Woodworking estimates,
from cost to quote.
Price the real job, cut it without retyping a part, and find out what it actually earned — so the next quote is better.
Every dollar has a visible source.
Build the cost basis from the inputs your shop controls. The same materials, hours, rates, and percentages always produce the same total.
Real Job Costing
Track materials, hardware, other supplies, labor phases, quantities, units, and shop rates separately.
True Gross Margin
Set waste, overhead, margin, and tax explicitly. Margin is calculated from selling price rather than confused with markup.
From shop math to a customer decision.
Keep scope, customer, quote number, costs, price, tax, and terms together instead of rebuilding a spreadsheet for every revision.
Live Price Breakdown
See the cost basis, gross profit, subtotal, tax, and customer total update as any input changes.
Saved Estimates
Save an estimate to your account and pick it back up on any device. The 14-day trial covers 10; PlankCAD Pro is unlimited.
Turn the priced job into a cutting plan.
Send an estimate’s parts straight to the sheet optimizer, then keep what it leaves over. Nothing is retyped between the two.
Cut List & Sheet Optimizer
Nest parts onto stock sheets with kerf, grain direction and edge banding respected. Produces workshop diagrams and a cut list PDF. An optimized layout, not a claim of mathematical perfection.
Offcut Rack
Save the usable pieces a job leaves behind, then search them before buying: “do I already have something this size?” The optimizer prefers them over a new sheet.
Find out what the job actually earned.
Freeze what a job was priced at, record what it really cost, and see the gap while you can still learn from it.
Estimated vs Actual
Record materials, hours, expenses and payments against a frozen estimate. Shows where a job lost money — and what an hour in your shop actually earned.
Purchase Lists
One order across several jobs, netted against stock that is not already promised elsewhere, and postable back as real job costs.
Your History Corrects Your Next Quote
After a few closed jobs: “your last 5 jobs used 60% more hours than estimated.” Suggested from your own record, never applied on its own.
A quote your customer can understand.
Export a clean PDF with project scope, customer details, cost lines, labor, subtotal, tax, total, and your own terms.
Customer PDF Quote
Export the estimate into a printable document without exposing internal spreadsheet formulas or rebuilding the layout by hand.
Everything lives in one workspace.
vs. a spreadsheet workflow.
| Task | Generic spreadsheet | PlankCAD |
|---|---|---|
| Estimate setup | Custom spreadsheet and formulas | Woodworking cost fields are ready |
| Waste and overhead | Manual cells and conventions | Separate, labeled pricing rules |
| Gross margin | Often confused with markup | Calculated from selling price |
| Customer quote | Separate document to maintain | PDF exported from the estimate |
| Sheet cutting plan | Sketched by hand or a second tool | Optimized from the same parts list |
| Offcuts | Remembered, or not | Searchable, and preferred over new stock |
| What the job really made | Worked out afterwards, if at all | Recorded against the frozen estimate |
PlankCAD is purpose-built for woodworking estimates. It is a pricing tool, not a substitute for your own scope and shop verification.
What the estimator does, and does not do.
Materials, hardware and other cost lines by quantity and unit price; labour as hours against an hourly rate; material waste and shop overhead as explicit percentages; then a selling price from your target gross margin, with tax added afterward. Every figure is shown on its own rather than rolled into one number.
Yes. The same inputs always produce the same totals — there is no model, no estimate range and no hidden rounding. That is the point: a quote you cannot reproduce is a quote you cannot defend when a customer asks how you got there.
No. Those tools model the piece and work out the material. PlankCAD prices the job and produces the customer quote. Most shops keep using both.
Yes — the cost structure is the same for any job: materials, hardware, labour phases, waste, overhead and margin. Nothing is specific to one furniture type.
PlankCAD cannot know whether your scope, supplier prices or labour assumptions are correct, and it does not verify anything on the shop floor. It makes the maths visible and repeatable; the inputs remain your judgement.
Build your first estimate free.
No credit card required. Price the job, save the draft, and export the customer quote.
Deterministic Estimate Math · Your Quotes On Your Account · No Hidden Fees