Instead of Databuild
Stop licensing Databuild. Own the job record behind every estimate.
Enterprise DNA builds your version around your cost codes, your contracts and the way your office runs, brings your Databuild jobs and suppliers across, and runs it for you. Nothing to install on a server, and the system is yours.
Databuild publishes no price: every licence is quoted privately after a sales demo, priced by the features you take.
- check_circleYour data in a database you own
- check_circleOpen source, no lock-in
- check_circleBuilt and run by Enterprise DNA
What the licence pays for
A quote you never see in public, for records any builder could hold
Databuild sells estimating, quotations, price files, purchase orders, job cost reporting and accounting as one licensed package, with payroll through a separate KeyPay connection. There is no price list: you book a demo and the sales team quotes your features. Strip the program away and a builder's record is plain: clients, jobs, cost codes, budgets, orders, supplier invoices, variations, claims and subcontractors.
A price you only learn on a sales call
No plans page, no public rates. Each module you add is part of the quote.
A server you buy, size and look after
Databuild's own requirements ask for a Windows server sized for the maximum load over the life of the hardware, plus Microsoft's database software, and suggest you talk to your IT support. That is a second bill the licence does not show.
Your office only, unless you remote in
It is a Windows desktop program. Reaching it from site means Remote Desktop or Citrix, and a Mac needs a virtual machine to run it at all. The record is fine; the way in is the problem.
Payroll through another vendor
Payroll runs through a KeyPay integration rather than inside the package, so part of what you think of as Databuild is a second product.
Versions and licence activations
Builders are told to move to the latest version to avoid licence activation delays, and to check with support first. Upgrades are a project on someone's desk, not something that just happens.
Your history readable through one program
Years of jobs, orders and cost history sit in a database on your own server, yet the practical way to read it is the vendor's screens. A builder's defects and warranty tail runs for years; the record should be readable without them.
What you get instead
The office's job record, open to anyone you allow
Job cost
Budget against actual, with open orders already counted
Your estimate's line totals become the budget for the job, and every purchase order holds money against its line the day it is raised.
- check Ordered but not yet invoiced counts against the line, so a cost code cannot look healthy while the supplier's invoice is still on its way
- check When a line goes over, you see the overrun in dollars the moment the cost lands, and pick the cause: scope, price or waste
- check Every job ranked by forecast margin, worst first, at today's numbers rather than at month end
- check Ask which kind of job actually makes you money, new homes, extensions or renovations, across everything you have built
Orders and suppliers
Purchase orders that do not go quiet
Orders, supplier invoices and the jobs they belong to sit on one record, and the ones nobody has closed come looking for you.
- check An order left open for weeks is flagged: bill it, chase it or cancel it, so committed money stays honest
- check Each supplier invoice lands against its job and cost code, so the job cost report is right the day you read it
- check Subcontractors with lapsed insurance are refused when you try to put them on a job, with the expiry date shown
Getting paid
Progress claims held to the contract
Each claim carries its amount and due date and is checked against the contract before it leaves the office.
- check A claim that would take a job past its contract price plus approved variations is stopped, with no way around it
- check Late claims rise to the top of the morning list with the days counting, and a firm, factual chaser is drafted for you to send
- check No variation is worked or claimed until it is approved in writing, with the name of who said yes on the record
- check A job where costs keep landing but nothing has been claimed for a month is called out before it squeezes cash
Your data
One database you own, no server room required
Runs on a laptop with nothing to set up, or on your own database for the whole company. Works with Claude Code and other AI assistants: the records are what matter, the assistant is just the way in.
- check No remote desktop and no virtual machine: it runs on a laptop or on your own database
- check The compliance rules sit in a plain file with their sources, so your rules for contracts, variations and claims are written down and yours to change
- check Your accounts stay in your accounting system; this is the job record your bookkeeper reads, with a full export of every record in one step
- check Open source with a plain export of everything, so the record outlives any vendor, version or licence
Make it yours
Design your own Databuild replacement
Everything starts from the open-source base. Then it gets your name, the parts you run, your rules and your data from Databuild. Try it here, and we build the real one.
2. What it runs
3. Make it fit
4. Your colour
Answered from your own database
Good morning. Here is what needs you today.
We build it from the open-source base, bring your Databuild data across and run it for you.
Switching
How to switch from Databuild
A move usually involves exporting the records your account allows, matching Databuild’s columns to the new records, checking the import, then running both systems side by side before you stop using Databuild.
- 1
Export your records
Ask Databuild what your account can export, usually as CSV or Excel, and check with its support team if you are unsure. Start with the records you need for the job record, such as clients, jobs, budgets, purchase orders, costs, invoices, variations and claims. Decide which history you need to bring across, rather than assuming every record has to move.
- 2
Test the import
Builders for Claude Code imports spreadsheets and report exports. Match Databuild’s columns to the new records, then run a test import before loading everything. The column names and structure may not match, so check the proposed mapping rather than assuming one field will transfer directly to another. If you have Enterprise DNA run the move, they handle this mapping as part of the migration.
- 3
Check what the import flags
Review the import results before relying on the new records. Look for fields that did not map, records that were not brought in, and anything the import identifies for attention. Check a sample of jobs against Databuild, including budgets, purchase orders, costs and claims, so you can confirm the job record makes sense. Resolve gaps before you use it to make decisions.
- 4
Run both systems side by side
Keep Databuild running while you use Builders for Claude Code on live work for a short period. Compare the job records and money figures in both systems, and note anything missing or mapped incorrectly. Use the overlap to confirm that your chosen history and current records are usable in the new database. Avoid entering the same changes in only one system until you are ready to switch.
- 5
Switch off Databuild
Once you have checked the records and are comfortable using the new job record, stop using Databuild for the work you have moved. Keep your accounting ledger and payroll where they are, since Builders for Claude Code is the job record, not an accounting or payroll system. If you still rely on Databuild for estimating or price files, plan for those separately because the free version does not replace them.
Where the real effort goes
The main work is usually mapping your Databuild fields and business rules to the new records, then deciding how much history to bring across. Databuild’s records sit in a database on your own server, but the columns still need matching to the new structure. If you have Enterprise DNA run the migration, they handle that mapping and can bring in price files and estimating templates too.
Not ready for a call?
Get your Databuild switch plan by email
We will send you the step-by-step plan for moving your business off Databuild, what the move really involves, and how we would do it for you.
Sent. Check your inbox.
Your Databuild switch plan is on its way.
Rather talk it through? Book a call arrow_forwardTwo ways to run it
Run it yourself, or have it run for you
Open source
Run it yourself
Free
- 1 Clone the repo
- 2 npm run demo, then open the folder in Claude Code
- 3 Type /attention
- 4 Ask Claude Code to map your Databuild report exports, then import with a dry run first
Omni by Enterprise DNA
Have Enterprise DNA build and run it
One setup fee, then a monthly retainer
- check We bring your clients, jobs, cost codes, suppliers and cost history across from Databuild, checked against your own reports
- check We enter your live position: open orders, unpaid claims, pending variations and your subcontractors' insurance dates
- check We set it up around your cost codes, your contract terms and the rules of your state or New Zealand
- check It runs inside Omni, our managed Command Center, with the rest of your business
Questions
Instead of Databuild, answered
Databuild does our estimating and price files. What happens to that? expand_more
Price file management and estimating are what Databuild is known for, and the free version does not replace them. Estimate however suits you, and the estimate's line totals become the job's budget. From then on this runs the part that decides whether the job makes money: orders, costs, variations, claims and margin. When Enterprise DNA builds your version, your price files and estimating templates can be brought in too.
Databuild also does our accounts. Does this? expand_more
No, and on purpose. Your accounting system stays your ledger and your accountant's home, and payroll stays where it is. This is the job record: which job, which cost code, which order, which claim. Your bookkeeper gets a full export whenever they ask, and Enterprise DNA can connect it to your accounting system as part of your version.
Can we get our history out of Databuild? expand_more
Your Databuild records already sit in a database on your own server, so the history is there to be read. The free version imports from spreadsheets and report exports, and the columns Databuild gives you need matching to the new record. Mapping that is part of what Enterprise DNA does, or you can ask Claude Code to map it and run a test import first.
Is it built for Australian builders? expand_more
The free version's compliance rules are written for New Zealand building law, with every source cited in a file you can read. The gates themselves, claims held to the contract and variations in writing before the work, suit any builder. Enterprise DNA rewrites the rules for your state's contract and payment laws when we build your version. None of it is legal advice.
Is the free version really free? expand_more
Yes. MIT licence. Run it anywhere, change anything, no account with us and nothing to activate.
Retire the server, keep the record
30 minutes with Sam. We look at what Databuild and the server under it cost you a year, what your job record really holds, and what your own version would look like. If it is a fit, we build it and bring your history across. If it is not, take the free version and run it yourself.
Builders for Claude Code is free and open source, published by Enterprise DNA.
Done paying for Databuild?
Get your version built