Article

Old estimates are worth more than your website

Last updated October 16, 2026

Your website says what you do. Your estimates say what you did, job by job, with the price on each one. A buyer pays to license records like these to train AI models. Here is why the estimates are the record that matters, what sits in one, what you keep, and how it works with Polyshares.

Why the estimates, not the website

A trades company’s website is 12 pages written once. Its estimate folder is 3,000 documents written one at a time, by the person who looked at the job. The website says “we do re-roofs.” The estimates say 2,400 square feet, 6/12 pitch, two layers to tear off and 14 sheets of decking. They say the price went up after the adjuster’s report. Only one of those is a record of how the work gets priced.

That is the whole argument, and the rest of this page is the detail. The estimate is where the company’s judgment got written down, thousands of times, under real conditions. It can’t be written after the fact.

See if your company qualifies at Polyshares

What sits in an estimate

Owners think of an estimate as a price. It is more than that. Here is what one usually holds, as our own description:

the measurements: squares, linear feet, tonnage, the vehicle’s year, mileage and trim;
the scope: what’s included, what’s excluded, what the customer asked about and was talked out of;
the line items: materials, labour, equipment, permits, disposal;
the options: good, better, best, and which one the customer picked;
the price, and the date it was given;
the changes: version two after the site visit, version three after the adjuster, version four after the customer pushed back;
the outcome: won, lost, or never answered;
the notes: access problems, the breaker panel that isn’t to code.

Each estimate is small. Ten years of them is how the company prices, on paper.

The lost bids count too

Most owners keep the estimates for the jobs they won, because those turned into job files. The lost ones feel like waste. They are not.

A lost bid records a price and a scope the market said no to. Five hundred of them, with dates, show where the ceiling was each year and how it moved. That is information a won bid can’t carry, because the won bid only shows a price the customer accepted. If your quoting software still has the lost ones, you have a record many companies delete.

The versions matter more than the final

An estimate that went through four versions is worth more as a record than one that went out once. Here is our own reasoning.

Version one is what the estimator saw. Version two is what the site visit changed. Version three is what the insurer or the customer pushed back on. Version four is the deal. Side by side, the four versions show how the scope was argued and settled. That argument is the judgment. A single clean number doesn’t show it.

So if your software keeps revision history, don’t clear it. If your estimates are PDFs in a folder with “v2” and “FINAL” and “FINAL2” in the file names, that is a revision history. Leave it alone.

The estimate and the job file are one story

An estimate on its own is a price. An estimate with its job file is a story with an ending. The job file holds what was actually done: the work order, the crew notes, the photos, the materials pulled, the hours booked, the change order when the decking was rotten. Put the two side by side and you can see the gap between what was quoted and what it took.

That gap is the most useful thing in the record. A company that quoted 14 sheets of decking and used 22 learned something that day. Ten years of those gaps, by job type, is how an estimator gets good. It is also the thing a reader of the record can’t get anywhere else, because nobody publishes their misses.

The CRM is the third part of the story. It holds how the lead came in, how many calls it took, which estimate version closed it, and whether the customer came back. An estimate with its job file and its CRM note is a complete account of one job. Alone, it is a number on a page.

What changed between the estimate and the invoice

Owners sometimes ask whether the estimates matter if the invoices exist. The invoice is the end of the story. The estimate is the beginning, and the versions in between are the middle.

Here is a worked example, as our own description. A plumbing estimate goes out for a repipe. The site visit finds a slab leak, and version two is a third higher. The customer’s insurer approves a number in between, and version three matches it, with the scope cut to fit. The invoice shows the insurer’s number. Only the three versions show how a company priced a job it couldn’t see all of, then reshaped it to a number someone else set. That reasoning is what the record holds, and the invoice erases it.

So keep the versions. Keep the emails that caused them. The invoice is already in the accounting system; the estimate chain is the part only you have.

Years, not volume

The estimate on this site asks how many years of records you have, not how many estimates. Here is why, as our own description of what matters in a record.

Twelve years of estimates from a 15-person shop show the company through a recession, a materials spike, a labour shortage and two changes of software. Twelve months from a 60-person shop show one year. The longer record holds more decisions and more change, and change is what the record is for. Polyshares says it looks at the record before it prices it. The years are the first thing a reader of the record sees.

How to count what you have

Before you look at a range, know what you hold. Here is the count we ask owners to make, as our own advice.

Estimates live in three places. The current quoting software, which is the easy part. The old quoting software, which may still let you export if the subscription lapsed recently. And the paper: carbon-copy books, scanned PDFs, the folder on the office computer from before the software. Most 15-year-old companies have all three.

Count the years, not the documents. A shop that has quoted since 2011 has 15 years, whether that is 4,000 estimates or 40,000. Then list the systems that go with the estimates: the job files, the CRM, the scheduling tool, the email account the estimates went out from. That list is most of what the estimate on this site asks for.

Why a buyer wants them

A buyer licenses records like these to train AI models. Polyshares’ published terms say it looks at the record before it prices it. Our own view: the estimates are where a trades company’s reasoning is written down most often, so they are the part of the record to count first. A spreadsheet of finished prices shows what was charged. The estimate chain shows why.

What you keep

Under Polyshares’ published terms, the company keeps the business and the records. The estimates stay in your software and your folders. You keep quoting from them. Polyshares licenses data; it does not take over your company, your customers, or your files.

How it works with Polyshares

These are Polyshares’ published terms:

The company pays no fee.
The company keeps the business and the records.
Nothing leaves the company’s systems until Polyshares has made an offer and the company has accepted it.
The owner confirms ownership, and the owner’s counsel reviews the licence.
Polyshares looks at the record before it prices it. The buyer prices each company.

Polyshares says typical deals run from $100,000 to $2,000,000 and above. Its published deals include a roofer at $450,000, a general contractor at $300,000, a solar company at $275,000 and a marketing agency at $110,000. A past deal does not predict an offer.

Worth two minutes to see your range? The estimate asks five questions.

What this means for a roofing company

This is our own description of what a roofing company keeps, not a list from any buyer. The estimates and proposals, with the measurements and the pitch. The supplement requests to the insurer, and what came back. The change orders when the decking was rotten. The warranty records and the callbacks. The CRM of leads from storms, canvassing and referrals, with the close rate on each. The roofing page on this site goes through the rest: roofing companies.

What this means for an HVAC company

An HVAC company’s estimates carry load calculations, equipment options and the price difference between repair and replace. The service agreements and the maintenance histories go with them. The repair tickets show what failed, when, and what was quoted to fix it. The CRM shows which customers took the maintenance plan and which didn’t. This is our own description; the HVAC page has more: HVAC companies.

What this means for a plumbing company

A plumbing company’s estimates run from a drain call to a whole-house repipe, and the record of which is which, by year, is the company’s whole market in one file. The job notes, the camera inspection reports and the permit history go with the estimate. The service histories by address matter, because the same house comes back. This is our own description; the plumbing page has more: plumbing companies.

What this means for an auto-repair shop

An auto-repair shop writes an estimate on almost every car. The estimate holds the diagnosis, the parts, the labour hours and the price, and the repair order holds what was actually done. The difference between the two, across 20,000 cars, is the record. The parts records and the service histories by vehicle go with it. This is our own description; the auto-repair page has more: auto-repair shops.

What is never included

Here is what sits outside the record, as our own description. Say it before the reader asks, because it is the first thing an owner worries about.

Customer personal details. The names, addresses and phone numbers on the estimates aren’t what the record is for. The measurements, the scope, the price and the changes are. Under Polyshares’ published terms, nothing leaves your systems until you’ve accepted an offer, and your counsel reviews the licence before you accept. What happens to personal details is a question to settle there, in writing, not after.

Anything a client owns. A general contractor holding a developer’s drawings under contract doesn’t own them. Under Polyshares’ published terms, the owner confirms ownership and counsel reviews the licence. That is where client-owned material gets sorted out, before anything moves.

Card numbers, bank details and health information. If a scanned estimate has a card number written on it, keep that page in your own filing cabinet. It is not part of the record. The same goes for a customer’s medical details on an accessibility job, and for an employee’s personal file that ended up in the job folder.

What Polyshares licenses is decided by Polyshares, in the offer, after it has looked at the record. We can only tell you what is usually in and usually out.

Where we fit

We, TrustPast, explain the process and give you a range with our estimate. Five questions, two minutes. The estimate is ours, not an offer. You apply to Polyshares yourself, through the button below. Polyshares pays us a referral fee. You pay us nothing. We never see your files.

Before you apply

Four things to do first, as our own advice:

Find the estimates. The quoting software, the old quoting software, the folder of PDFs, the carbon-copy books in the filing cabinet. Count the years, not the documents.
Keep the lost ones and the old versions. Don’t clean up. The versions and the losses are the judgment.
Find the job files and the CRM that go with the estimates. An estimate with its job file and its CRM note is a complete story; alone, it’s a price.
Ask your counsel about anything you hold for a client. Only the contracts say what is yours.

Then answer the five questions. If the range is worth your time, apply.

Alex, TrustPast

Questions and answers

Do the lost bids count, or only the jobs we won?

Both. A lost bid records a price and a scope the market said no to. This is our own description of what a trades company keeps; Polyshares decides what it licenses.

Do we have to send our estimates to apply?

No. Polyshares says nothing leaves the company’s systems until Polyshares has made an offer and the company has accepted it.

Do we keep the estimates afterwards?

Yes. Under Polyshares’ published terms, the company keeps the business and the records.

What does it cost us?

Nothing. The company pays Polyshares no fee. Polyshares pays TrustPast a referral fee; you pay us nothing.

What has a trades company been paid?

Polyshares’ published deals include a roofer at $450,000 and a general contractor at $300,000. Polyshares prices each company after looking at the record, so a past deal does not predict an offer.