Haydn Simmons became an estimator by accident, after an injury took him off the tools. Eighteen years later his firm supports more than 500 builders a year, and he is investing heavily in AI while holding on to every member of his team.
The pitch for AI estimating software is speed. Upload a plan, get a takeoff in minutes, move on to the next job.
Haydn Simmons has looked at the options. The former builder, who founded estimating firm Price A Plan, says the tools can read an area and mark up a drawing. What they cannot yet be trusted with is the number that ends up in a contract.
“Yes, it can make interpretations on an area and it can colour in a square and it can draw a red line on something,” he told Az on The Good Builder Podcast. “But trusting it to go into a contract is a whole other thing.”
Price A Plan is investing heavily in AI. But where some businesses are using it as a reason to cut staff, Simmons is going the other way.
“I want to hold on to my team because I need more eyes,” he said. “The faster the output comes through, the more eyes I need on it.”
How did a builder end up running an estimating firm?
“I didn’t actually plan to be an estimator,” Simmons said. “I mean, seriously, who would?”
He was running a building company when he began losing his hearing and needed ear surgery. The recovery was meant to take six weeks. It took nine months. He could not climb a ladder or get back on the tools, and he had a young family to support.
A side conversation with someone from Master Builders planted the idea of using estimating software to help other builders while he recovered. That was when the light came on. “Actually, who doesn’t want that support?” he said.
Eighteen years on, Simmons says the business has grown from one client to more than 500 builders a year on projects around Australia. He has a team of 32 and puts the firm’s output at around $600 million in project value a year.
Why is estimating more than crunching numbers?
The old view of estimating, Simmons says, is sitting down to crunch the numbers for a quote. “But it’s so much more than that,” he said. “It sort of incorporates into your sales process, your client qualification process.”
In his view, pricing and estimating also decide how well a job runs once it is won, because a detailed estimate should translate into job management.
That thinking shapes how the work is staged. The first step is what the firm calls a quality budget estimate, a forecast that lets a builder test a client’s budget before committing to the time and cost of detailed pricing. Simmons says it draws on around $6 billion of classified project history and trade rates held in the firm’s own system.
What is a quality budget estimate?
A quality budget estimate, or QBE, is the term Price A Plan uses for an early forecast of a build’s likely cost, prepared before any detailed quantity estimate. Its purpose is to test whether a client’s budget matches the scope of the plans, so a builder can qualify the lead before paying for full pricing. A detailed estimate then measures quantities and prices every trade and material line.
If the client qualifies, the detailed estimate follows. Simmons says it typically takes about 10 days, then goes through four to eight rounds of revisions talked through with the builder. Subcontractor quotes are cross checked against the firm’s own quantities, and the final estimate is mapped into the builder’s job management software.
The aim is detail a builder can order from. Simmons says a purchase order should be possible on “the exact number of nails, the exact linear metres of decking board.”
Where does outsourced estimating fit in a growing business?
Most builders come to the firm at a pinch point, Simmons says. It is the point where a growing building business collides with an owner still doing every detailed estimate, and the work starts eating into the working week and the time away from it.
At a certain size an in house estimator makes sense, he says, and that role often crosses over into contract administration. “There’s a massive gap between a builder starting out and reaching that point,” he said.
Clients range from start ups turning over around $200,000 to builders turning over $50 million to $100 million. Projects have run from $50,000 carports to a $50 million home in the Whitsundays. Some builders use the service for one job a year, others for 20.
Some bring estimating in house, then return when that estimator moves on. Simmons says some clients have been with the firm for more than 15 years.
What does Simmons say about AI estimating?
“Without me even being aware of it, I’m suddenly sitting bareback on a thoroughbred horse with no saddle and no set of reins,” he said.
He and his wife, who run the business together, have asked whether AI meant the end of it. They chose to adapt, and to slow down. “We just slowed things down and just applied our business principles for what’s required to make a good business decision.”
The faster the output comes through, the more eyes I need on it.
That is why every layer of the firm’s system carries a human check. “There’s not a single thing in our system that doesn’t get approved by my team and my experience,” he said.
He is wary of builders building their own systems from scratch. When Az raised a Queensland fencer who had built his whole estimating system with an AI tool, Simmons said what he commonly hears from builders on that path is that it becomes “almost like this gambling addiction.” “I know one guy who spent 120K on tokens building a system for himself,” he said. His bigger question is who controls the system afterwards.
Az, who previously ran a building business on the Gold Coast, sees AI as a power tool that still needs someone operating it. He said cash flow and estimating were the parts of a business he would never hand over to a bot.
Where would Simmons spend a first $1,000 on marketing?
Not on ads. “I would spend it on my sales process,” he said.
His reasoning is that a lead only has value if the business can convert it. “If your sales process and your pre construction process is not refined, you can waste and burn thousands of hours on leads that don’t go anywhere,” he said.
Why does Simmons say empathy makes a good builder?
Asked what makes a good builder, Simmons did not reach for cash flow or quality. He named empathy.
“Building is about relationships and it’s about the relationships that you build with your clients and your people,” he said. “And empathy I think should guide all the relationships and all the business decisions you make.”
He tied it back to AI. A system can support hard conversations, he says, but when a builder is going through a divorce or sitting on the brink of bankruptcy, it is human connection that helps them get through it.
What does this mean for builders weighing up AI estimating?
Simmons is not arguing against AI. His point is that speed changes where the risk sits. For a builder comparing tools, the test is not how quickly a system produces a number. It is who signs off on that number, and what they know.
THE GOOD BUILDER TAKE
The pitch for AI estimating is usually time saved. Simmons frames it as a quality control problem instead: more output means more checking, not less.
That matters because an estimate is not a draft document. It becomes a contract price, a set of purchase orders and a margin. A tool that speeds up the first step without a clear human sign off simply moves the error further down the job, where it costs more to find.
Listen to the full conversation with Haydn Simmons on The Good Builder Podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.
Frequently asked questions
A quality budget estimate is the name estimating firm Price A Plan gives to an early cost forecast prepared before detailed pricing. It helps a builder test whether a client’s budget matches the plans and qualify the lead before committing time and money to a full quantity estimate.
AI tools can interpret plans, measure areas and mark up drawings quickly. Haydn Simmons, founder of Price A Plan, says that output still needs experienced human review before it is used in a contract, and his firm requires team approval at every layer of its system.
According to Simmons, most builders outsource estimating when the business is growing but is not yet big enough to justify an in house estimator, and detailed estimates are eating into the owner’s week. Some use outsourced estimating for one job a year, others for 20.
Simmons says Price A Plan typically turns around a detailed estimate in about 10 days, followed by four to eight rounds of revisions with the builder. Timing for other providers and in house estimators will vary with the size and complexity of the job.
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