Trades & Construction

CostForge

Job Costing & Quoting for Trade Businesses

CostForge is the all-in-one job costing and quoting platform built for trade businesses. Manage clients, track jobs, build professional quotes with staff hour calculations, and export branded PDFs — all in one place.

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500+

Trade businesses

12,000+

Quotes generated

99.9%

Uptime reliability

4.8★

Average user rating

What's included

Everything you need in CostForge

CostForge is the all-in-one job costing and quoting platform built for trade businesses. Manage clients, track jobs, build professional quotes…

Client management with contact profiles and job history

Job tracking per client with status management

Professional quote builder with nested line items

Staff hours & labour costing with custom hourly rates

Branded client-facing PDF export

Dashboard analytics with revenue and quote KPIs

How it works

Built for the way teams use CostForge

Quote Building

Professional quotes that win jobs

Build detailed quotes with a hierarchical line-item editor. Add top-level items and nest sub-items for materials, labour, and consumables. Each quote carries a unique reference number, issue date, expiry, payment terms, and T&Cs.

Hierarchical line items with unlimited nesting
Auto-generated quote reference numbers (e.g. CF-0042)
Issue date, expiry date, and payment terms
VAT-inclusive or VAT-exclusive totals
Per-item visibility toggle — show or hide from client view
Draft, Sent, Accepted, Declined status tracking

See all features

Labour Costing

Know exactly what labour costs before you quote

Define your staff roles — Electrician, Site Manager, Apprentice — each with their own hourly rate. Add a Staff Hours line item to any quote, select the role, enter hours, and CostForge calculates the cost instantly.

Unlimited staff roles with custom hourly rates
Live cost calculation: hours × hourly rate
Active / inactive status per role
Minimum 0.5-hour increments
Toggle staff lines on or off in the client-facing PDF

Know exactly what labour costs before you quote

PDF Export

A branded quote your clients will trust

Every quote has two views — an internal view with every line and all costs, and a client-facing view showing only the items you choose. Both export to a polished branded PDF with one click.

Branded header with your logo, company name, and tagline
Items filtered by your visibility settings
Payment terms and T&Cs printed in the client PDF
Internal PDF retains all items including hidden cost lines
Download directly from the quote builder

Analytics

Know where your business stands at a glance

The CostForge dashboard surfaces your most important numbers the moment you log in. KPI cards, status breakdowns, revenue charts, and recent quote activity — all updating in real time.

KPI cards: Total Clients, Active Jobs, Open Quotes, Accepted Quotes
Jobs by status: Active / On-Hold / Completed
Quotes by status: Draft / Sent / Accepted / Declined
Revenue chart by period
Per-client analytics on the client detail page

Know where your business stands at a glance

Product Tour

See CostForge in action

A clean, intuitive interface designed to make your team productive from day one.

Pricing

Simple, transparent pricing for CostForge

No hidden fees. Switch plans or cancel anytime.

Free

$ Free /mo

Perfect for sole traders getting started.

Up to 3 clients
Up to 5 active jobs
Up to 10 quotes
1 team member (owner only)
Staff roles & hourly rate costing
Branded client quote view
Internal & client PDF export
Custom branding & colours
Dashboard & analytics

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Teams love using CostForge

★★★★★

"We used to spend hours on quotes and still questioned whether our margins were right. CostForge showed us where we were losing money on every single job. Paid for itself in the first week."

Mark Hewitt

Electrical Contractor • Hewitt Electrical Services

★★★★★

"The PDF quotes look completely professional — clients actually comment on them. And because I can hide my cost breakdown, they only see what I want them to see."

Sarah Donnelly

Director • SD Interiors & Fit-Out

★★★★★

"I run a team of seven and before CostForge I was managing everything in spreadsheets. Now I can see every active job, every open quote, and my revenue at a glance. It's changed how I run the business."

Dan Farrell

Managing Director • Farrell Building & Renovation

FAQ

Common questions about CostForge

Can't find what you're looking for? Our support team is here to help.

Is there really a free plan?

Yes. The free plan has no time limit and no credit card requirement. You get up to 3 clients, 5 active jobs, and 10 quotes — enough to run a small sole-trader operation at no cost. Upgrade only when you need more capacity.

What's the difference between Pro and Enterprise?

Pro supports up to 10 clients, 30 active jobs, and 5 team members with priority support. Enterprise removes all limits — unlimited clients, jobs, quotes, and team members — and adds a dedicated account manager and SLA support.

Can I upgrade or downgrade my plan at any time?

Yes. You can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel your subscription at any time from your Account settings. Plan changes take effect at the start of the next billing cycle.

Do you store my clients' information securely?

All data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest. CostForge does not share your client data with third parties. You own your data and can export or delete it at any time.

Can I customise the PDF quotes with my company branding?

Yes. Upload your logo, set your brand colours, configure your quote prefix (e.g. "CF-", "ELEC-"), tax label (VAT, GST), currency symbol, and default payment terms. Every client-facing PDF reflects your business — not a generic template.

How does staff hours costing work?

Go to Settings → Staff Roles and define your roles with custom hourly rates. When building a quote, add a Staff Hours line item, select the role, enter the number of hours, and CostForge multiplies hours × rate automatically. You control whether the rate is visible on the client PDF.

Does CostForge handle VAT / tax?

Yes. Configure your tax label (VAT, GST, or custom) and rate in Settings → Branding. Quotes can be displayed as VAT-inclusive or VAT-exclusive according to your preference.

What payment methods do you accept?

All major credit and debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Amex) are accepted. Payments are processed securely via Stripe. Enterprise customers may request invoice billing.

Ready to get started with CostForge?

Job Costing & Quoting for Trade Businesses

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