Base is construction management software that runs a job from tender to handover in one system. It reads your drawing set, drafts an estimate from your own rates, turns the won job into a live project with a programme and a budget, and carries the same cost codes through to progress claims and closeout.

Can Base do a takeoff from PDF plans?

Yes — off the PDF the architect already sent. No CAD file, no BIM model and no export is required, because a PDF is what you are actually given. Every quantity carries the sheet it was measured from, so you can check it against the drawing rather than take it on trust.

Where do the estimate rates come from?

Your own rate book, built from jobs you have closed out — not a national average. Each line shows which past jobs the rate was derived from and how tight the spread is, and the band narrows as you complete more work. You can edit any rate, and nothing is repriced without showing you every line it would touch first.

Does Base integrate with Xero?

Yes. Progress claims push to Xero as invoices with the correct account codes and tax types, bills come back in against the budget line and the order they belong to, and retention goes across as its own line. Everything Base sends is ex-GST with GST stated separately.

Can the AI change my prices or my programme dates on its own?

No, and that is deliberate. The model proposes; a critical-path engine or a person decides. A programme change is validated and cascaded by a real CPM engine that will not break a contractual date, and nothing that carries money — a price, an approval, a payment — is executed from a background run.

Is my data used to train AI models?

No. Base uses third-party model providers configured under their zero-retention and no-training settings, so your projects, drawings and rates are not used to train foundation models. The detail is in the privacy statement.

Does Base work for joinery and shopfitting?

Yes — it was built on fitout and joinery work. Estimate lines become manufacturing units on the workshop floor, each carrying its own shop drawings, bill of materials, fabrication and install tasks, scheduled against the capacity your workshop actually has rather than an assumed one.

Do I have to change how I estimate to use it?

No. Base takes your section structure, your trade breakdown and your rates as the starting point, and it captures the way you already work as you go. The first estimate is where it learns them; the second is where it stops asking.

Is Base built for Australian builders?

Yes. GST, progress claims, retention, defects liability periods and practical completion are modelled as the way work is actually contracted here, and the accounting side assumes Xero. It works the same way for builders in New Zealand and the UK, where the commercial vocabulary is close to identical.

Base · AI construction management & estimating software

THE BUILDER’S OS

Tender to handover, in one loop.

Most PM tools stitch together five disconnected products. Base is one — so the estimate becomes the contract sum, the contract sum becomes the budget, and the budget is what you get claimed against. 15 moments where that matters, drawn below.

01 · Estimating & takeoff

Price it off the drawings you were sent.

The estimate is where the job is won or lost, so this is where Base does its heaviest work — reading the set, pricing it off your own history, and refusing to move a number behind your back.

01

Reads the whole set, not just the schedule

Works off the PDF the architect already sent. No CAD file, no model, no export.
Picks up joinery runs, partitions, fixtures and areas off the sheet itself.
Every quantity carries the drawing it came from, so you can check it.

02

Every rate traced back to a job you've built

Rates come from your own history, not a national average that has never seen your workshop.
Each line shows the jobs it was derived from and how tight the spread is.
The more you close out, the narrower the band gets.

03

Nothing writes until you see the blast radius

Change a rate and Base shows you every line it would touch before it touches any of them.
Sections already locked under a fixed price get flagged, not silently repriced.
You commit it, or you don't. The estimate does not move on its own.

02 · Tendering & procurement

Packages out, prices back, levelled.

The part of the job that is really an admin job. Base sends the packages, chases the quiet ones, and lines the answers up against the same sections your estimate already uses.

04

Packages out, prices back, no chasing

Send a trade package to every sub on your register in one action.
They respond in a portal or straight off the email — no login to forget.
Base follows up the quiet ones and keeps insurances current.

05

Levelled section by section

Sub prices line up against the same sections your estimate uses.
Base reads the exclusions and normalises before it ranks anyone.
Levelled prices flow back and replace your guesses in the estimate.

03 · Client quote & approval

One version, signed, on the record.

A quote that lives at a link instead of in an attachment chain, an acceptance that records how the person was verified, and a win that only has to be keyed once.

06

The client sees the version you sent

The quote lives at a link, not in an attachment chain.
Revise it and the client is looking at the current one, immediately.
Every open, every comment, every decision is logged against the project.

07

Signed, verified, on the record

The client e-signs the quote in the portal — no third-party signing tool.
Verified by email plus a one-time code, inside a timed session.
The record stores how the person was verified, and both parties get a copy.

08

One command wins the lead and awards the job

Accept on the portal, e-sign the PDF, or record it from the lead — same result.
The lead closes, the project spins up and the programme seeds itself.
You never key the same job in twice.

04 · Programme & site

Dates that hold, and a site that reports itself.

An indicative programme before the quote and a baseline locked at award. A real CPM engine decides what moves — the model only ever proposes.

09

Two passes: indicative, then baseline

An indicative programme before the quote, so prelims are priced off real duration.
A baseline locked at award — the thing progress is measured against.
The drift between them is visible instead of quietly forgotten.

10

The model proposes, the engine disposes

Ask for a change in plain words and Base drafts the move.
A real CPM engine validates it and cascades what follows.
Contractual dates hold. The AI never quietly moves practical completion.

11

Built for a phone in a pocket

QR sign-in, inductions and SWMS handled at the gate.
Roll call groups by company — who's here, who's booked and missing.
Site diary, defects and photos entered from the phone, with time and GPS attached.

05 · Joinery manufacturing

The workshop is part of the job, not a separate spreadsheet.

Estimate lines become units on the floor, scheduled against the capacity the workshop actually has, with the programme told the moment a machine slips.

12

An estimate line becomes a unit on the floor

Joinery jobs spawn straight off the estimate — one unit per line.
Each unit carries four linked programme tasks from the moment it exists.
No re-keying the schedule into a workshop spreadsheet.

13

Drawings, BOM, materials, stations, crates, installed

The whole workshop run lives in the same system as the estimate that sold it.
Scheduled against actual station capacity, not a wish.
When the workshop slips, the programme knows before the client does.

06 · Money & closeout

One cost code from the estimate line to the bank.

Committed, claimed and actual against the line that was sold — then a closeout that will not close just because someone said it was finished.

14

The estimate threads all the way to actuals

One cost code runs from the estimate line to the committed order to the invoice.
Progress claims come off a locked schedule of values, then sync to Xero.
Variance shows up while you can still do something about it.

15

Nothing closes until it's actually closed

Declaring practical completion starts the DLP clock and the checklist.
Retention releases in two parts, on the dates, without a reminder in someone’s diary.
Open defects block completion unless you record a reason to override.

THE FULL LIST

79 things it does, in one system.

One login, one set of numbers, nothing exported between products. Which of these your team gets depends on your plan.

Estimating & tendering

AI take-off from PDF plans
Chat-driven estimate walkthrough
Estimate ledger by trade section
A rate book of your own unit rates
Rates that learn from your jobs
Labour productivity rates
Assemblies — one measure, many lines
Quotes, BOQs and scope of works
Estimate revisions, saved and compared
Spreadsheet estimate import
2D floor plan to 3D fitout
Tender board with price levelling
A tender portal for your subbies

Delivery & programme

Gantt programme with critical path
AI-drafted baseline programme
Weekly plans and commitments
Baseline versus slippage tracking
Project and company task lists
Variations register, priced
Drawing register with revisions
RFIs with a close-out record
Defects and punch lists
Purchase orders out to subbies
Joinery manufacturing and cut lists
Handover and PC certificate
DLP and warranty register
Subcontractor track record

Money

Progress claims with retention
Schedule of values from the estimate
Job costs against budget
Cost to complete and forecast margin
Cashflow forecasting
Payment runs and ABA files
Receipt capture and coding
Xero two-way sync
Project profit and loss
Aged receivables and payables
Retention schedule report
GST position and BAS figure
TPAR contractor report
Cost codes and chart of accounts

AI & automation

Ask-anything project assistant
Estimating walkthrough modes
An autonomous PM agent
A library of automation packs
Quote follow-ups that chase themselves
Email reply intent detection
AI memory and learned rules
Auto-filing of uploaded documents
Search inside your documents
Shareable analysis scratchpads
Notification centre
Connect your own Claude or ChatGPT

Documents, admin & integrations

A central document library
Branded document templates
Branded email templates
E-signature portal
A client portal on every project
One contacts directory
CRM pipeline and lead drawer
Web enquiry capture links
Teams, roles and permissions
Gmail, Outlook and Google Calendar
Two-way SMS on your own number
A comms timeline per project
Drawing sheet style and title block

WHO IT IS FOR

Built for the seat you are in.

One system, four jobs. The estimator, the PM, the foreman and the owner are all looking at the same project — just never at the same screen.

Estimators

Price more work without the 2am spreadsheet

Drop the set, check the take-off, send the tender. Every job you price sharpens the rate book the next one is priced from.

Project managers

One place the job actually lives

Programme, variations, RFIs, claims and costs all hang off the same estimate lines — so the numbers agree without anyone reconciling them.

Site & foremen

Enough phone, and not one screen more

Purchase orders, inspections, defects and timesheets from the slab. No laptop, no second entry, no chasing the office for the current drawing.

Owners

See the margin move while you can still act

Committed cost, cost to complete and forecast final margin on every job — and the estimate frozen at the win, so the budget cannot quietly drift away from it.

HOW IT FLOWS

One loop. No re-keying.

Your estimate becomes a project. The project becomes a programme. The programme drives the claims. Everything stays linked.

Two rolled drawing sets on a dark bench, emerald light glowing inside the spiral

01

Drop the plan

A PDF set, a photo of a sketch, or just describe the job in chat. Base reads every page — rooms, walls, fixtures — and turns them into quantities you can check.

A ruled schedule unrolling across a dark surface with a run of emerald ticks

02

Get a priced estimate

Sections, line items, quantities and labour hours — priced from your own rate book and your own productivity rates, not a generic price list. Edit anything inline.

A worn hard hat, tape measure and pencil on a concrete slab, crossed by an emerald laser line

03

Win it, run the build

The estimate becomes the budget, the programme and the schedule of values — then freezes. Variations, defects, orders and subbies all hang off the same lines.

A bunch of keys hanging from a nail in a dark timber stud, edge-lit emerald

04

Bill, track, hand over

Progress claims with retention, costs against budget, cashflow you can forecast — then defects closed, sign-off, and the client portal they have had all along.

STRAIGHT ANSWERS

The questions you were going to ask anyway.

Including the ones with an awkward answer.

What is Base?: Base is construction management software that runs a job from tender to handover in one system. It reads your drawing set, drafts an estimate from your own rates, turns the won job into a live project with a programme and a budget, and carries the same cost codes through to progress claims and closeout.
Can Base do a takeoff from PDF plans?: Yes — off the PDF the architect already sent. No CAD file, no BIM model and no export is required, because a PDF is what you are actually given. Every quantity carries the sheet it was measured from, so you can check it against the drawing rather than take it on trust.
Where do the estimate rates come from?: Your own rate book, built from jobs you have closed out — not a national average. Each line shows which past jobs the rate was derived from and how tight the spread is, and the band narrows as you complete more work. You can edit any rate, and nothing is repriced without showing you every line it would touch first.
Does Base integrate with Xero?: Yes. Progress claims push to Xero as invoices with the correct account codes and tax types, bills come back in against the budget line and the order they belong to, and retention goes across as its own line. Everything Base sends is ex-GST with GST stated separately.
Can the AI change my prices or my programme dates on its own?: No, and that is deliberate. The model proposes; a critical-path engine or a person decides. A programme change is validated and cascaded by a real CPM engine that will not break a contractual date, and nothing that carries money — a price, an approval, a payment — is executed from a background run.
Is my data used to train AI models?: No. Base uses third-party model providers configured under their zero-retention and no-training settings, so your projects, drawings and rates are not used to train foundation models. The detail is in the privacy statement.
Does Base work for joinery and shopfitting?: Yes — it was built on fitout and joinery work. Estimate lines become manufacturing units on the workshop floor, each carrying its own shop drawings, bill of materials, fabrication and install tasks, scheduled against the capacity your workshop actually has rather than an assumed one.
Do I have to change how I estimate to use it?: No. Base takes your section structure, your trade breakdown and your rates as the starting point, and it captures the way you already work as you go. The first estimate is where it learns them; the second is where it stops asking.
Is Base built for Australian builders?: Yes. GST, progress claims, retention, defects liability periods and practical completion are modelled as the way work is actually contracted here, and the accounting side assumes Xero. It works the same way for builders in New Zealand and the UK, where the commercial vocabulary is close to identical.

More on how any of this actually works on a job, in the blog.

BASE

Management

Stop juggling
five different tools.

Spin up an account in 60 seconds. Drop in a plan PDF and watch the agent take off, price and programme it on day one — or book a demo and we'll walk you through it on a live job.

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