Build, price and issue a Bill of Quantities

Install & open

BillMate installs like any other desktop app on Windows, Mac and Linux — or opens straight in your browser on a phone or tablet. There is no account and no server either way.

On Windows, Mac or Linux

1. Download the installer for your system

   From the link in your purchase email or the download page — Windows, Mac or Linux. Each is a normal installer for that system, not a shared download.

2. Run it

   The same as installing any other desktop program: follow the prompts. Windows or macOS may show a first-run security notice for a new publisher — that's normal; allow it to continue.

3. Launch BillMate

   From the Start Menu (Windows), your Applications folder (Mac), or your application launcher (Linux) — it opens as its own window from here on, not inside a browser tab.

On a phone or tablet

1. Open BillMate in your browser

   Visit the link from your purchase email or the download page. On iPad or iPhone, Safari works best.

2. Add it to your home screen

   Safari: Share → Add to Home Screen. Chrome: ⋮ → Add to Home screen. It then launches full-screen with no browser chrome, which is the better way to work on site.

First-run setup

The first time you open BillMate it asks for your firm's defaults. Every new project inherits them, and you can override any of them per project later.

You can reopen this at any time from ⋮ → Region, currency & firm.

Your first bill

A complete run through, end to end. Ten minutes, using a real substructure as the worked example.

1. Name the project

   Press Edit on the project card. Fill in the project name, client, location and date. These print in the header of the issued bill.

2. Open a section

   Your new project already has sections from the template — Substructure, Superstructure, Roofing and so on. Click a section header to open it.

3. Add your first item

   Press Add item. Type the description the way it should read on the bill, choose the unit, then enter the quantity and rate.

   Worked example

   Description	Unit	Qty	Rate	Amount
   Excavate trench not exceeding 1.50m deep, wheel, deposit and level spoil on site	m³	120	4,500	540,000

4. Measure it properly instead of guessing

   Rather than typing 120, press the taking-off icon on the row, enter your dimensions, and cast the result into the quantity. You then have the working measure on file. See Taking-off.

5. Build the rate up instead of guessing

   Press the build-up icon and enter material, labour and plant per unit plus your overhead and profit percentages. BillMate calculates the all-in rate and remembers the breakdown. See Rate build-ups.

6. Keep the rate for next time

   Once the bill is priced, open ⋮ → Rate library and press Capture from this bill. Every rate you keyed is now available to price your next job in one click. See The rate library.

7. Set your percentages

   On the project card, set Preliminaries, Contingency and the tax rate. They apply across the whole bill — see Percentages & totals.

8. Issue it

   Export BOQ opens your browser's print dialog — choose Save as PDF. Export CSV gives you the same bill as a spreadsheet. See Exporting.

9. Back it up

   ⋮ → Backup all data. Do this at the end of every working session. See Backups & data safety.

The screen explained

The row tools

Every item row carries these, at the right on a computer and below the figures on a phone:

Projects

Click the project name in the top bar to open the project list. From there you can switch, rename, delete, or create a new project.

Each project carries its own currency, measurement system and tax settings, so you can price a job in Nigeria and another in the UAE from the same install without touching your defaults.

Sections

A section is an element or a trade — the level a client reads sub-totals at.

• Add — Add section / element at the bottom of the bill.
• Rename — click the section name and type. It saves when you click away.
• Reorder — the up and down arrows in the section header. The section keeps everything inside it.
• Collapse — click anywhere on the header. Collapse state is remembered, and exporting no longer disturbs it.
• Delete — Delete section inside the section. Asks first, then offers an undo.

Section templates

A new project starts from one of these. You can rename, add and delete sections afterwards, so treat the template as a starting point rather than a commitment.

Items

Each row is one measured item: a description, a unit, a quantity, a rate, and the amount BillMate calculates from them.

Keying items quickly

• Tab moves across the row and on to the next. Totals update as you type.
• Amounts, sub-totals, the section share bars and the grand total all recalculate live.
• A rate cell highlighted in amber means the item has a quantity but no rate. The count of those appears as a red badge on the section header, so nothing unpriced can hide inside a collapsed section.
• Duplicate copies the description, unit, quantity, dimension sheet and build-up — the fastest way to bill a family of similar items.
• Delete is immediate but offers Undo for eight seconds. There is no confirmation dialog, because deleting rows is something you do dozens of times a session.

Units

Pick from the unit dropdown. The list covers metric, imperial and the units a surveyor meets outside the SI set:

Provisional & prime cost sums

Work that is genuinely required but cannot be measured yet — a statutory connection, a specialist sub-contract package, the prime cost of ironmongery.

1. Add an ordinary item and write the description

   For example, Statutory water authority connection and meter.

2. Open the unit dropdown and choose the sum type

   Below the measured units there is a Sums group with Prov. sum and PC sum.

3. Enter the sum in the rate column

   The quantity locks to 1, so the amount is the sum itself. The row is tinted and tagged so it cannot be mistaken for measured work.

On the issued bill the description is prefixed Provisional Sum — or Prime Cost Sum —, the unit prints as sum, and the bill summary gains a line reading — of which provisional & PC sums. Sums are part of the measured total; that line simply tells the client how much of the price covers work that has not been defined yet.

Taking-off

The dimension sheet behind a quantity — the working a QS is asked to produce when a figure is queried.

1. Open the sheet

   Press the taking-off icon on the item row.

2. Choose what you are measuring

   Linear (length), Area (length × width), Volume (length × width × depth) or Number (counted). The dimension fields change to match, and units follow the project's measurement system.

3. Enter each dimension set

   Times multiplies the set — enter 4 for four identical columns. Leave it blank for once. Label the row so the sheet still makes sense in six months: external walls grid A–D.

4. Deduct openings and voids

   Mark a row Ddt and it subtracts instead of adding. The row turns red and its result shows negative — the standard way to handle a door, window or void.

5. Cast it into the bill

   Cast to quantity writes the net total into the item's quantity and sets the unit to match what you measured. A small dot appears beside the quantity to show it came from a measure rather than a keystroke.

Measuring on screenPro

Instead of typing dimensions, measure them off the drawing itself.

1. Press Measure on screen on the dimension sheet

   Load the drawing: a PDF, a photo or a screenshot — or paste one from the clipboard. A multi-page PDF asks which sheet to open. The PDF reader downloads once, the first time you open a PDF, and works offline after that. Password-protected PDFs will not open.

2. Set the scale

   Choose Scale, tap both ends of a dimension you already know — a grid line or an overall dimension — type its real length and press Set scale. Once per drawing is all it needs.

3. Measure

   On a plan, the enclosed rooms are found and measured for you and listed under Measurements. Otherwise use Line, Rectangle, Area or Count. Ortho and Snap keep lines straight and on the corners. Mark a measurement Ddt to deduct it, or remove anything that is not what you are measuring.

4. Press Cast to dim sheet

   Each measurement arrives as an ordinary dimension line, where it can be checked, then Cast to quantity as usual.

Taking off from a DXF drawingPro

A CAD drawing carries its own scale, so there is nothing to calibrate: lines are measured at their real length, in the drawing's own units. The file is read on your device and never uploaded.

1. Press Take off from a DXF drawing on the dimension sheet

   Choose the .dxf. Have a DWG? Open it in your CAD program and use Save As → DXF; any DXF version works. The drawing stays with the project, so the next item opens straight onto it; Another file swaps it.

2. Check the units

   The Units box shows what the file says it is drawn in. If the file does not say, BillMate guesses from the drawing's size and tells you so: measure a dimension you know before you add anything.

3. Pick what you are measuring

   In Pick mode, tap a line to pick it, or tap inside a closed outline — a room — to pick the room. The Layers list picks or hides a whole layer and shows each layer's total length and outline area; the Blocks list counts every insert of a block, so all the D-900 doors are one tap. Drag to move, pinch or scroll to zoom.

4. Or measure a path

   In Measure mode, tap points along the drawing; they snap to its corners and ends. Tick Closed shape to take the area it encloses.

5. Press Add to the sheet

   What lands depends on the item: total length for Linear, outline area for Area, a count for Number. Picked lines on an Area or Volume item are multiplied by the height, width or depth you type under the drawing — wall length × storey height for plaster, for instance. There is one row per layer, or per block for a count, each with a note naming the file and layer.

Quantities from an IFC modelPro

A BIM model can be exported with its own quantities — the lengths, areas, volumes and counts the authoring tool worked out. BillMate reads those and totals them; it does not compute anything from the 3D shapes.

1. Export a plain .ifc with base quantities

   From Revit, ArchiCAD, Tekla or Allplan, switch on Export base quantities (or your tool's equivalent). Without them the model still opens, but only counts are available, and the screen says so. Zipped .ifcZIP and .ifcXML files are not read.

2. Press Take off from an IFC model on the dimension sheet

   Elements are grouped by class and type — Wall · Exterior 200, Door · 900 × 2100 — with rooms grouped by their name. Choose a Level to take one floor at a time.

3. Tick the groups and choose the quantity

   Only quantities of the kind the item measures are offered: lengths for a Linear item, areas for Area, volumes for Volume, element counts for Number. Net figures come before Gross.

4. Press Add to the sheet

   Each ticked group becomes one row: the total over its elements, with a note naming the model, the type, the quantity and, where some elements lacked it, how many carried it.

Rate build-ups

The constituents behind an all-in unit rate — what a client's QS will ask you to justify.

1. Open the build-up

   Press the build-up icon on the item row.

2. Enter the cost per unit

   Material delivered, including waste and laps. Labour as the gang cost per unit, from the local daily wage and a realistic output constant. Plant / equipment for hire, fuel and small tools — zero if the item is hand-worked.

3. Add overhead and profit

   Both are percentages. They default to 10% and 15% until you set your own.

4. Apply it

   Apply rate to item writes the calculated rate onto the bill and keeps the breakdown. The build-up icon turns solid to show there is working behind that rate, and reopening it shows your figures rather than a blank form.

How the rate is calculated

Net cost   = material + labour + plant
Overhead   = net cost × overhead %
Profit     = (net cost + overhead) × profit %
Unit rate  = net cost + overhead + profit

Building rates from resource prices

Instead of typing a material or labour figure, build it from prices you keep once — a bag of cement, a tonne of sand, a mason's day — so that when a price moves, every rate built from it moves too.

1. Add your prices under ⋮ → Resource prices

   Each has a name, a unit, a price and a type: material, labour or plant. They are kept on this device and shared by every project in the same currency.

2. In a rate build-up, press Add a resource

   Choose the resource, then the quantity of it one unit of the item takes and any waste percentage — e.g. 7 bags of cement per m³ of concrete, with 5% waste. The resource lines are added to the material, labour and plant figures.

3. When prices move, review the rates

   After you change a resource price, Resource prices shows how many rates are built from prices that have changed. Review brings them up to date in one step. Bills whose contract has been let are left alone — change those through a variation.

The materials & labour schedule

⋮ → Materials & labour schedule (also a card on the home screen) multiplies every resource-built rate out over the bill, in three tables: the cement, sand, blocks and steel to order, waste included; the labour in hours and man-days; and the plant in hours and plant-days — each with its cost. Man-days are hours divided by the Working day at the top, 8 hours unless you change it; only resources priced by the hour or the day have hours to count.

Below the tables, every measured item with no resource build-up is listed with the reason — no rate yet, a rate typed in, an AI rate, a library rate — and the share of the priced work they make up, so you can see what the schedule does not cover. Print it, or download an Excel workbook with materials, labour, plant and the items not included on separate sheets; the man-day formulas follow the working-day cell.

The rate library

Your own unit rates, held on this device and reused across every project. This is the single biggest time-saver in BillMate, and it is available on the free plan.Free

Open it from ⋮ → Rate library.

Importing your rates

You almost certainly have a priced schedule in a spreadsheet already. Bring it in once.

1. Press Import rates
2. Give it your data

   Either Choose a CSV file… (up to 8 MB), or select the cells in Excel or Google Sheets, copy, and paste into the box. A pasted block arrives tab-separated and is read the same way. Comma files, semicolon files and quoted descriptions containing commas are all handled.

3. Match your columns

   BillMate reads your header row and pre-fills the mapping — and it knows that a column headed Unit Rate is the rate, not the unit. Correct anything wrong with the dropdowns above each column. Description and Rate are required; unit, currency, region and note are optional. Untick First row is a header if your file has no headings.

4. Set the currency

   Any row without its own currency column takes the currency you choose here. This matters — a rate is only ever applied to a bill in the same currency.

5. Import

   The button tells you exactly how many rates will land, and the summary tells you how many rows were skipped for having no description or no rate — so trade headings and blank spacer rows never disappear silently.

The minimum your spreadsheet needs

Description,Unit,Rate
Excavate trench not exceeding 1.50m deep,cum,4500
150mm solid blockwork in walls,sqm,"8,200.00"
Reinforcement, high yield bars,kg,1450

Column order does not matter — you map them. Numbers may carry thousands separators, currency symbols and decimal commas.

Pricing a bill from the library

All at once

Apply to this bill matches every item and shows you a preview before anything changes. Each proposal is labelled:

• Exact — the same item, allowing for wording and punctuation.
• Similar — close enough to offer, worth a glance.
• Stale — the library rate is over a year old.

Unpriced items are ticked by default and items you have already priced are not, so the safe action is the default one. Only unpriced, Select all and Select none adjust the selection, and the whole operation has a single undo.

One row at a time

The library icon on a row turns green when your library covers that item. Press it to search your library and pick a rate. Applying one sets the rate and the unit together.

Automatically, on AI-generated items

When the AI generates items for a section, any that match your library are priced from it immediately, and a message tells you how many.

Capturing rates you have already keyed

Capture from this bill adds every priced item on the open project to your library. Rates for the same item and unit are updated rather than duplicated.

Two things are deliberately excluded: AI-estimated rates, because taking those in would launder a guess into your own price list, and provisional and PC sums, because they are job-specific.

How matching works

Worth understanding, because it decides what lands on your bill:

Managing and moving the library

• Search — filter by description, unit or region.
• Edit a rate — type a new figure straight into the list. It re-dates to today.
• Delete — the bin on the row, with an undo.
• Export as CSV — the whole library as a spreadsheet, ready to share with a colleague or import on another device.
• Clear library — asks first, and offers an undo. Export a copy before you do this.

Your library also travels inside every backup file, and restoring a backup merges rates rather than replacing them — so restoring a colleague's backup will not wipe the price list you already hold.

Keeping rates current

A schedule priced eighteen months ago is not slightly wrong. It is wrong by whatever inflation and exchange movement has done since — and it is far easier to trust by mistake than an AI rate.

Age is always visible

Every rate in the library shows its real age: priced this month, 14 months old, 2 years old. Anything over 12 months is flagged stale in the library, in the apply preview, and — the part that matters — on the printed bill, where the basis of estimate records how many priced items rely on ageing rates.

Uplifting a schedule

This is the annual job every surveyor does by hand in Excel.

1. Press Uplift rates

   Either from the stale-rate banner or from the buttons under the list.

2. Enter the percentage

   How much prices have moved since these rates were set. Negative values reduce.

3. Choose what it applies to

   All rates, Only rates over 12 months old, or Only rates in your project's currency. Add a text filter to narrow further — concrete, blockwork, Lagos.

4. Check the preview, then apply

   You see real before-and-after figures on actual rates. Applying re-dates them to today, so they stop being flagged stale, and the whole operation has one undo.

AI assistancePro

Useful for drafting scope and wording items quickly. Treat its rates as a starting point, never as a price you can issue.

Connecting a key

The AI features need a Groq API key of your own. BillMate has no server of its own, so the key is yours and the request goes straight from your device to Groq.

1. Create a free account at console.groq.com
2. Create an API key and copy it

   It begins gsk_.

3. Paste it into BillMate

   ⋮ → Groq API key for AI, paste, and Save key. It is stored on this device only.

Full BOQ generator

Drafts an entire bill from a description of the works. Reach it from AI Full BOQ Generator at the bottom of the bill.

The three rate modes

Generating items for one section

Generate items inside a section drafts 6–14 properly worded measured items for the element you describe. It never returns rates — you get descriptions, units and quantities, then tick the ones you want. Anything your library covers is priced automatically.

Suggesting a build-up

Inside the rate build-up dialog, ✦ Suggest a build-up with AI fills in material, labour, plant, overhead and profit for that one item, and reports the local anchor prices and output constant it used. Your library rates are included in the brief, so the suggestion stays consistent with your own price level. Check it before applying.

Knowing which rates to trust

Every rate carries its origin, shown as a line under the rate cell:

Typing over a rate clears the marking immediately, because a rate you have keyed is your rate. The counts also print on the bill and appear in the CSV's Rate source column, so provenance survives the document leaving the app.

If AI calls stop working

Groq retires models on a schedule. If that happens you will get a clear message naming the model. Open ⋮ → Groq API key for AI, and put a current model name in the AI model field — the list is at console.groq.com. Leave the field blank to return to the default.

Percentages & totals

The three percentage boxes on the project card apply across the whole bill. They compound in the order shown:

Measured work    = sum of every section (including sums)
Preliminaries    = measured × prelim %
Contingency      = (measured + preliminaries) × contingency %
Sub-total        = measured + preliminaries + contingency
Tax              = sub-total × tax %
Grand total      = sub-total + tax

Every figure is rounded at the point it is produced, to the precision of the project's currency. That is why printed line amounts always add up to the printed sub-total exactly, and why Kuwaiti dinar shows three decimals while Japanese yen would show none.

ExportingPro

The client-ready BOQ

1. Press Export BOQ

   Every section opens and your browser's print dialog appears. Your collapse state is restored afterwards.

2. Choose Save as PDF

   Chrome and Edge: Destination → Save as PDF. Safari: the PDF dropdown → Save as PDF. Firefox: Print to File.

3. Check the first page

   Confirm the letterhead is your firm name and the header carries the right client, location and date.

The printed document differs from the screen in ways that matter:

The spreadsheet

Export spreadsheet offers two formats:

• Excel workbook (.xlsx) — live formulas, so changing a quantity, rate or percentage makes every total follow, with a general summary sheet.
• CSV (plain text) — figures only, for importing into other software.

Both carry these columns:

Above the table sits a metadata block — project, client, location, date, currency, method of measurement. Below it are the section sub-totals, the full bill summary and your basis of estimate.

The file is written as UTF-8 with a byte-order mark, so m², ₦, accented and Arabic descriptions all open correctly in Excel. Descriptions beginning with =, +, - or @ are neutralised so a spreadsheet cannot execute them.

Tender analysisPro

Send the bill out, bring each priced copy back, and let BillMate do the checking you would otherwise do with a calculator: every extension, every total, every item left blank or quietly changed. Tenders are then compared on their corrected sums.

Open it with the amber Tender button on the project card.

1. Send the bill out

1. Press Download tender copy (.xlsx)

   You get an Excel workbook of the bill with the quantities filled in and the rates blank. Provisional and prime cost sums are already priced — they are the client's, not the tenderer's. The Summary sheet has a line for the tenderer's preliminaries as a lump sum, and carries your contingency as a fixed figure.

2. Send the same file to every tenderer

   Each row carries a hidden key, so a returned copy matches your bill line for line even if the tenderer inserts rows or re-sorts the sheet. Ask them to price in the Rate column and not to change quantities, descriptions or references.

2. Bring the priced bills back

1. Press Import a priced bill

   Type the tenderer's name and choose their file — the returned .xlsx, a CSV or a priced PDF (see below). The file is read on your device; nothing is uploaded. A bill retyped into the tenderer's own spreadsheet still matches on item reference and description, and any row that matches nothing is listed as an item the tenderer added.

2. Read the checks

   Each tender opens on what was found:

Priced bills returned as PDF

Many tenderers print the tender copy, price it and send back a PDF. BillMate reads the text, lays it back out into rows and columns from where each word sits on the page, and matches the lines to your bill — but it never saves what it read without you.

1. Choose the PDF in Import a priced bill

   The PDF reader is the same one on-screen measuring uses: it downloads once, the first time, and works offline after that.

2. Check the review screen

   Every bill line is listed with the figures read beside it. A line marked ≈ was matched on its wording and reads differently from your bill; a line in amber was not found. Lines in the PDF that are not in your bill are listed underneath, and the measured-work total, preliminaries and tender sum are filled in where they were found.

3. Correct anything misread, then press Accept these figures

   Only then is the tender saved, and it is checked exactly like a workbook. Cancel saves nothing.

Correct the tender, or let it stand

Where a tender has arithmetic errors, choose Correct the tender (the tender sum becomes the corrected sum) or Tenderer stands by it (the submitted sum stands, and every measured rate is treated as adjusted in the same proportion — sums and preliminaries excluded — as the usual codes of procedure provide). Tenders are always ranked on the corrected figure, so an error can never decide who is cheapest.

3. Compare and report

• Compare ranks the tenders against your pre-tender estimate, section by section and item by item. A rate is flagged when it is 50% above or 40% below the reference — the median tender where there are three or more, otherwise your estimate.
• The estimate is fixed when the first tender is imported, so repricing the bill afterwards cannot move the yardstick.
• Report drafts a recommendation from the figures. Edit it, then Print tender report for a report on your letterhead, or download the Comparison workbook (.xlsx).

4. Accept a tender

Open the winning tender and press Accept this tender. Every rate in the bill becomes that tenderer's rate, preliminaries become their lump sum, and the contract sum is fixed — Post-contract then runs against exactly what was accepted. Your estimate stays in the tender record, and the toast that follows has an Undo button.

Post-contractPro

Once the contract is let, the same bill carries the job through to the end: interim valuations and payment certificates, a register of variations, price fluctuations, and the final account.

Open it with the green Post-contract button on the project card. It has four tabs: Valuations, Variations, Fluctuations and Final account.

Interim valuations

1. Press New valuation

   Each valuation records work done to date, not this month's work — that is how it is measured on site and how it is checked. A new valuation starts from the last one's figures.

2. Record the work done

   Against each item, enter the quantity done to date, or use Mark complete. A figure above the bill quantity is flagged — a remeasurement, or a mistake? Work on approved variations appears after the bill, grouped by variation.

3. Add materials on site, preliminaries and retention

   Add materials on site for materials delivered but not yet built in. Preliminaries are valued In proportion to measured work or By % complete. Set the retention percentage; at practical completion tick Practical completion — release half the retention.

4. Check the certificate, then issue it

   The certificate runs gross valuation, less retention, net valuation, less previously certified, to the amount of this certificate and, where the project carries tax, the amount due. Print certificate gives a draft marked DRAFT — NOT CERTIFIED until you press Issue certificate.

Variations

1. Press New variation

   Give it a description, the instruction reference (e.g. AI 04) and a date.

2. Add the additions and omissions

   An Omission picks the bill item being omitted. An Addition is new work: describe it, give a unit, quantity and rate — or price it at an existing bill rate.

3. Set the status

   Pending, Approved or Rejected. Only approved variations are valued in certificates and adjust the final account; pending ones are shown separately as an anticipated figure.

FluctuationsPro

Where the contract pays for price changes on materials, the Fluctuations tab works them out from what has actually been built in. It uses the basic price list method: for each resource, the quantity built in since the last certificate × (price at the valuation − basic price).

1. Press Set the basic price list

   It takes today's price of every resource the bill is built from. Change any of them to the prices the tender was actually based on, and set the date.

2. Set the terms

   Choose what is adjustable (materials by default; labour and plant too if the contract says so), any non-adjustable element to deduct, and whether retention is held on fluctuations. Without that tick, fluctuations are added after retention.

3. In each valuation, enter the prices now

   The valuation shows each adjustable resource with the quantity built in this period. Type the current price, or press Use my current resource prices. Fluctuations to date then appear on the certificate, with a schedule, and in the final account.

Final account

The Final account tab takes the contract sum as let, deducts the contingency, adds every approved variation, and compares the result with what has been certified to date, leaving the balance to pay. Print statement produces a Statement of Final Account with a line for the contractor's acceptance; each tab also exports an Excel workbook.

Claims and extensions of time

The Claims tab keeps a register of delay and disruption events, and the completion date they move.

1. Set the contract dates

   Enter the contract start and the original completion date. The revised completion date is the original plus the days granted on every event marked Assessed or Agreed — nothing else moves it.

2. Record each event

   New event: what happened, whose risk it was (employer's, neutral, or contractor's), the clause, when it began and ended, when it was notified, the days and the loss and expense claimed, what was granted, its status, and notes for the evidence. Notice given more than 28 days after the event began is flagged, so the notice clause gets checked before anything is assessed.

3. Bring in the programme (optional)

   Import a programme takes an MS Project XML or a Primavera P6 XER. Link an event to the activity it delayed and BillMate shows an indication: the event's length less that activity's total float. It is labelled as a starting point for your assessment and is never written into the days granted.

4. Print or export the register

   Print register for the meeting file, or Excel (.xlsx) with the totals as formulas.

Backups & data safety

Read this section. Everything lives on your device, which is a feature — and it means a backup file is the only copy nobody else can delete for you.

Making a backup

⋮ → Backup all data downloads a single JSON file named for today's date. It contains every project — sections, items, dimension sheets, build-ups — and your whole rate library. Keep it in your cloud drive.

Restoring

⋮ → Restore from backup, then pick the file. It asks first, because restoring replaces your current projects. Your rate library is treated differently: rates are merged, so restoring a colleague's backup adds their rates to yours instead of wiping them.

Moving to a new device

1. Back up on the old device
2. Get the backup file onto the new one

   Email it to yourself, or put it in your cloud drive — it's the one file you need to carry over.

3. Install BillMate on the new device (or open it in the browser on a phone or tablet), then restore

   Your licence key activates fresh there too — see Free vs Pro for how many devices your plan covers.

The backup reminder

Once a bill has real work in it, a quiet banner appears if you have never backed up or your last backup is more than a fortnight old. It is dismissible and it is not an error — it is a countdown you can see while everything is still fine. The menu also shows how long ago you last backed up, and how much space BillMate is using on the device.

Sync between devicesPro

Keep the same projects, rate library and resource prices on every device on your licence — the laptop at the desk and the phone on site.

1. Open ⋮ → Sync between devices

   Set a sync passphrase of at least 8 characters and press Turn on sync.

2. On each other device, enter the same passphrase

   Changes then go to your other devices a few seconds after you stop typing, and theirs arrive when you open or come back to the app. Sync now forces it.

Languages

Tap the globe in the top bar, or ⋮ → Language. Available: English, العربية (Arabic), Français, Español, हिन्दी (Hindi) and தமிழ் (Tamil). Arabic switches the entire layout right-to-left.

By default, professional terms of art — BOQ, Preliminaries, Contingency, Taking-off, Rate build-up, unit symbols, VAT and GST, and the names of the methods of measurement — stay in English, because most surveyors read those as fixed terminology whatever language they work in. Turn on Translate technical terms in settings if you would rather have them localised.

Numbers, dates and currency always follow the project's own locale, so amounts render correctly no matter which interface language you are reading.

Free vs Pro

Unlocking

1. Buy a licence

   Open ⋮ → Unlock Pro and press Buy a licence. Once payment goes through we send you a licence key by email or WhatsApp — a short string like BM-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX.

2. Paste it in and verify

   Paste the key into Licence key and press Verify & unlock. This one step needs an internet connection — BillMate checks the key the first time it sees it on this device. Once verified, Pro keeps working offline exactly like the rest of the app.

Troubleshooting

Quick reference

Limits and defaults

Everyday flows

Good practice

• Set your firm name and a specific locality before your first export.
• Import your own rate schedule once — it pays for itself on the first job.
• Capture rates from every bill you price. The library compounds.
• Uplift or re-check your library annually so nothing quietly goes stale.
• Measure with the dimension sheet rather than typing quantities. It is the audit trail.
• Never issue a bill with amber rates still on it.
• Back up at the end of every session.