Automated electrical estimating software, helping you win more work

Countfire is for electrical estimators pricing electrical packages: commercial fit-outs, residential developments, and industrial installations. That spans sole estimators at growing contractors through to the estimating departments of major M&E businesses, with contractors including Kier, Engie and Jones Engineering among the electrical teams using Countfire.

It suits businesses at both ends of the tender spectrum. High-volume teams use it to keep pace with a constant flow of enquiries; smaller teams use it to punch above their headcount, submitting more tenders without hiring. Because it is fully cloud-based, estimators work from the office, from home or across offices, and teams worldwide use it on the same footing.

If your tenders involve counting sockets, luminaires, data points and distribution equipment from PDF drawings, measuring containment and cable runs, and turning it all into a priced schedule before a main contractor's deadline, Countfire was built around your workflow, by people who used to do it.

An electrical tender in Countfire runs in one single workflow:

1. Load the drawings. Upload the full PDF set to the software.
2. Count symbols across the whole project. Select a symbol once, and it is counted across every drawing simultaneously. Accessories, luminaires, detectors and distribution equipment are totalled by type, ready for pricing.
3. Measure the linear work. Trace containment, cable and conduit runs on the drawing, with each measurement itemised so your schedule shows where every metre came from.
4. Run the accuracy checks. Built-in checks flag anything uncounted before it becomes a missed cost, replacing the nervous second pass.
5. Handle revisions without restarting. When revision 3 lands mid-tender, compare specifications automatically to see exactly what changed, then update the takeoff and pricing rather than beginning again.
6. Price and submit. Your estimate starts auto-populated from previous behaviour and products, so regular items are already priced. Adjust for the project, apply your margins, and export a client-ready schedule. Every version stays on record in the cloud.

Estimating software gives time back in four main places:

The count. Manual takeoff on a large commercial project means days of clicking or highlighting, symbol by symbol, drawing by drawing. Automated takeoff counts a symbol across the entire drawing set at once.

The revisions. Mid-tender drawing revisions are where estimating time quietly disappears, because finding what changed means comparing documents by eye. Specification comparison shows the changes automatically, so you revise the affected items instead of re-checking everything.

The re-keying. Moving quantities from a takeoff into a spreadsheet is slow and it is where transposition errors creep in. When takeoff and estimate live in one tool, quantities flow through without a manual transfer step.

The pricing lookup. Most electrical estimates reuse the same accessories, cable and containment items tender after tender. Auto-populated pricing based on your previous estimates means you start each tender part-priced rather than at zero.

The compound effect is capacity. More tenders submitted with the same team, faster turnaround on urgent enquiries, and estimator time spent on the judgement calls, supplier quotes and risk decisions that actually decide whether you win.

• Automated symbol takeoff. Highlight a symbol once and Countfire counts every instance across all drawings in the project, keeping accessories, luminaires, detectors and equipment totalled separately by type. Large drawing sets that took days to count manually are counted in minutes.

  

• Linear measurement for containment and cable. Measure tray, basket, trunking, conduit and cable runs directly on the drawing, including bends. Each run is itemised, so quantities on the schedule are defensible rather than estimated.

  

• Built-in accuracy checks. Before an estimate goes out, Countfire flags uncounted items across the drawing set. A missed distribution board is an expensive discovery post-award; the checks exist to catch it pre-tender.

• Specification comparison. Compare drawing and specification revisions side by side and see the changes automatically, so mid-tender revisions mean targeted updates rather than a fresh start.

  

• Intelligent pricing. Estimates start auto-populated from your previous behaviour and products. Regularly used items arrive priced, and you keep full control to adjust rates, margins and markups per project.

• Client-ready schedules. Export a complete estimate in Excel with quantities and costs broken down to suit the client's format, including splitting or excluding areas in the pricing breakdown.

• Cloud-based, with a full record. Every estimate and every version is stored, so teams can collaborate on live tenders and refer back to any project, even long after submission. Access it wherever you work.