Pricing work all day, writing it up all night
AI earns its place in a construction business in four jobs: quotes drafted from your site notes at your own rates, tender responses drafted from your past bids instead of skipped for lack of a spare week, site documentation that files itself instead of living in phones and gloveboxes, and subcontractor paperwork chased on a schedule rather than from memory. The tender part is Bidwell, our own live product.
Rather build it yourself? We will show you where to start, free.
What we would build
- 01Quote engine on your rates
- 02Tender machine, powered by Bidwell
- 03Site record and chaser
Where the margin goes
The site runs on skill. The office runs on whoever has least time.
Quotes written at night
The site visit happens at 2pm, the quote gets written at 10pm or at the weekend. Slow quotes lose to whoever priced first, and detail dropped under pressure comes back later as a variation argument.
Tenders skipped
Public-sector and framework work pays reliably, and most firms never bid because a proper response takes a week nobody has. The same method statements and policies, rewritten from scratch every time anyone tries.
Site records in pockets
Progress photos on three phones, delivery notes in the van, daywork sheets in a notebook, snags in someone’s head. When a dispute lands, the evidence exists. Nobody can find it.
Chasing subbies and suppliers
RAMS, insurance certificates, plant confirmations, availability. All chased by phone call, all dependent on someone remembering, and one missing document is enough to stall a start date.
What we would build
What we would build for your firm
Three systems, none of which touch how you build. They compress the office work wrapped around it, and you set every price and sign every submission.
Quote engine on your rates
Site notes or a voice note in. A priced, written quote out before the evening starts.
- Scope dictated from the van or typed as rough notes. The system drafts the quote from your price book, your standard terms and your best past quotes.
- It sounds like your firm because it is built from your paperwork, not the open internet.
- You check the numbers and send. The AI never sets a price: margins, provisional sums and your read on a difficult client stay with you.
- Variations get documented as they happen, in writing, while everyone still agrees what was said.
Tender machine, powered by Bidwell
Our own product finds the notices, matches them to your trade and drafts the response from your past bids.
- Bidwell monitors five UK procurement portals daily: Find a Tender, Contracts Finder, PCS, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI.
- Notices are matched to your trade, region and size, so you see the contracts worth your time and none of the rest.
- Responses are drafted from your past bids, method statements, policies and case studies. The model answers the question asked, from your material, and says where each passage came from.
- Its data engine holds 32,858 UK contract award records, so you can see who buys what you do before you spend a week bidding. You review and submit everything.
Site record and chaser
Documentation that files itself against the job, and paperwork chased without a phone call.
- Photos, delivery notes and daywork records filed against the right job from the messages your team already sends.
- Subcontractor documents requested, tracked and chased on a polite ladder: RAMS, insurance, certifications, signed orders.
- Expiring insurance and certifications flagged weeks ahead, before they stall a start date.
- Invoices get the same ladder on the other side of the job, so getting paid stops depending on your mood on a Friday.
Do it yourself
You could build this yourselves. Here is how to start.
The quote engine and the tender library are both things a firm can stand up itself. The discipline is the hard part, so start small.
The guides are free and they do not hold anything back. If you get partway and want it finished fast, or built properly first time, that is the other reason this page exists.
How the free route works- 01Dictate the scope after your next site visit and have AI draft the quote from your price book and a good past quote. You check every number; the AI never sets a price.
- 02Build the tender library once: method statements, policies, case studies, insurance certificates, in one folder every future bid starts from.
- 03Make one channel the site record: photos, delivery notes and daywork sheets filed against the job as they happen, not found at dispute time.
- 04List every subcontractor document with an expiry date and set reminders weeks ahead, before one stalls a start date.
- 05Run the invoice ladder on the other side of the job: day 3, day 7, day 14, so getting paid stops depending on your mood on a Friday.
Straight answers
Questions we get from this industry
- Can AI price a job?
- No, and we would not let it. Pricing is your margin, your read on the ground conditions and your gut about the client. The system drafts from your price book and your past quotes, then you check every number before anything is sent. A wrong figure in writing is a commitment, so nothing goes out without your eyes on it.
- Will evaluators spot an AI-drafted tender?
- They spot generic ones, and generic is what you get from an open-ended chatbot. Our drafts are built from your past bids, your method statements and your case studies, answering the specific question asked, with a person reviewing every section before submission. It reads like your firm because it is made from your firm.
- We run the office on WhatsApp and a spreadsheet. Too early for this?
- That is the normal starting point, not a disqualifier. We connect what exists: the WhatsApp messages, the inbox, the spreadsheet, the accounts package. The mistake is buying a heavyweight construction platform first and hoping the team adopts it. Build the automation around how the firm already works.
- Will automated chasing wind up our subcontractors?
- Less than the current system, which is a phone call from someone already annoyed. The ladder is polite, consistent and names the specific document. Good subbies prefer knowing exactly what is outstanding, and persistent non-responders get escalated to a human before it becomes a site problem.
- What does the site documentation actually get us?
- Evidence, on the day you need it. Variations, delay claims and final-account disputes are won by whoever has the contemporaneous record. Filing photos, delivery notes and daywork sheets against the job as they happen costs nothing once the system exists, and it is the difference between an argument and a paid invoice.
Tell us which paperwork hurts most
Thirty minutes, no pitch deck. Bring the job that went sideways on paperwork and the tender you did not bid, and we will tell you what we would build first.
Or email dc@operosus.com and tell us what is eating your week.