Who Trueworks helps: five desks we built this for
- Steve Parker
- Jul 4
- 6 min read
Updated: Jul 9
Every pricing mistake we catch has the same signature: signed by a competent person with no time and no second pair of eyes. Find the section written for your desk, read it, and send us a job.
By Steve Parker · Trueworks · NZ construction estimation · 6 min
Got a quote, tender or variation on your desk? Get it checked — written, code-cited, back within 24 hours. First check free. Quick answer: Trueworks is the analyst layer under your pricing decision — it works alongside your QS or your own numbers, not instead of them. We review quotes, tender packs and rate build-ups for five kinds of desk: the builder checking subbie quotes, the QS practice needing overflow capacity, the subbie tendering more without hiring, the tenderer pricing plenty and winning little, and the tenderer who needs days back before close. Each gets the same deliverable — a written, code-cited review packet with quantities checked, rates tested against published NZ data, risks flagged, and a plain statement of what the review does not cover. Turnaround is within 24 hours from a complete document set. Your first packet is no charge — judge the work before you commit; after that, work is priced per job at trueworks.co.nz/contact.
Find your desk
Five people send us work, for five different reasons. Read the section that sounds like your week, then follow the link to the full page and a worked example from a real, anonymised job.
The builder with no time to check every subbie quote
You run the job, chase the consent, manage the client — and around nine at night the subbie quotes get a skim. Total, exclusions, sign, because holding up the programme is worse. That skim is where scope gaps, double-ups and quiet exclusions get through, and they return later as variations funded from your margin. Send us the quote and the drawings; we check quantities against the documents, flag what is excluded, priced twice or missing entirely, and hand you a packet to take back to the subbie before you commit.
The QS practice that needs overflow capacity
Peak-load months, a measure that has to go out, and no senior hours left to give it — every practice hits the same wall. Trueworks takes the document-heavy first pass: takeoffs, quote comparisons, rate checks, risk registers, with the method stated line by line so you can defend it under your own letterhead. We work under your sign-off, and your client stays yours — we never contact them, never brand the output. NDA is standard, not an extra. You review, adjust and issue.
The subbie who wants to tender more
Every tender you price costs nights you don't have, so you only price the ones you're confident of — and the pipeline thins out. Fewer tenders in means fewer wins out. We do the takeoff and the rate build-up, show the workings, and give you a cost floor and a target price with risk items flagged. You set the margin and put your name on the number. Most subbies use us to price the second and third tender each month — the ones that currently go unpriced.
The tenderer pricing plenty and winning little
You're pricing five or six a month and landing one, on a good month. The instinct is to cut margin; the fix usually sits elsewhere — quantities padded out of caution, rates carried from a job two years old, or a quote that reads worse than a competitor's thinner number. We review the tenders you lost: where the pricing sat, what the document said and didn't say, what the person scoring it most likely saw. You get a written read on why, and a checklist for the next one.
The tenderer who needs days back
Documents land Monday, questions close Wednesday, the tender closes Friday — and pricing it properly takes every evening in between. The measure-and-check stage is where the days go, so that is what we take off your desk. Send the pack when it lands; we return quantities, rate checks and a risk flag list inside the window, so your time goes on strategy and margin instead of counting fixings. We also audit the rate calculators you rely on — one broken reference can sit in a spreadsheet for years before it misprices a job.
→ Read the turnaround page · Proof: the broken-reference error that nearly mispriced the deepest pipe run
Send the job anyway. Drawings plus the quote or tender pack, and we return a code-cited review packet within 24 hours. No charge for your first packet. NDA available, NZ-hosted processing. → Get the free check at trueworks.co.nz/contact — or email hello@trueworks.co.nz
Not sure which one you are?
What every packet has in common
Whichever desk you sit at, the deliverable is the same shape. It is written, so it survives the meeting where someone questions it. It is code-cited — quantities and methods referenced to NZS 3604, NZS 3910, the relevant Building Code clauses and published NZ cost data, not to opinion. Numbers come as ranges with assumptions stated; risks are flagged and sized rather than buried. Every packet ends with a section titled "what this doesn't tell you": the limits of the documents you sent, what we could not verify, and the contingency we would carry. Files are hosted in New Zealand, and every packet is answered by the founder — the person you email is the person who did the work.
Where Trueworks sits — and where it doesn't
Trueworks sits under the pricing decision, not on top of it. We check quantities, test rates, flag risks and state the method — then hand the packet back. The number you sign stays yours: your margin call, your appetite for the job, your name on the tender. We are not a registered quantity surveying practice, and we do not certify progress claims or bank drawdowns. Where a job needs a registered QS signature — funder requirements, formal payment certification — we say so and work under that signature, handing the QS checked quantities and workings. That boundary is deliberate: it lets a builder, a tendering subbie and a QS practice use the same service without anyone's role being threatened. The QS keeps the certification, the contractor keeps the decision, and Trueworks keeps the analysis honest underneath both.
FAQ — working with Trueworks
Do you replace my QS? No. Trueworks is the analyst layer under your pricing decision — it works alongside your QS or your own numbers, not instead of them. Where a job needs a registered QS signature, we say so and work under it, handing your QS checked quantities and methods to verify quickly.
What does the first packet cost? Nothing — your first packet is no charge, and it is the full deliverable: quantity checks, rate checks, flagged risks, and the written summary with the "what this doesn't tell you" section. After that, work is priced per job — see trueworks.co.nz/contact.
How fast is turnaround? Five business days from a complete document set. If a tender deadline is tighter, say so when you send the pack — shorter windows are usually workable by arrangement.
What about confidentiality? An NDA is available on request and standard for QS practices. Files are hosted in New Zealand, shared with no one outside the review, and deleted after 30 days unless you ask us to retain them.
What formats can you send, and what should the pack include? PDF drawings, spreadsheets, scanned quotes, photos of marked-up plans — if you can email it, we can work with it. Send the drawings, the quote or tender pack, and anything the price relies on: specifications, geotech, schedules, prelims. If in doubt, send more.
Get a second pair of eyes on your next quote or tender
Drawings + your quote or the tender pack = a code-cited review packet within 24 hours, ready before you commit.
No charge for your first packet. No commitment. NDA available. Files NZ-hosted, deleted after 30 days unless you ask us to retain them.
→ Get the free check at trueworks.co.nz/contact — or email hello@trueworks.co.nz
About Trueworks
Trueworks is built by Steve Parker — 20 years on the analytical side of NZ construction. Variation reviews, contract advisory, programme review, and document-heavy estimation work. Trueworks is the productisation of that practice for NZ trades and builders: the same defensible analysis, at a price and pace a working contractor can actually use.
Every report is checked and signed off by me personally before it goes out. If you have a quote or tender you want a second opinion on, the easiest way to find out if Trueworks is useful is to send it.
hello@trueworks.co.nz · trueworks.co.nz
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