G-101About
Built by the person who has to use it.
I'm Zac Brewer. I've spent years doing material takeoffs every working day, on everything from single-family houses to multifamily and hotel projects.
Planbase started with a list of what I wanted from the software I used every day: fast on big plan sets, good at markup as well as takeoff, never losing work, parts and formulas I could shape myself, and a price that lets every estimator on a desk have their own seat. The list got long enough that the answer was to build it. That became DimSum Takeoff, the first Planbase product.
Planbase Estimating LLC is based in Kansas City, Missouri.
Principles
The rules the software is built on.
They're written into the plan every feature is built from.
Speed is a feature
Every release has written speed targets, measured on real plan sets. A build that gets slower doesn't ship.
Never lose work
Every edit is a recorded step that can be undone and survives a crash.
Everything can be referenced
Every value in a job has a name, so any formula or report can use it.
Tools don't rewrite old jobs
A job keeps a copy of what it was built with. A tool change is offered to the job, never forced on it, so a bid opened in two years prices exactly as it did.
Any trade
The core assumes nothing about framing. Trade knowledge is tools on top, and you can write your own.
Everything is editable
Double-click anything to open its settings. Design your own tool dialogs, labels and reports.
How it gets built.
In slices. Each one ships as a Windows installer with a written test checklist and a build report, and gets run on real plan sets before the next begins. Every feature has a written guide before it's built, and those guides become the docs site.
It's slower than shipping whatever is ready. It's also why a test build is something an estimator can actually bid with.