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Use case 06 · Pre-Sales / Tendering

Fire protection estimation and costing

A workflow that imports verified quantities, maps them to cost rates, builds up labour, handles margin and variance, and routes commercial approval — keeping the source of every rate visible so a price change can be explained rather than defended.

Get the requirements document See the flow
Runs standaloneUploads and manual entryCommercial manager signs
Workflow 06 · demo runAwaiting sign-off

EstimatorMaterial, labour, subcontract and contingency assumptions get mixed together in a spreadsheet that only one person fully understands.

  1. Import the quantitiesEstimator
    QueuedWorkingDoneSign-off
  2. Map cost ratesAutomated
    QueuedWorkingDoneSign-off
  3. Build up labourEstimator
    QueuedWorkingDoneSign-off
  4. Handle margin and varianceEstimator
    QueuedWorkingDoneSign-off
  5. Route commercial approvalApprover
    QueuedWorkingDoneSign-off
Stopped for the commercial manager to sign
  • Who uses itEstimator, commercial manager
  • Lifecycle stagePre-Sales / Tendering
  • Buyer groupTrack B · Estimating & Commercial
  • RequirementsBRD v0.1, sent as written
At a glance

What goes in, what comes out

Goes in
Verified quantities
Cost rates
Labour assumptions
Estimation & CostingFive steps · one approval gate Commercial manager signs
Comes out
Internal estimate
Rate sources
Margin assumptions
Approval trail
What it does

Estimation & Costing, step by step

Five steps, one decision point. The last step is a person, every time.

  1. 01
    Estimator

    Import the quantities

    From a verified take-off, or entered manually where there isn't one.

  2. 02
    Automated

    Map cost rates

    Each rate carrying its source, so it can be checked and re-checked.

  3. 03
    Estimator

    Build up labour

    Productivity assumptions kept explicit rather than buried in a blended rate.

  4. 04
    Estimator

    Handle margin and variance

    Allowances and contingency recorded as decisions, not as padding.

  5. 05
    Approver

    Route commercial approval

    A named approver signs the estimate, and the trail stays with it.

    Commercial approver signs?

    Yes Estimate approved and lockedNo Returned, assumption queried
  6. Output

    What lands at the end

    An internal cost estimate showing rate sources, the labour build-up, allowances, margin assumptions and a full approval trail.

Who’s involved

EstimatorCommercial manager

What you get

  • Internal estimate
  • Rate sources
  • Margin assumptions
  • Approval trail

In the wireframe

A rate change is traced from its source through the labour build-up to the margin line, with the approval trail visible.

Use case diagram

Who does what, and who signs

Automated steps prepare the evidence. People make the calls.

Swipe to see the whole diagram

Use case diagram: Estimation & Costing People: Estimator, Commercial manager. Steps: 1 Import the quantities; 2 Map cost rates; 3 Build up labour; 4 Handle margin and variance; 5 Route commercial approval. Commercial manager approves the final step. Estimation & Costing«workflow, built with DeX»«inputs»01 Import the quantities02 Map cost rates03 Build up labour04 Handle margin and variance05 Route commercial approvalEstimatorCommercial manager«approves»«documents»Verified quantities, …
Automated step Done by a person Approval gate Takes part Leads to
What changes

Why this costs you time today

Material, labour, subcontract and contingency assumptions get mixed together in a spreadsheet that only one person fully understands. When the bid price moves between revisions, explaining exactly which assumption moved takes an afternoon.

Task
Today
With this workflow
Where assumptions live
One spreadsheet, one person
Explicit, sourced and reviewable
Price moved between revisions
An afternoon of detective work
A list of changed assumptions
Sign-off
Informal
A named approver, with the trail attached
The line we do not cross

What this software will not do

Life-safety work. These limits are written into the requirements, not added as a disclaimer.

Specific to this workflow

It produces an internal estimate for review, not a final cost. Final cost estimates are explicitly outside the scope of the requirements.

It does not decide compliance

The software assembles evidence, retrieves source clauses and shows conflicts. It does not determine whether anything complies. A named engineer does.

It does not stand in for an authority

An approval recorded in the software never implies consent from an AHJ, Civil Defence, building control or a building surveyor.

Nothing leaves without a named reviewer

Every output carries who approved it. Anything unverified keeps a draft marker until someone signs it.

It does not do sealed engineering

Hydraulic network calculation, definitive sprinkler layout, sealed design, BIM geometry authoring and final cost estimates are all out of scope by design.

Your standards, not ours

NFPA, EN, BS, ISO, FM, UL, LPCB and Civil Defence appear in the requirements as examples. None is assumed to apply to your projects until you say so.

~1/10of traditional build time
~30%of traditional cost

That is a claim about how fast Colakin builds software with DeX, and it is supported by delivered projects. It is not a claim about what any of these fifteen workflows will save your business. The requirements deliberately leave that to a pilot, measured against your own baseline.

How an engagement runs

From a question to a pilot, in five steps

Nothing hidden behind a discovery call. Stop at step one and keep the document.

  1. 01

    You ask for the requirements document

    The full BRD for the workflow you care about, sent as written.

    Same day
  2. 02

    A ten-minute wireframe walkthrough

    A clickable prototype of that one workflow.

    10 minutes
  3. 03

    The Fire Fit Check

    Five questions: fit, hours lost, who approves spend, whether your documents can be shared, and timing.

    One call
  4. 04

    A scope built on your rules

    Your standards, your document formats, your approval gates.

    Within a week
  5. 05

    A pilot against your own baseline

    One workflow, your data, your engineers.

    Q1
Same buyer, same week

Also in Estimating & Commercial

Each one stands alone. Take one first, then decide whether a second earns its place.

05 · Estimating & Commercial

Quantity Take-Off & BOM

A bill of materials where every line shows its sheet and zone.

Traceable BOMSheet and zone per lineExclusions
Open the workflow
07 · Estimating & Commercial

Customer-Ready Quotations

An approved estimate becomes a branded offer, exclusions checked.

Branded quotationChecked exclusionsIssue history
Open the workflow
04 · Estimating & Commercial

Product & Equipment Selection

Certification scope as a hard filter, not a footnote.

Side-by-side comparisonCertification scopeReviewed shortlist
Open the workflow

All fifteen workflows

Questions

Estimation & Costing: questions

Can we explain a price change between revisions?
Yes. Because each rate carries its source and each allowance is recorded as a decision, the difference between two revisions is a list of changed assumptions rather than a new spreadsheet.
Does it set our rates?
No. Your rates, your productivity assumptions, your margin policy. The workflow keeps them visible and auditable; it does not have a view on what they should be.
Does it connect to our take-off?
It imports quantities from the take-off workflow if you use it, and accepts manual entry if you don't. The two are independent.
Who signs it off?
A named commercial approver. The estimate carries the approval trail wherever it goes next.
Next step

Ask for the Estimation & Costing requirements document

The business requirements document as written, including what it refuses to do. No brochure, no drip sequence.

  • The requirements document, usually the same working day
  • A ten-minute wireframe walkthrough with the people who specified it
  • No claimed percentage saving — your pilot measures it

Request the document

One working day. A person replies, not a sequence.

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