How to Use Concrete Cost Pro

The "Why it matters" notes below describe how each step is designed to help protect your margin. It's not a guaranteed result. What you actually charge, and what a job actually costs, is always your call.

1. 1

   Unlock your license

   After purchase, you land back on the site already unlocked, and a welcome email arrives with your license key. That key is your only "account": no password, no login. Save the email, since it's how you get back in on a new device or after clearing your browser.

   Why it matters: There is no recurring software subscription. Your job margin still depends on the agreed selling price and the actual costs of the work.

2. 2

   Set up your business profile and catalog, once

   In Settings, enter your defaults: overhead %, target margin %, allowance % and rounding. In Catalog, save your real ready-mix rate, labor rates and equipment costs. Every new estimate and template pulls from these saved numbers, so you fill them in once instead of retyping rates on every job.

   Why it matters: Estimates built on guessed or remembered rates are the single most common way contractors quietly underprice a job. Real, saved numbers mean every estimate starts from what things actually cost you, not a rough memory.

   
3. 3

   Save your standard rates in Catalog

   Ready Mix, Materials, Labor and Equipment each get their own tab. Add the rates you actually charge. These populate a new estimate's Costs step automatically. Already have your rates in a spreadsheet? Export CSV once to see the exact column headers Concrete Cost Pro expects (name, supplier, unit, unitCost), then Import CSV to load them all at once instead of typing them in one by one.

   Why it matters: Material and labor costs creep up quietly. A rate you haven't touched in months is a margin leak on every single job that uses it. Keeping Catalog current is how you catch that before it costs you.

   
4. 4

   Build Templates for jobs you quote often

   If you regularly quote the same kind of job (driveways, patios, footings), save a Template with typical sections and costs pre-filled. Starting a new estimate from a template means only the dimensions usually need to change.

   Why it matters: A faster quote is easier to turn around before a customer moves on, and a template keeps the same cost structure every time: no line item quietly dropped because you were quoting from the truck under deadline pressure.

   
5. 5

   Create your Current Estimate

   One current estimate at a time, built in a 5-step wizard. It autosaves as you go; watch the status indicator at the top of the page.

   Why it matters: The wizard forces every real cost line (forms, reinforcement, equipment, overhead) onto the page before you're allowed to price. That's exactly what a rushed, mental on-site estimate skips, and exactly what quietly erases margin.

   1. 1. Project

      name and project type

      

   2. 2. Dimensions

      one or more sections, plus order allowance and rounding

      

   3. 3. Costs

      ready-mix, labor, forms, reinforcement, equipment, other

      

   4. 4. Price

      overhead, target margin, your selling price, or one click to use the required price the math solves for

      

   5. 5. Customer

      name and contact details for the PDF

6. 6

   Check Rate Health before you commit to a price

   Rate Health audits every saved template against your target margin, and lets you model a cost change (like "ready-mix up 10%") across all of them at once before you decide to update your saved rates.

   Why it matters: This catches a rate that's already fallen below your target margin before you send a quote built on it, not after the job's finished when it's too late to do anything about it.

   
7. 7

   Send the estimate

   From Current Estimate, print or save a customer-facing PDF. Direct costs, overhead and margin are hidden by default, with an opt-in checkbox if you want to show your breakdown. Export CSV separately for your own records, not the customer's.

   Why it matters: A clean, professional PDF that never exposes your internal costs to the customer lets you hold your price with confidence, instead of getting negotiated down once they can see your markup.

   
8. 8

   Log the actual result once the job is done

   In Estimate vs Actual, enter what the job actually cost and sold for. Concrete Cost Pro compares it against what you estimated, so you see exactly where a job ran over or under before you quote the next one.

   Why it matters: This is the only way to know if a job type is chronically underpriced. Skip it, and the same pricing mistake quietly repeats on every similar job you quote after this one.

   
9. 9

   Starting the next job

   "New Estimate" or "Duplicate Current Estimate" both ask you to confirm first, with a PDF/CSV export offered before anything is replaced, since only one current estimate is kept at a time.

   Why it matters: That confirm-and-export safety net means moving to the next job never accidentally destroys this one's numbers before you've captured them for your records.