The Basics

At the top of the page, you'll always see a running summary of your Extended Cost, Extended Price, Gross Profit, and Gross Margin. These update automatically as you work, so you can keep an eye on your numbers without doing any manual math.

Importing Pricing (the Fast Way)

If you already have a vendor quote or manufacturer bid in PDF form, you can skip manual entry entirely. Drop the PDF into the import panel at the top of the page. You can also press the import panel to browse your computer for the right files. You can import up to 10 PDFs at a time (25 MB each).

Once you’re ready, press the Add items to estimate button and Riffle will read the pricing and start building your estimate from it. This works for distributor quotes, manufacturer bids, and takeoff sheets — anything that has items and prices in a structured format.

Organizing Your Estimate with Sections

Your estimate is organized into sections — think of them like tabs or categories on a spreadsheet. Each section gets its own list of line items and its own subtotal.

You can:

Rename a section to match the scope it covers (e.g., a vendor name, trade scope, or area of the building)
Add a new section by pressing the Add another section button below the last section
Delete a section you no longer need

Keeping sections organized makes it easier to break out costs when a GC asks for a detailed scope breakdown.

Working with Line Items

Each line in your estimate captures the full picture of a single item's cost and price.

For each line item, you can enter:

Type — whether it's material, labor, freight, a section discount, or a section escalation.
Vendor & Part/Model — where it's coming from and the specific product
Description — what it is in plain language
Quantity & Unit — how many and in what unit (each, linear foot, lump sum, etc.)
Unit Cost — what you're paying for it
Escalation % — a buffer if you expect costs to increase before the job starts
Margin % — your markup, which Riffle uses to calculate the sell price automatically
Labor & Freight — per unit add-on costs specific to that line item
Taxable — toggle on or off depending on whether the item is taxable in your jurisdiction

To add a line, click Add line item within any section.

You can use keyboard shortcuts to move quickly: Tab to jump between fields, Enter to apply a change, and Ctrl+I to add a new line without lifting your hands off the keyboard.

To update multiple line items at once, press the checkboxes for each line item on the left and press Apply bulk actions. From there you can update the margins, preview details about only those selected values, duplicate the line items, export the line items to a .csv, move the line items to another section, or delete the line items.

Note: Your company may not use escalations, labor, or freight per unit. These can be removed from the estimate builder using the global estimate preferences set by the owner or administrator. If you do not see these options in your estimate builder, they have already been removed by your owner or administrator. To add these back, press the “Column Options” button at the top right of the first section.

Updating Costs

You can edit any line item at any time — just click into the field you want to change and update it. Your estimate saves automatically as you work, so there's no need to hit a save button.

If a vendor sends you a revised quote, you can update costs line by line or re-import the updated PDF to reflect the new pricing.

Note: Importing a revised quote will create a net-new section in the estimate builder. You can remove the previous section by clicking on the “Trash” icon in the top right of the section.

Taxes and Final Totals

At the bottom of the page, you'll find the Tax Calculations & Final Totals section. Select the applicable tax rate and Riffle will calculate taxes on all taxable line items and show you a full grand total — material, labor, freight, taxes, discounts, section escalations and all.

Compiling Your Estimate

When your estimate is ready to go out, click Compile & Create Estimate at the bottom of the page.

This locks in the current version and generates a PDF proposal you can send to the bidder. If there are multiple bidders attached to the project, Riffle will compile a separate estimate for each bidder. The bidders name will appear in the file name.

If you want to set separate discounts per bidder, press on Customize total per-bidder (#).

This will expand to show you each bidder and allow you to set separate discounts for each. For the discount type, you can choose between Lump Sum ($) or Lump Sum (%).

You can undo this by pressing Cancel bidder customization.

Every time you compile, Riffle saves it as a new version. You can go back and preview any previous version from the Estimate Version History panel, and see which proposals were generated from each one. You can also see all compiled estimates in the Documents tab for the project.

Creating a new version is as easy as pressing “start a new draft” at the top of the page.

Tips

Use sections to mirror how the GC has the job broken out — it makes your proposal easier to review and approve.
Set your margin per line item if different items carry different markups (e.g., materials vs. specialty equipment).

How to Build an Estimate in Riffle