Everything you need to extract, benchmark, classify, and manage construction rates — powered by AI, built for quantity surveyors.
Upload subcontractor quotes as PDF or Excel and let AI extract every line item in seconds, not hours.
Drag and drop PDF or Excel files directly into the platform. Rates Goblin parses multi-page documents and complex spreadsheet layouts automatically, handling merged cells, nested tables, and inconsistent formatting.
AI identifies and extracts every line item with full detail: description, quantity, unit of measurement, unit rate, and total amount. Achieves 80%+ accuracy on first pass, even on poorly formatted or handwritten-style quotes.
Scanned or image-based PDFs are processed through Vision AI (OCR), converting printed and handwritten text into structured data. No need to request digital copies from subcontractors.
Review and correct any AI-extracted value directly in the interface. Every edit is logged with a full audit trail — who changed what, when, and from which original value — ensuring complete traceability.
Extracted quotes remain in draft until a qualified quantity surveyor reviews and formally signs off. This approval workflow ensures no unverified data enters your rate library or cost comparisons.
Each extracted field receives a confidence score. Low-confidence items are flagged for manual review, letting your team focus attention where it matters most rather than re-checking every line.
Compare every incoming quote against your own historical rates and industry benchmarks to spot outliers instantly.
Every extracted rate is automatically compared against your organisation's historical rate library. See at a glance whether a subcontractor's price is competitive, average, or above market based on your own data.
View statistical breakdowns for every rate item: median price, 25th percentile, and 75th percentile. Understand the full distribution of prices you have paid historically, not just a simple average.
Track Tender Price Index trends over time with clear directional indicators: Rising, Falling, or Stable. Understand whether current pricing reflects broader market movements or subcontractor-specific adjustments.
Colour-coded deviation badges highlight how each rate compares to benchmarks. Blue indicates within range, amber signals moderate deviation, and red flags significant outliers requiring further investigation.
Export your entire rate library — including benchmark statistics, deviation scores, and historical trends — to CSV format for use in external estimating tools, client reports, or offline analysis.
Monitor how your benchmarking accuracy improves as more data enters the system. The more quotes you process, the sharper your rate intelligence becomes, creating a compounding advantage.
Automatically classify extracted line items against RICS New Rules of Measurement standards for consistent cost categorisation.
AI classifies every extracted item against the RICS New Rules of Measurement hierarchy — from high-level NRM Level 1 elements down to granular Level 2 and Level 3 sub-elements, matching the structure professional QS teams use daily.
Each NRM classification receives a confidence score. Classifications scoring 85% or above are auto-approved, while lower-confidence items are queued for manual QS review, balancing speed with accuracy.
With consistent NRM classification applied to both cost plans and quotes, you can automatically compare budget allowances against incoming prices element by element — identifying overruns and savings at a glance.
Import, organise, and manage your cost plans with AI-assisted column detection and NRM element breakdown.
Upload your existing Excel cost plans directly. Rates Goblin reads your spreadsheet structure and maps it into the platform without requiring you to reformat or use templates.
The AI automatically identifies which columns contain descriptions, quantities, units, rates, and totals — even when column headers are missing, abbreviated, or use non-standard naming conventions.
Cost plans are structured by NRM element, giving you a clear breakdown by building element. Section headers are preserved, maintaining the hierarchy and context from your original document.
Manage cost plan lifecycle with clear status labels. New imports start as Draft, move to Active when signed off, and can be Archived when superseded — keeping your workspace organised and current.
Cost plans follow the same rigorous sign-off workflow as quotes. A qualified QS must review and approve before a cost plan becomes the active benchmark, ensuring data integrity across your projects.
AI preserves and recognises section headers, grouped items, and hierarchical structure from your original cost plan. The imported data retains context, not just flat rows of numbers.
Identify where the biggest savings opportunities exist across your procurement by analysing rate spread and specification variants.
Automatically identifies rate groups where there is a 60%+ price spread between the lowest and highest quotes. These high-variance items represent your greatest negotiation and savings opportunities.
For every high-spread item, Rate Goblin calculates the potential savings if you moved from the upper quartile to the median or lower quartile rate, giving you a concrete pound figure to target in negotiations.
Explore alternative specification tiers with the variant estimator. See estimated costs at LOW, MID, and HIGH specification levels for key items, helping you make informed value engineering decisions with your design team.
Ask questions about your data in plain English. Your AI-powered QS colleague calculates, compares, and advises — without fabricating figures.
Ask natural-language questions like "What is our average rate for blockwork across the last 6 projects?" or "Which subcontractor quoted lowest for M&E on Project Alpha?" and get precise, data-backed answers.
The AI query assistant performs live calculations across your quotes, cost plans, and rate library. It aggregates, averages, and compares in real time — no exporting to spreadsheets required.
Answers are contextualised against your benchmark data. When you ask about a rate, the assistant tells you how it compares to your median, whether it falls within your expected range, and flags any deviations.
The assistant applies regional adjustment factors when comparing rates across different geographic areas. A rate in Central London is contextualised differently from one in the North West, reflecting real market differences.
Rate Goblin's AI assistant is grounded exclusively in your data. It will never hallucinate or invent numbers. If the data is insufficient to answer a question, it tells you clearly rather than guessing.
Every answer includes a clear explanation of how the figure was derived, which data sources were used, and what assumptions (if any) were applied — giving you full confidence in the result.
Built for RICS and CIOB standards. Every AI action is transparent, traceable, and auditable from day one.
Every AI-generated output is clearly labelled with a transparency badge indicating it was produced by artificial intelligence. This aligns with RICS guidance on AI transparency in professional practice.
The platform maintains a complete, immutable audit trail following CIOB best-practice principles. Every data point can be traced back to its source document, extraction timestamp, and any subsequent modifications.
Critical data transitions — from extraction to classification to cost plan activation — require formal sign-off by a qualified quantity surveyor. No AI output goes live without human professional oversight.
Every change to every data point is permanently recorded: who made the edit, when it was made, the original value, and the new value. This complete edit history supports regulatory compliance and dispute resolution.
Generate a formal AI Disclosure Appendix for inclusion in client reports and tender documentation. This appendix details which AI processes were used, confidence levels achieved, and human oversight applied.
All data is checksummed and version-controlled. The platform can verify at any point that extracted data has not been tampered with, providing the highest level of data integrity assurance.
Set up your team workspace with role-based access, email invitations, and seat management designed for QS practices of any size.
Create a dedicated workspace for your organisation where all projects, quotes, cost plans, and rate libraries are shared across your team. Keep everything in one place with consistent, organisation-wide data.
Assign granular roles to team members: Owner has full control, Admin manages settings and users, Member can create and edit data, and Viewer has read-only access. Each role is designed for real QS team structures.
Add team members by email address. They receive an invitation link, create their account, and are immediately connected to your organisation workspace with their assigned role and permissions.
View and manage your active seats from the organisation settings. Add or remove team members as your team changes, and see your current usage against your plan's seat allocation at a glance.
Get your data out in the formats you need. Excel reports, CSV rate libraries, cloud storage integration, and full GDPR data portability.
Export quotes, cost plans, and comparison reports to fully formatted Excel workbooks. Outputs include proper headers, NRM element grouping, and conditional formatting — ready to share with clients or embed in reports.
Download your entire rate library as a CSV file, including historical rates, benchmark statistics, and NRM classifications. Use this data in external estimating software, databases, or analytical tools.
Connect your Dropbox account to automatically sync exported reports and documents. Set up a dedicated folder structure that mirrors your project organisation for seamless file management.
Request a complete export of all your personal and organisational data at any time, in compliance with GDPR data portability requirements. Your data belongs to you, and you can take it with you.
Join professional QS teams across the UK who are saving hours on every tender with Rates Goblin.