~30 sec
Average leveling time
PDF/XLSX/CSV
Supported input types
5
Max bids per comparison
Why this matters.
Manual bid tabs take hours per package — copying numbers from PDFs into spreadsheets, building formulas, and hoping nothing gets mistyped
Subcontractors format bids differently — bundled items, varying units, inconsistent scope descriptions — making apples-to-apples comparison nearly impossible
Spreadsheet formulas break, only one person understands the file, and there is no audit trail when numbers change
By the time you finish leveling, the bid deadline has passed or you are rushing the award decision with incomplete analysis
How EstimateHawk solves it.
AI reads PDF bids directly — no manual data entry. Line items, quantities, units, and pricing are extracted automatically into a structured comparison
Descriptions are normalized by stripping units, quantities, and install verbs to create semantic matching across differently-worded bids
Items present in some bids but missing from others are flagged instantly, with market pricing to estimate the financial exposure of each gap
Price variance analysis highlights any item where a contractor deviates more than 20% from the group average — outliers are flagged automatically
What you get.
Frequently asked.
- Do my subcontractors need to be on the platform?
- No. Subs never need to create an account. Find trades by city, send instructions, wait for bids — or upload the PDF, Excel, or CSV files they already sent. EstimateHawk is a simpler city trade directory plus AI comparison, not a portal they have to join.
- How does EstimateHawk compare to BuildingConnected or Procore for bid leveling?
- Those platforms require both you and your subs to be on the system, cost $10K-$60K+ per year, and bid leveling is one feature buried in a massive suite. EstimateHawk is focused exclusively on preconstruction intelligence — upload PDFs and get results in seconds, at a fraction of the cost.
- What does "True Cost" mean?
- True Cost is the bid amount plus the estimated cost of any missing scope items. When a contractor omits line items to appear cheaper, EstimateHawk calculates what those gaps would actually cost, giving you the real price to compare against.
