When your estimating and field aren't aligned. Who pays?
The Challenge
I think we all know the answer to the question in the headline, it’s EVERYONE pays!
Last month I sat in a job trailer with a superintendent who'd just finished a brutal schedule meeting. He looked exhausted and said something that I hear often and with my past experience running work I can relate to: "They bid this job like it was wide open with perfect access. Have they seen this site? We're working in 12-foot alleys with neighbors who lose their minds every time we fire up equipment and start demo."
I'd reviewed that estimate. Good work and solid numbers. But there was this massive gap between what estimating assumed and what the field was experiencing every day. I was told that gap cost them three weeks and about $40K in just this one scope in this one area.
Your estimator is pricing the job based on production rates, crew sizes that made sense on paper and a competitive markup. They're thinking quantities and quotes. Not wrong. That's their job.
Your superintendent is dealing with the laydown area that isn't where anyone thought it would be, the concrete truck that can't make the turn everyone swore it could make (which now requires buggies and tons of hand work), and drawings that are two revisions old because nobody told them about the changes. Also not wrong. That's the reality of building.
Your PM is stuck in the middle wondering why the schedule is already falling apart in week two and why these same issues keep happening project after project. Your PM doesn’t want to confront the super because he’s got a chip on his shoulders and hates being questioned!
Here's the brutal part. This gap grows as you scale. At three projects with the same tight crew, everybody just knows how to adjust. But at fifteen projects or larger revenue projects, you’ve got a lot more added layers to the chaos! You have different estimators, multiple PMs, field teams who've never met the people who priced the work. That invisible gap becomes a volcano AND will erupt if not nurtured.
I've managed hundreds of millions in work and priced many billions in bids across my career. So believe me when I say this - resentment builds lightning fast when you're growing and adding this kind of pressure to your team.
The Impact
I worked with a client who couldn't figure out why their profits were shrinking despite landing bigger jobs at “better” prices. Of course on paper everything looked solid. But in the field, every project was running over on hours because the means and methods estimating assumed didn't match what superintendents actually needed to do the work safely and on schedule.
Nobody was being malicious. Unfortunately the estimator who priced it had left. The PM managing it now wasn't part of the bid team. The superintendent inherited the job mid-stream. Every handoff lost context until the assumptions were completely disconnected from reality.
And they were bleeding people. One of their best estimators was tired of getting called into meetings three months later to explain numbers he barely remembered. A top superintendent felt like they were being set up to fail because the schedule never matched actual conditions. PMs were burning out defending decisions they didn't make.
The real cost wasn't in any single number. It was how much energy the entire company spent fighting each other instead of collaborating. That's the thing about misalignment. It doesn't just make projects harder. It makes good people want to leave.
The Shift
The companies who've cracked this have made estimating, PM, and field operations part of the same conversation before work starts.
With my help, one client built a simple habit into their process. Every project, before kickoff, the assigned PM spends half a day in estimating reviewing the bid with whoever priced it. Not just the number. The actual assumptions. Production rates. Crew mix. Sequencing logic. Equipment. Access. Then that PM takes those assumptions straight to the superintendent and they pressure test them together against actual site conditions.
Watch what happens. The PM understands the thinking behind the number. The super knows exactly what was priced and what wasn't. When something doesn't line up, they catch it in week one instead of week eight.
But here's what most people miss. Your PMs need to actually understand estimating. Not just reading a recap sheet. How production rates get calculated. What drives equipment costs. How subcontractor scopes get defined. What material lead times mean for sequencing.
I've been in plenty of bid review meetings where PMs come in with every excuse in the book for why things can't work - "the schedule's impossible," "we can't get that crew," "this number's way too tight." Or the opposite - they nod along and say "yep, looks good" to everything just so they can get out of the room and go home, then complain the second the job starts and reality hits. We've all dealt with it. I certainly have. It's not about blame. It's about what's missing.
Without real understanding of estimating, your PMs are just moving information around. With it, they become the bridge that keeps estimating and field working in the same reality. This is why intentional training - not just throwing people into roles and hoping they figure it out - can actually transform your business. There's clearly more to solving this, but I want to give you something to think about.
The Closing
This alignment doesn't happen by accident and it won't fix itself by hiring better people. You've got good people already. What you don't have is the intentional structure that connects how you price work to how you actually build it.
The companies who solve this early are the ones who scale without destroying their culture or their margin in the process. Their projects run cleaner. Their people actually enjoy working together. And their owners get to focus on growth instead of constantly putting out fires that shouldn't exist in the first place.
Gerard Aliberti
Pro-Accel,
Owner
- Introducing the Bid Handoff Accelerator: If the challenges in this newsletter hit home, the Pro-Accel Bid Handoff Accelerator is designed specifically to solve them. This structured process transforms how your estimating assumptions get translated into executable field plans. We build the systems that make sure your PMs understand what went into the numbers, your superintendents know what was priced and what wasn't, and your entire team operates from the same reality before the first shovel hits dirt. PLUS, everyone knows who’s responsible for what when the project starts! The result? Projects that start clean run smoother and protect the profit and cash flow you worked hard to build into the bid. Want to learn more? Reply to this email or reach out at jerry@pro-accel.com.
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