Renno partners with Cost Estimator: connecting how a job gets priced and how it gets paid
Michael OladeleWe're announcing Renno's first UK distribution partnership, with Cost Estimator, the online estimating service where UK builders price up their jobs.
Why it fits
The best moment to reach a builder isn't when an invoice is overdue. It's the moment they're pricing the work, right before payment terms get agreed with the homeowner. That is exactly where Cost Estimator sits. A builder estimates the job there, and can now carry it straight into Renno, where the client's money is protected up front and released stage by stage as the work gets done.
Who Cost Estimator is
Cost Estimator is a UK online construction estimating service and software platform, built for builders, self-builders, developers and architects. A builder uploads their plans or scope, and Cost Estimator's qualified quantity surveyors return a clear, itemised estimate: quantities, material take-offs, labour and plant costs, and the assumptions, allowances and exclusions all set out properly.
Builders can then tweak rates and margins in the software to keep full control of their pricing. In short, it is like having an in-house estimator without adding to the payroll: fast, accurate, professional pricing that helps builders win more work and start every job on a number they trust.
Builders and homeowners should be discussing price and payment from the same information. Cost Estimator provides an itemised record of the scope, quantities, assumptions and exclusions. Renno adds an agreed structure for protecting and releasing the client’s money in stages, so both sides understand what has been priced and how payment will be handled before work starts.
James Hill, Director, Cost Estimator
Where projects actually go wrong
The reason this partnership matters is in the data. When we surveyed UK homeowners and builders earlier this year, the same two themes came up again and again.
Put those together and the pattern is clear. A vague price at the start becomes an argument about money at the end. If a builder can get the estimate right, and agree how the money moves, and most of that friction disappears before it begins.
What it means for builders
It means the number you priced is the number you get paid on. Price the job accurately with Cost Estimator, run the payment through Renno, and stop floating your own cash or chasing an invoice weeks after the work is done. Less admin, steadier cash flow, and more time on the tools instead of on the phone.
What it means for homeowners
A job that has been costed properly is far less likely to balloon halfway through. Combine an itemised estimate with staged, protected payments and a homeowner knows two things from day one: what the work should cost, and that their money stays safe until each stage is actually delivered. Fewer surprises, more control, on the biggest project most people ever pay for.
Builders don't need another app to learn. They need the tools they already use to talk to each other. Cost Estimator is where a job gets priced, Renno is where it gets paid, and joining the two removes the friction that quietly costs builders time and money. It's the first of several partnerships putting Renno where builders already are.
Mark Slaughter, Co-founder, Renno
How it works
Builders who price their jobs with Cost Estimator can set them up on Renno to handle payment, so the two sit side by side in the same workflow. Nothing changes about how you already work. It just means the job you have priced is the job you actually get paid for.
Just the start
Cost Estimator is the first of several partnerships we are building across the UK renovation ecosystem, connecting the tools builders and homeowners already rely on into one smoother, safer way to run a project. More to come.
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