KITCHEN MAKERS · 3 MIN READ
Estimating software for kitchen makers: what should it do?
Donald · CoDraft · 15 September 2026
SHORT ANSWER
Good estimating software for kitchen makers reads the drawing, calculates with your own prices and rules, and produces a quote that is ready to send. The goal: a quote in a fraction of the time, without retyping dimensions.
A kitchen maker working to measure calculates every request from scratch. Cabinets, fronts, worktop, appliances, hardware, installation. It often starts with an architect drawing that gets retyped line by line into Excel or an estimating package. That is where the time goes, and where the mistakes creep in.
Where does estimating for kitchens go wrong?
Not in the calculating itself, but in everything around it. Copying dimensions from a drawing. Looking up prices that have changed since the last purchase. Exceptions that only the estimator knows by heart: a filler piece here, an extra routing there.
Retyping
Taking dimensions and quantities out of a PDF, by hand.
Outdated prices
Board material and appliances that have already gone up.
Knowledge in one head
When the estimator is away, the quote stalls.
What good estimating software for kitchen makers does
- Reading the drawing. Cabinets and dimensions come out of it; you check them.
- Calculating with your prices. Your own purchase prices, margins and hourly rates, not a standard list.
- Knowing your exceptions. Rules that now live only in someone’s head are built in.
- Making a quote that looks like yours. Ready to review and send.
Example: Ergoform
Ergoform designs and makes custom kitchens, interiors and worktops. Every request started with an architect drawing. Now the software reads that drawing as the first step, then calculates with Ergoform’s own prices and way of working.
Read how it works at Ergoform, step by step.
Ergoform customer storyOff-the-shelf package or custom?
An off-the-shelf package works if you work the way the package thinks. If you mostly do custom work, with your own rules and suppliers, you end up adapting to the software instead of the other way round. Custom software is built around your way of estimating.
Frequently asked questions
Does it work with our existing drawings?
Yes. We start with the drawings and quotes you already make, and build around them.
How long before it works?
That depends on how many of your own rules and exceptions there are. In a first conversation we look together at how you estimate today and tell you honestly what a realistic timeline is.
What if our prices change?
Your prices live in one place. When a purchase price changes, the next quote uses the new price straight away.
Does your estimating get stuck here too?
Half an hour with Donald. Together we look at where you stand, and we tell you honestly where we can help.
