Welding and fabrication estimates and invoices, from the sketch to the install.

Shop time, field time, material and finish.

Welding and fabrication software has to price a custom piece the way it actually gets made: time in the shop, time in the field, the material and the finish. Quote a railing as one number and the powder coat, the anchors and the day of install come out of your margin.

In Jobkore every line has its own unit. Fabrication and repair by the hour, railing by the linear foot, material by the piece or by the pound, anchors and hardware each. Name the material on the estimate, A36 plate, A500 tube, the stainless grade or the aluminum alloy, because the customer comparing two quotes should be comparing the same steel.

Load the Welding & Fabrication trade pack and your catalog starts with welding repair, structural welding and custom fabrication by the hour, powder coat and paint finish, railing fabrication by the linear foot, gates, a mobile call-out and a materials allowance. Set each price once, and every estimate starts from your numbers.

Get the drawing signed before you cut.

The customer's real question is whether you can build what they sketched, and whether the welds will hold. The first half is settled before any steel is cut. Verify the field measurements yourself, and put the drawing, whether it is a shop drawing or their napkin sketch with your dimensions on it, on the estimate as a photo. Up to 20 photos go on the document and 6 on a single line.

The customer signs the estimate online, drawing and all. When they want a change after the piece is cut, that is a change order on the invoice for the rework, which they sign online and the invoice total moves to include.

For structural work, such as guardrails or anything load-bearing, note the weld procedure or inspection the job requires. It is the part of the answer to "will the welds hold" that a customer can check.

Finish, anchors and install are their own lines.

Bare steel starts rusting on the drive home. The finish is its own line: removing the mill scale, primer and paint, powder coat, or hot-dip galvanizing, with the lead time if it goes out to a coater. A fabricated piece priced without its finish is a callback.

The install is more than labor. Expansion bolts, epoxy anchors, lag screws and base plates are a hardware package, not something buried in the hourly rate. Delivery, rigging a heavy piece into place, and protecting the site around it are lines too. Name the coater and the color on the estimate.

If the install means climbing, a lift or scaffolding, put the access equipment on the estimate. It is easy to forget and never free.

Hot work in the field means a fire watch.

Welding and cutting in the field carries fire risk, and OSHA's rule for welding and cutting is specific about the watch afterward: where a fire watch is required, it has to be maintained for at least a half hour after welding or cutting is finished to catch smoldering fires. Many commercial sites also require a hot work permit before you strike an arc.

That is time, and on an occupied commercial job it is often a person. Put the hot work permit and the fire watch on the estimate as lines where the site calls for them, so they are paid for instead of skipped.

Put your certifications on the estimate as well. If you hold a welding certification that the job calls for, it is a reason to choose you.

A deposit for the steel, the balance at install.

Custom work usually takes a deposit before you buy the material, and the balance at pickup or install. Put both on one invoice with a payment schedule, each row named and dated. Payments fill the rows in order and the last row is always the balance. Repair work is simpler: invoice it when the job is done.

The customer pays by card or bank transfer from the invoice link, or you record a check. Stripe charges its standard rate and Jobkore adds nothing on top. Late payments get reminders at 1, 7 and 14 days.

Steel prices move, so say how long the estimate is good for. More on raising your prices without losing customers.

Hank knows the fabrication traps.

Jobkore includes Hank AI™, an assistant that knows the trade you picked at signup. Tell him the job by typing or with a voice memo: 24 feet of steel stair railing for an exterior concrete stair, 1-1/2 inch square tube, pickets at code spacing, powder coat black, core-drilled posts with anchoring cement, customer's sketch attached. He drafts the estimate with shop time, material, finish, anchors and install, priced from your catalog first.

Turn on a review before sending and he checks it against a fabrication list: a piece priced without its finish, an install with no anchor package or access equipment, no hot work permit or fire watch on an occupied commercial job. He can add the missing line and never changes your prices in a review.

Jobkore does estimates, change orders, invoices and payments, on your phone, in English or Spanish. Related trades: fencing, decking and general contractor. See the pricing page.