation
Cedar Ridge Development needed to re-price a 4,000 sq ft remodel after lumber spikes. By switching to a CountBricks pre approved catalog with fresh mill pricing, the estimator rebuilt the entire quote in 22 minutes. Leadership reviewed only the margin summary—no line-item debate required. The client signed the same afternoon, and Cedar Ridge shaved a week off pre-construction.
Inflation, supply-chain swings and new building codes mean catalogs can’t be static. CountBricks AI flags items with price changes over 5 percent, prompting you to approve or reject updates in a single click. You stay compliant, profitable and ready for the next bid cycle.
Visit CountBricks.com/consultation to upload your current price sheet and watch our team convert it into a pre approved catalog within 48 hours. The sooner you standardize, the sooner you win more work with less stress.
Even a well-organized catalog can lose impact if it doesn’t evolve with your company. Below are deeper tactics CountBricks clients use to turn their pre approved catalogs into long-term competitive weapons.
• Create focused libraries for framing, finish carpentry, MEP and punch-out crews. Field supervisors only see items relevant to their tasks, reducing search time and errors.
• If you build across multiple counties, duplicate catalogs with location tags. CountBricks AI automatically selects the correct zone based on project address, ensuring accurate travel and labor burdens.
• Residential buyers increasingly ask about carbon footprints. Add an “eco-score” field in CountBricks catalogs so estimators can upsell low-VOC paints or FSC lumber with confidence.
• Group cost-effective alternates—such as engineered studs versus solid lumber—into a value-engineering catalog. When budgets tighten, the AI can swap assemblies while preserving specs.
1. Schedule a monthly catalog audit in CountBricks.com/dashboard
2. Filter items with price variance over 5 percent or inactive usage for 90 days
3. Meet with procurement to renegotiate or retire stale SKUs
4. Approve updated items to push live across all active projects
By institutionalizing these practices, builders report up to 4 percent improvement in gross margin year over year. Your catalog stops being a static database and turns into a dynamic profit engine.
Every residential contractor has that dusty spreadsheet of prices. CountBricks transforms it into a cloud-based, AI-ready catalog—complete with voice-driven assemblies—in two business days. Upload your file at CountBricks.com/services and let our team do the heavy lifting. The sooner your data is live, the sooner your crews quote, build and invoice with absolute confidence.
