12 Best Commercial Plumbing Estimating Software: Create Accurate Estimates & Increase Profitability

Most commercial plumbing companies and general contractors use one of two types of software solutions to create an organized and efficient estimating process:

1. Holistic/all-in-one plumbing contractor software: Field service management platforms that offer estimating functionality along with the other tools for managing a service business, such as scheduling, dispatching, payroll, and accounting features.

2. Standalone estimating and takeoff software: Designed solely for estimating and takeoff, but lacking features for other essential plumbing business processes (and often not seamlessly connecting to the other apps plumbing companies use).

Many plumbing companies choose the first option — all-in-one contractor software —  because it reduces the number of tools they need to invest in and ensures that their estimating system is seamlessly connected to the other key areas of their business.

In this article, we’ll cover the biggest challenges in commercial plumbing estimating.

We’ll highlight 6 top all-in-one plumbing contractor software solutions—including how ServiceTitan streamlines estimating and boosts project profitability—and share 6 leading standalone plumbing estimating software options.

Table of Contents

• 3 challenges of commercial plumbing estimating

• The solution: all-in-one field service management software

6 All-in-One Commercial Plumbing Estimating Software

• ServiceTitan

• FieldEdge

• Jobber

• Procore

• Service Fusion

• Simpro

6 Best Standalone Plumbing Estimating Software Solutions

• FastPIPE: Best mechanical estimating software for piping

• GroundPlan: Best simple takeoff tool

• McCormick: Best comprehensive digital takeoff software

• PlanSwift: Great for construction estimating

• Stack: Best standalone takeoff software for multiple users

• TurboBid: Best user-friendly standalone estimating software

3 Challenges of Commercial Plumbing Estimating That Plumbing Contractor Software Can Solve

For commercial plumbers (and other contractors in the service industry like HVAC and electricians), there are three key challenges in the estimating process:

1. Job costing for profitability

2. Internal and external communication

3. Tracking and following up on unsold estimates

Challenge #1: Job Costing for Profitability

When service businesses struggle to consistently deliver accurate, profitable estimates, they’re often not factoring in all of their costs. 

Common errors include:

• Setting prices based on what competitors are doing: This results in a race to the bottom and creates a business environment in which it’s very hard to stay profitable.   

• Errors in labor rate calculations:  Plumbing contractors often underestimate labor costs by not including all the non-billable time their staff spend on activities like travel, training, and equipment maintenance as well as sick days, holidays, and vacations. This adds up to around 50% of working hours.

• Not keeping up-to-date with materials costs: Mistakes are more likely if you use a physical pricebook and/or one that relies on you checking and transferring price updates manually. This can narrow your margins and directly affect your bottom line.   

Challenge #2: Internal & External Communication 

Customer communication is especially important with commercial clients, who require highly specific documentation. 

Information is easily lost when emails, photos, and text messages are stored on the individual phones of technicians. This causes delays in providing the documentation needed to get jobs approved, and ultimately to get paid.  

Challenge #3: Tracking and Following Up on Unsold Estimates

Following up on unsold estimates is vital to driving revenue growth. Trying to track them and stay on top of the status of each estimate with Google Docs, email, and Excel spreadsheets is very difficult.

Keeping spreadsheets up-to-date is time-consuming, and error prone when customer information is marred by typos or missing information. This reduces efficiency and is detrimental to customer satisfaction too. 

The Solution: All-in-One Field Service Management Software

While standalone solutions for job costing, communications, bid follow-up, and dispatching exist, commercial plumbing companies are most successful when their core business processes are integrated into an efficient whole, rather than operating in disconnected silos. 

ServiceTitan and other all-in-one field service management software help plumbing contractors solve these challenges, significantly improving the efficiency and effectiveness of their estimating processes.

Let’s consider the six best field service management platforms, starting with a detailed look at ServiceTitan. 

1. ServiceTitan: Leading All-in-One Commercial Plumbing Estimating Software

ServiceTitan’s plumbing estimating software is an industry-leading end-to-end solution used by over 100,000 plumbers, HVAC, and electrical contractors that integrates all of your plumbing business’s most important processes, including those that go into optimizing estimating programs. 

Features include:

• Fully integrated pricebook to create profitable estimates

• Multiple estimate options for varying job types and complexity

• Streamlined communication between the field and office

• Tracking features so that all estimates can be followed up

• Integration with key plumbing business workflows

Ensure Estimates Are Profitable with a Fully Integrated Pricebook

A key function of our plumbing estimating solution is our customizable, integrated pricebook. Service Titan’s Pricebook Pro gives plumbers access to the catalogs of a range of key industry suppliers, so the prices reflect the actual materials that will be used (rather than a generic placeholder or standard price often offered by standard software).

With Pricebook Pro, pricing updates are performed regularly and automatically, so there’s no need for manual updates. Adjustments are reflected across the entire pricebook and are accessible to all office staff and techs instantly across all devices: desktop, tablet, Android, and/or iOS mobile app.  

ServiceTitan users also benefit from our quick and efficient editing features:

• Bulk editing: You can apply edits and markups on multiple services, materials, or equipment across your entire pricebook or to select groups or categories with our bulk editing feature.

• Individual editing: Edit individual services or pricebook items manually, including as many or as few details as you want.

• Dynamic price automations: ServiceTitan’s Dynamic Pricing feature lets you set up rules that automatically update your pricing when material costs and labor rates change.

Create Commercial Plumbing Estimates For Different Job Types and Sizes

ServiceTitan gives contractors flexibility to create estimates in the way that best fits their business needs:

• For smaller commercial service and replacement jobs, your techs can create Good-Better-Best proposals right from their tablet. 

• For equipment change-outs, short-term projects, or track-home builds, office staff can build detailed line-item estimates that specify exact services, equipment, and materials. 

• For larger commercial jobs or long-term construction projects, you can use rough project estimates with summary totals to set budgets and track actual revenue and costs over time.

Many of our customers use each of these methods across different divisions ensuring every job type is accurately priced and managed from the start.

Good-Better-Best Proposals for Light-Weight Commercial Service and Installation

From the field, technicians or sales staff can use prebuilt estimate templates or create cost estimates from scratch, and combine estimates into Good-Better-Best proposals on the fly via our mobile app.

Offer Financing Options to Close More Big-Ticket Jobs

ServiceTitan helps contractors close more jobs by making it easy to offer financing options directly from the field. Through integrations with trusted providers like GreenSky®, GoodLeap, Service Finance, Wells Fargo, Synchrony, Financeit, and more, plumbers can add financing plans to job estimates, manage applications, and secure approvals on the spot.

By giving customers flexible payment options, you not only make larger projects more affordable but also increase your average ticket size and boost conversion rates—all without adding extra friction to the sales process.

Precise Line-Item Estimates for Projects Where All Details Are Known Upfront

Line-item estimating is ideal for smaller, shorter-term projects where detailed scope and materials are known upfront. With ServiceTitan, contractors can build precise line-item estimates that list the exact services, materials, and equipment required for a job: 

• Pull every item directly from your pricebook → Ensure accuracy and consistency in pricing.

• Trigger purchase orders via requisitions → Tie estimates directly into purchasing and invoice closeout workflows for streamlined job costing and project management.

Rough Estimates for Complex Projects Where You Need Flexibility

ServiceTitan’s rough project estimates make it easy to build budgets for large-scale or long-term projects when every detail isn’t known upfront. Instead of listing specific equipment or material costs, you can use summary tasks and revenue items to represent overall contract value and projected costs.

By setting up default project labels for pricebook items, job types, and technicians, budgets automatically populate in the Budget vs. Actual table, keeping expenses organized and easy to track. This cost-estimating method is especially useful for commercial installs, construction estimating, and early-stage bids, where flexibility is key and estimates need to be created quickly without every line item in place.

Enable Customers to Review and Approve Estimates Online

ServiceTitan makes it easy for customers and office staff to view estimates online:

Customers can: 

• Review and approve estimates online through a secure link included in estimate emails. 

• View the proposal, accept terms, and sign electronically from any device. 

Office Staff can:

• Customize email templates, set expiration dates, and schedule automatic reminders for unsold estimates. 

• Set up real-time alerts to notify your team when an estimate is viewed or signed.

By moving this process online, ServiceTitan creates a seamless, contactless experience that speeds up approvals and boosts close rates, while an audit trail keeps a record of every interaction. 

A System to Track and Follow Up On Unsold Estimates

ServiceTitan ensures no opportunity slips through the cracks by giving technicians and office staff tools to track and follow up on unsold estimates.

• From the Field: Techs can flag unsold proposals so the office team knows to follow up later. 

• In the Office: Staff can use the Follow-Up screen to review open opportunities, call or email customers, log follow-up notes, and set reminders—all from one place.

When a customer is ready to move forward, estimates can be quickly converted into booked jobs, with credit assigned to the right salesperson. This streamlined workflow makes it easier to re-engage leads, close more deals, and maximize revenue from every estimate created.

User-Friendly Mobile App for Technicians & Sales Staff

ServiceTitan’s mobile app offers an intuitive user experience that techs and sales staff love, beginning with the home screen dashboard where they can quickly see the appointments or jobs they have scheduled for that day.

Field staff can access the essential tools they need throughout the lifecycle of a job, including:

• Customer history: Useful for businesses that have commercial maintenance agreements. For example, service techs can see previous estimates, recurring services, previous invoices, photos and videos from previous jobs, and more.

• Job forms: Sales consultants and technicians can access job forms that require customer signatures as well as forms that foster accountability and better customer service (such as pre-sales appointment checklists, safety inspection checklists, or installation checklists).

• Invoices: Techs can easily generate service invoices and send them to customers in various ways.

• Closeout: Once they complete a job, techs can accept payments on the spot from customers via check or credit card. 

Seamless Integration with Purchasing, Job Costing, Invoicing & More

ServiceTitan integrates line-item estimates and rough project costs into the project management process for maximum efficiency: 

• Initiate Requisition of Equipment & Materials: Once sold, all the details from the estimate are automatically integrated into the rest of the workflow so you can initiate a requisition of equipment and materials. 

• Create Purchase Orders: Line items are automatically populated from your estimate, so you can simply select your procurement sources and shipping locations for each material. Then, you can save that order to create a transaction and send those purchase orders to your vendors — without ever leaving ServiceTitan. 

• Easily Generate Payment Applications: Select the billing period and the percent of each line item you want to bill for. Then, generate a PDF payment application with the details automatically filled out, and send it to your client for review.

• Get Paid Faster and Reduce Cash Flow Issues: Plumbing subcontractors can defend pushbacks from construction companies or general contractors with ServiceTitan’s continuation sheet, which saves and organizes the payment application for easy reference and sharing.  

• Create Invoices Instantaneously: When an application is accepted, generating an invoice for the progress payment can be done in a few clicks and sent to the customer. 

• Integrate Payments with Your Accounting Software: When payments come in, you can swiftly update your accounts receivable through our Viewpoint, Sage, QuickBooks, and CSV accounting integrations.  

Streamlining all these processes takes significantly less time than having estimators or project managers calculate construction costs using PDFs or Excel templates. 

Other All-in-One Commercial Plumbing Estimating Software Solutions

2. FieldEdge

FieldEdge offers a wide range of features, including functionality for quotes and invoicing, scheduling and dispatching, service agreements, and more. 

However, ServiceTitan offers the ability to create customer-specific pricing, a built-in customer portal with base subscription, and native equipment tracking and inventory management.

3. Jobber

Jobber is a field service scheduling software that also offers a wide range of other features for field service business management. 

It offers functionality for your entire workflow including estimating, quotes, scheduling, invoicing, and more. However, ServiceTitan offers more robust, native pricebook functionality and deeper reporting capabilities, among other advantages.

Jobber is popular with small businesses that want a simple, easy-to-use solution. 

4. Procore

Procore describes its product as a construction management software. 

It offers a suite of features for plumbers whose businesses are primarily or solely construction-focused, including tools for: preconstruction, project management, training management, resource management, financial management, and analytics. 

If you’re a hybrid shop or have any focus outside of construction, this likely is not the right solution for you. But if you’re solely construction-focused, it may be worth looking into. 

5. Service Fusion

Service Fusion describes itself as an “All-In-One Field Service Management Software.” 

It offers a wide range of features, including estimates, customer management, scheduling and dispatching, and more. 

However, ServiceTitan offers several features such as scheduled report automations and property data to spot sales opportunities as a part of our base product while Service Fusion charges extra for many of these features.

6. Simpro

Simpro describes its product as an “End-to-End Field Service Management Software.” 

It offers a wide range of features for field service businesses such as estimating and quoting, scheduling and dispatching, and more. 

Best Standalone Plumbing Estimating Software Solutions

7. FastPIPE: Best Mechanical Estimating Software for Piping

FastPIPE is a mechanical estimating software product for plumbing, mechanical, HVAC, and industrial HVAC piping. 

It’s one of several products created by the estimating and takeoff software company FastEST, which also has FastDUCT — an estimating solution for HVAC and ductwork. This is an estimating-only solution with a catalog of over 150,000 items and very specific uses. 

This type of solution is limited in its utility and won’t integrate with other tools you use to run your business. However, it’s worth considering if you’re looking for an advanced mechanical estimating-only solution for plumbing and HVAC.

8. Groundplan: Best Simple Takeoff Tool

Groundplan makes it easy for plumbers to quickly and accurately count points, measure lengths, and calculate surface areas with its intuitive click-and-drag interface.

This easy-to-use software solution is entirely cloud-based, so you can use it on any device and export estimates to Excel spreadsheets or to specific project management or accounting software (such as Simpro and QuickBooks). 

Groundplan is a good option for plumbers looking for a simple takeoff tool to use with a spreadsheet system.

9. McCormick: Best Comprehensive Digital Takeoff Software

McCormick Systems is a long-established plumbing and mechanical estimating software solution. Offering over 40,000 items and 20,000 prebuilt assemblies with real-time pricing updates, this comprehensive software lets you work in multiple drawings at once and use preloaded labor units based on a national average. 

The company offers three product levels: McCormick, McCormick Pro, and Design Estimating Pro, which the company claims saves at least 50% of time compared to using manual methods. It’s a worthwhile option if you’re interested in a robust standalone estimating tool that uses generic labor units.

10. PlanSwift: Great for Construction Estimating

PlanSwift by ConstructConnect is an estimating and digital takeoff software for the construction industry. PlanSwift’s visual point-and-click interface enables users to drag and drop parts or assemblies onto digitized blueprints for swift quantity takeoffs and cost estimating.

PlanSwift integrates with Microsoft Excel so you can export takeoff quantities directly to your estimating spreadsheets and complete the estimating process from there.

Since this takeoff software is designed to help a variety of trades (plumbing, HVAC, electrical, landscaping, painting, flooring, and more), it’s a worthy contender for construction projects if you’re looking for a standalone option. 

11. Stack: Best Standalone Takeoff Software for Multiple Users

Stack is a fast and accurate estimating software solution for plumbers that lets users access item totals in seconds, easily measure lengths, and transfer data to estimates and proposals.

Software features include an autocount for symbols such as toilets and sinks, “anytime anywhere” access and permission controls so you can easily access your bid management plans from home, the office, or at the job site and share them with team members or customers.

Stack is popular with plumbers who are looking for a takeoff tool with collaboration features.

12. TurboBid: Best User-Friendly Standalone Estimating Software

TurboBid is an on-premise standalone estimating software for small businesses. Turbobid’s database includes material pricing from several vendors, with TurboPricer automatically updating vendor and market prices weekly. 

TurboBid provides an extensive variety of bid documents, proposals, invoice templates, and reports that you can customize to include product descriptions and images. The company also offers online training videos for each element of the software so it’s a good choice for plumbing contractors looking for a user-friendly standalone option.