<p>Because early cost advice is real work, and right now it&#39;s probably going out the door for free.</p> <p>When a client asks &quot;roughly what will this cost&quot; during schematic design, you&#39;re pulling numbers from memory, old bids, or a rushed spreadsheet. That&#39;s expertise you already bill for in every other form. There&#39;s no reason a fast, defensible early estimate should be the one deliverable you give away.</p> <p>BidLight turns that moment into a billable service instead of a favor:</p> <ul><li><strong>Export your Revit model</strong> as you&#39;re already working in it, no separate takeoff process.</li><li><strong>Get labor, equipment, material, and time costs back in minutes</strong>, generated by two AI models classifying BOQ line items against a live pricing database (Craftsman, 1Build, RSMeans, plus BidLight&#39;s own data).</li><li><strong>Hand the client a number you can defend</strong>, not a gut-feel range, backed by current pricing rather than last year&#39;s job cost.</li><li><strong>Watch it update in real time</strong> as the design changes, so revisions during the design phase don&#39;t mean redoing the estimate from scratch.</li><li><strong>Package it as a line item</strong>, an early cost consultation service, priced separately from your design fee.</li></ul> <p>That&#39;s the shift: instead of early estimating costing you unbilled hours, it becomes a fast, repeatable service you run inside the tool you&#39;re already using. Check the BidLight pricing page to find the plan that fits how often you&#39;re doing this.</p>