Buildxact Virtual Assistant: takeoffs done, you price

Nobody searches “buildxact virtual assistant” for fun. You search it because the jobs are stacking up, the plans are sitting in your inbox, and the only time you get to do a takeoff is after the kids are down. Buildxact is good software. The problem isn’t the tool, it’s that you’re the only person driving it.

Buildxact does the hard part well. Upload a PDF plan, set the scale, and you can measure a takeoff in clicks instead of scaling off paper with a wheel. The quantities flow onto the estimate, the estimate becomes a quote, the quote becomes purchase orders, and job costs track back against what you estimated. The workflow is genuinely joined up. What most small builders are missing is a second pair of hands to run it every day so quoting stops being a weekend job.

What a VA actually does inside your Buildxact

It starts with the plans. A new set comes in, your VA uploads it, sets the scale off a known dimension, and works through the takeoff: lengths for footings and framing, areas for the slab, render and roof, counts for windows and doors. Buildxact carries those quantities straight onto the estimate, so by the time you open it, every line has a real number behind it rather than a figure you eyeballed at 11pm.

Then the estimate gets built out. Your saved templates and recipes do the heavy lifting, a standard wall, a typical bathroom, your usual subfloor, and the VA assembles the job line by line under the right cost categories with a supplier against each item. They build it to the edge of the pricing decision and stop. The estimate is prepared; you set the rates and the margin. That’s the line, and it’s a deliberate one.

Around that sits the supply side. Requests for quote go out to your suppliers, including the integrated catalogues where you’ve connected them, and when prices come back the VA enters them against the right lines so you’re comparing like for like. Your Buildxact price list gets kept current instead of slowly going stale: new supplier prices in, dead items archived, recipes maintained so the same wall prices the same way every time. When you commit, purchase orders and work orders get raised off the schedule and sent, order numbers logged, deliveries tracked.

Once the job is running, the VA keeps the cost picture honest. Supplier invoices and actual costs get entered against the job so Buildxact’s estimate-versus-actual view stays live, and anything drifting over budget gets flagged by line or by category while you can still do something about it. Progress claims and invoices come off the schedule on your billing stages and sync through to Xero or MYOB, so the same invoice isn’t keyed into two systems.

What stays with you

Pricing. Margin. The buildability calls, the variations a client tries on, the read of whether a plan is even worth quoting. None of that moves. A VA gets the estimate to where every line has a quantity and a supplier, and hands you a job to price, not a decision to make on your behalf.

And here’s the part that makes builders comfortable: Buildxact’s Financial role is essentially a switch for showing or hiding gross profit, separate from estimating access. So your VA can have full rights to measure takeoffs, build estimates, raise purchase orders and track costs while your margin stays hidden from their view entirely. Some builders don’t bother once they trust the person. Others keep it off as a matter of course. The work is identical either way, and you decide before anyone touches the account.

The honest bit

Two things worth saying straight. First, the takeoff is only as good as the plan: a poorly dimensioned PDF or a missing scale means the VA flags it back to you rather than measuring a fiction, and that’s the right call, not a slow one. Second, the role you give them matters. Buildxact ships eight access roles, and the full set only appears on the Teams plan; the Pro plan exposes Owner, Administrator and Supervisor. We place a VA on an Estimator or Supervisor seat, never Owner or Administrator, so they can do every task above without holding the keys to your user management. On the upside, Buildxact charges per plan rather than per head, so adding the VA’s seat doesn’t lift your bill.

What it costs and where to start

Buildxact estimating and job admin sits on our admin tier, $12-17 AUD an hour excl GST, typically 8-15 hours a week for a small residential builder or busy trade contractor. The estimating-heavy work, takeoffs and structured estimate build, can step up to the specialist tier at $18-25 where the volume and complexity justify it. Placement takes 7-10 business days, with 5-7 days supervised inside your Buildxact before solo work, a 30-day recalibrate-or-replace guarantee, and no lock-in beyond 14 days notice.

If you want the wider view, the trades page goes deeper on how this fits a building business, and the VA cost guide lays out the full pricing picture. Otherwise book a discovery call with Jenn, who will tell you straight if your job pipeline is ready for a VA yet. Bring a recent set of plans and your price list. We’ll find the hours that get your quotes out on time.