Instead of Groundplan
Groundplan measures the plans. Own everything that happens after the quote.
Enterprise DNA turns your Groundplan quantities into job budgets, then builds the rest around how you order, cost and claim, and runs it for you. Keep measuring however you like.
Groundplan's own pricing is A$99 per seat a month ex GST, or A$990 per seat on the yearly plan, with Count Assist a further A$99 a month.
- check_circleYour data in a database you own
- check_circleOpen source, no lock-in
- check_circleBuilt and run by Enterprise DNA
What the subscription covers
A measuring tool, billed by the seat, that stops at the bill of quantities
Groundplan charges A$99 a month for each seat ex GST, or A$990 a seat on the yearly plan. Count Assist, which finds every matching symbol on a drawing, is an add-on at A$99 a month or A$990 a year. What it sells is speed at tender time: counts, lengths, areas, formulas and a quantities sheet that goes to Excel or to trade job software.
Priced per seat
Every person who measures needs a seat at A$99 a month, or A$1,188 over a year paid monthly.
The fast counting sold separately
Count Assist, the feature that turns hours of clicking symbols into seconds, is its own subscription on top of the seat at A$99 a month.
It ends where the job begins
Groundplan's output is the quantities and the price. Purchase orders, supplier invoices, budget against actual, variations and progress claims are not what it is built for, and that is where a builder's margin is won or lost.
The handover is a spreadsheet
The bill of quantities exports to Excel or goes to simPRO or AroFlo. For a builder without trade job software, the next stop is usually a workbook nobody keeps current once the slab is poured.
Thirty days after you stop paying
Groundplan's pricing page says a cancelled account's data is held for 30 days so you can reactivate. After that, years of measured plans and estimates are not something you can count on.
No view across the business
A takeoff tool answers how much material is on this drawing. It does not answer which jobs won at tender are now running over, which claim is late, or what your estimates were worth against what the jobs cost.
What you get instead
From quantities to handover, on one record your business keeps
From the takeoff
Your quantities become the job budget
The price you tendered is the plan you build to. Once the job is signed, the estimate's lines are the budget and every cost is measured against them.
- check Budget lines come straight from the estimate, so the number you won on is the number you are held to
- check Estimated against actual by line, so you see which of your takeoff assumptions were light
- check Every job sits on the same record, so you can see which kinds of work you price well
- check Measure in Groundplan, a spreadsheet or anything else: the record does not care where the quantities came from
The spend
Orders counted the day you place them
A supplier order is money spent before the invoice arrives. Here it counts against its budget line from the day it goes out.
- check Purchase orders reduce what is left on the line straight away, so a line never looks healthy while an invoice is in the post
- check A line that goes over is flagged as the cost lands, with the overrun in dollars
- check Orders left open for weeks come up on their own, so committed money is billed, chased or cancelled
- check Margin by job, worst first, at today's numbers rather than at month end
The money owed to you
Variations and claims kept honest
Most disputes start with work done on a handshake or a claim nobody chased. The record holds the line on both.
- check Extra work is logged as a variation and approved in writing, with who said yes, before it is built or claimed
- check A progress claim cannot pass the contract value plus the approved variations
- check Claims past their due date rise to the top with the days counting, and a firm reminder letter drafts itself for you to send
- check Subbies with lapsed insurance are refused before they are put on a site
Kept by you
A record that outlives any subscription
It runs on one laptop to start, or on your own database for the whole office. Claude Code and other AI assistants can work with it: the database is the asset.
- check Plain records in a database you own, with a full export whenever you want it
- check No seats: everyone in the office asks the same record
- check Open source under the MIT licence, so nothing expires when a payment stops
- check Years of jobs, claims and variations on hand for the defects and warranty questions that come later
Make it yours
Design your own Groundplan replacement
Everything starts from the open-source base. Then it gets your name, the parts you run, your rules and your data from Groundplan. 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 Groundplan data across and run it for you.
Switching
How to switch from Groundplan
The move involves exporting your Groundplan bill of quantities, mapping its columns to your new job records, and checking the imported data before you rely on it.
- 1
Export your quantities
Export the bill of quantities from Groundplan to Excel. That is the estimate information Builders for Claude Code can pick up as your job budget. If you want to bring over other records, ask Groundplan what your account allows you to export. The available material confirms Excel export for the bill of quantities, not a full export of every Groundplan record.
- 2
Map and test the import
The free import was written for a different builder system, so Groundplan’s columns need mapping before the data can be loaded. Have the mapping done, then run a test before anything is saved. You can ask Claude Code to map the columns, or Enterprise DNA can do this as part of building your version. Do not treat the test as a completed migration.
- 3
Review the import flags
Check the issues the import reports before saving the records as your live data. The import is also an audit, so use it to spot missing or mismatched information in the records you chose to bring across. Resolve the mapping or data issues you want to fix, then confirm the imported quantities and budgets make sense for the jobs you have won.
- 4
Run both side by side
Keep Groundplan available while you check the new job records against the estimates you exported. Continue using Groundplan for measuring plans if that is still how you win work. Builders for Claude Code starts after the price, with the job’s budget, orders and claims. Use a short period of running both to confirm the handoff suits your process before you stop relying on Groundplan.
- 5
Switch off only when ready
Once you have checked the imported records and are comfortable with the handoff, decide whether to cancel Groundplan. If measuring plans on screen is still useful, you can keep Groundplan for takeoff and use Builders for Claude Code for the job after the quote. If you cancel, Groundplan says it holds a cancelled account’s data for 30 days, so do not treat that as a long-term backup.
Where the real effort goes
The main work is usually mapping Groundplan’s columns to the new records and deciding how much history to bring over. The confirmed Groundplan export is the bill of quantities, so ask Groundplan what else your account can export if you need other records. Enterprise DNA handles the mapping as part of building your version when you have them run it.
Not ready for a call?
Get your Groundplan switch plan by email
We will send you the step-by-step plan for moving your business off Groundplan, what the move really involves, and how we would do it for you.
Sent. Check your inbox.
Your Groundplan switch plan is on its way.
Rather talk it through? Book a call arrow_forwardTwo ways to run it
Try the free version, or have us build yours
Open source
Run it yourself
Free
- 1 Clone the repo
- 2 npm run demo, then open the folder in Claude Code
- 3 Type /attention to see what the demo jobs need
- 4 Export your bill of quantities from Groundplan to Excel, ask Claude Code to map its columns to budget lines, 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 map your Groundplan quantities and price templates onto job budgets in your own cost codes
- check We load the jobs on site now: open orders, unpaid claims, variations waiting on a signature, your subbies and their insurance dates
- check We set the rules to your contracts, your claim terms and your retention
- check It runs inside Omni, our managed Command Center, alongside the rest of your business
Questions
Instead of Groundplan, answered
Do I have to give up Groundplan? expand_more
No. If measuring plans on screen wins you work, keep it for the people who measure. This system starts where Groundplan stops: the job you won, its budget, its orders and its claims. Some builders keep a seat for takeoff and run everything after the quote here; others measure some other way. Either works.
Can my Groundplan estimates come across? expand_more
Groundplan exports the bill of quantities to Excel. The free version's import was written for a different builder system's export, so Groundplan's columns need mapping first: you can ask Claude Code to do it, or Enterprise DNA does it as part of building your version. Either way, do a test run before anything is saved.
Does it do takeoff or count symbols on drawings? expand_more
No, and it does not pretend to. Measuring off plans is what Groundplan and Count Assist are good at. This is the record of the job once you have the price: the money in, the money out and the paperwork in between.
We already run simPRO or AroFlo. Where does this fit? expand_more
Groundplan sends quantities to trade job software, and if that software already runs your jobs well, keep it. This suits builders and contractors whose job costing lives in spreadsheets after the quote, or who want one record they own and can ask questions of in plain English.
Is the free version really free? expand_more
Yes. MIT licence, no account with us and no seat count. You pay Enterprise DNA only if you want us to build your version and run it.
Price it however you like. Keep the job record yourself
30 minutes with Sam. Bring what you spend on estimating seats and how a won job is tracked today, and we will show you what your version would hold and how your Groundplan quantities would land in it. If it fits, we build it. If not, the free version is yours to run.
Builders for Claude Code is free and open source, published by Enterprise DNA.
Done paying for Groundplan?
Get your version built