Construction quotes that turn into the project

Construction estimating and quoting software lets you price the work, send a clean quote and get it signed. In OKTO PSA for construction, you start from a template, the OKTHAV assistant checks rates and margin before the quote goes out, the client signs online, and the accepted version becomes the project, with its phases and their budgets.

How do you build a construction quote?

You start from a template. A template is the model of a job you do often: repainting the interior of an apartment building, redoing a stairwell, an epoxy floor coating. It brings its line groups, its wording and its conditions. All that’s left is to adjust the quantities, the prices and the site description.

Lines are sorted into groups. A group is a part of the job the client understands at a glance: prep, primer, finish coat, cleanup. Those groups matter later too. Once the quote is accepted, each one becomes a project phase with its own budget.

• A library of terms and conditions: your exclusions, validity period and payment terms are written once and reused from one quote to the next.
• SOU numbering, so you can find a quote while the client is on the phone without digging through your inbox.
• Equipment from your fleet added to the quote: the boom lift or the scaffolding shows up in the offer, then carries over to the project.

What the OKTHAV assistant checks before you send

OKTHAV is the assistant built into OKTO PSA. For quotes, it knows Quebec and Ontario conventions and works with dated rates, so you always know how old each rate it uses is. It also accounts for the distance to the job site, which changes travel time from one quote to the next.

You set a target margin and a minimum margin. When it reviews the quote before sending, the assistant compares it against both thresholds. That review is often where a mistyped quantity or a forgotten line group gets caught, before the client ever sees the price.

Industrial painting calculations

For industrial painting, the calculation takes into account the number of coats, the product’s percentage of solids, the containers to order and the drying time between coats. Your crew’s production rate is entered in square feet per hour, based on your own jobs. The painting estimate guide walks through the method step by step, with a fictional example.

One base quote, one price per general contractor

On a tender, a subcontractor often sends the same scope to three or four general contractors. The price shifts a little from one to the next, depending on payment terms, how each one runs a site, or the business relationship. Four separate quotes means entering the same work four times and four chances to get something wrong.

OKTO PSA keeps one base quote with a price for each general contractor. The scope stays the same for everyone; only the price changes. In your statistics, the whole set counts as a single bid. Your win rate stays honest instead of dropping because one job was priced four times.

What a quote has to show in Quebec

Quebec’s Building Act requires licence holders to show their licence number on their estimates, tenders, contracts and statements of account (section 57.1). The Régie du bâtiment du Québec asks for the format “Licence RBQ : XXXX-XXXX-XX”. Leaving it off can bring an administrative monetary penalty of $500 for an individual and $1,500 in other cases, such as a corporation.

OKTO PSA puts your RBQ licence and your Quebec enterprise number (NEQ) in the header of every document, quotes included. Taxes appear on separate lines, with your registration numbers under each one: 5% GST, then 9.975% QST, calculated on the price without the GST. The RBQ licence guide lists every place the number has to appear, including vehicles and job site signs.

Residential work adds one more rule. Under Quebec’s Office de la protection du consommateur, a contract solicited away from your place of business, or one covering doors and windows, insulation, roofing or exterior cladding, counts as itinerant merchant sales. The client can cancel it at no cost within 10 days after receiving the contract, and you can’t ask for a deposit during that period.

Online signature in the client portal

The client gets the quote in their client portal. They read it, sign it, and can attach their purchase order number and PDF. You have the purchase order from day one instead of chasing it when it’s time to invoice.

The portal works the other way too. A client with a new need clicks “Request a quote”, and the request lands with you instead of in a shared inbox.

When the quote becomes the project

The accepted version becomes the order first, then the project. Nobody retypes the description or the amounts. Here is what carries over.

The project starts with a budget for every phase. You can compare actual hours and costs with what you sold from the first week, not only once the job is over. The phases and sub-projects page picks up from there: phase pricing, sub-projects and billing.

What it costs and how to try it

OKTO PSA is billed monthly, before taxes, with no seat minimum, and the price covers PSA, CRM and OKTO RH (HR): $300 for up to 10 users, $550 for 11 to 20 users and $700 for 21 to 30. Your data is hosted in Quebec, in a database dedicated to your company, and the software works in English and French. Details are on the pricing page.

The interactive demo lets you build a quote and turn it into a project without a long sign-up. If your quotes live in Excel or another program today, our team handles the migration with you.

Sources: Building Act, LégisQuébec, Displaying your licence, Régie du bâtiment du Québec, Calculating taxes, Revenu Québec, Itinerant merchant contracts, Office de la protection du consommateur, checked on October 27, 2026.