Contractor Estimate & Invoice

Review by eFreeware

Quoting a job is rarely the hard part of running a trade business. The hard part is turning that quote into an invoice, getting paid, and keeping a record of who owes what across several jobs and several workers. Estimates written by hand, invoices built in a word processor and payments chased by text message all work until the volume picks up, and then something slips.

GetCost, from developer GetCost, is built for that gap. It is a free app in the Business category that handles estimates, invoices, payments, timesheets and scheduling for a whole team, and the developer says more than 100,000 small business owners use it. It has been on Google Play since January 2018 and was updated in September 2026.

What interests me about it is the scope. This is not just an invoice template with a logo on top; it pulls in client records, store product pricing, a unit converter and team work orders. That breadth is what makes it worth a closer look for anyone whose day involves pricing materials and chasing payments.

Quotes that look like they came from a real office

The core of the app is the estimate and invoice builder. You create documents that the developer describes as having a professional look and feel, and you can set discounts and taxes per item rather than applying one blanket rate to the whole job. For anyone pricing a mix of labor and materials, that per-item control matters, because tax treatment and discounts rarely apply evenly across a quote.

There is also a hidden markup option. You can add a margin to the total of an estimate or invoice that the client never sees. Contractors who price jobs with a built-in cushion will recognize why that is useful; it keeps the client-facing document clean while the real numbers stay in your records.

Delivery is handled in a few ways. Estimates and invoices can go out by SMS, by email, or as a PDF you download and send yourself. That last option is worth noting for anyone who deals with clients who want a file they can print or forward to a site office.

Getting paid without the awkward follow-up

Clients can settle invoices by card, including VISA and MasterCard, or via PayPal. That is a meaningful convenience for a trade business, because it removes the step where you have to ask for bank details or wait for a check in the mail. The developer also says you can collect payments from all your clients into your account, which suggests a single place to see money coming in rather than a spreadsheet of separate transactions.

Alongside the payment side, GetCost keeps client records. You can pull up a client's history, keep comments on them and use the app as a CRM. For a contractor with repeat customers, that history is the difference between remembering that a homeowner prefers a certain paint finish and having to ask again.

Photos are part of this too. You can take pictures and draw markups on them, which is the sort of thing that helps when you need to show a client exactly which section of a wall or roof the quote covers. You can also photograph supplier invoices so they are not lost, which keeps expense records without a filing cabinet.

Pricing materials before you commit to a number

One feature stands out as unusual: estimating with real store products. You can search through local store products to build an estimate, including plywood, OSB, foams, 2x3, 2x4, 2x6, 2x8, paint, sinks, concrete blocks, ceramic and more. The idea is that you get an estimated price for the materials before you write the number down, which should lead to more accurate estimates and more won jobs.

There is a calculator for contractors as well. It handles unit conversion across metric, imperial, yards, pounds, ounces, gallons, grams and tons, and it can work out how much paint is needed for a given wall or room. Anyone who has stood in a store trying to convert measurements on a phone calculator will see the appeal of having that in the same app as the quote.

I would treat the store pricing as a starting point rather than a final word. The price is only an estimate, and material costs move around, so the value is in getting close quickly rather than in replacing a supplier quote on a big job.

Keeping a crew on the same page

For businesses with employees, GetCost handles more than documents. You can manage a team, send work orders to team members, review their estimates and gather all invoice payments into the same account. The timesheet side tracks your own hours and your employees', and a freelancer can generate an invoice from a detailed timesheet just by picking the month. That is a neat shortcut for anyone billing by the hour.

Scheduling is part of the app, with a timesheet and agenda meant to keep your schedule efficient. The team features are the part that separates this from a single-user invoicing tool, because they assume more than one person is producing quotes and collecting money.

The app works across phone, tablet and the web from a MAC or PC, so data is accessible from more than one device. For a small outfit where the office is a truck and a kitchen table, that flexibility is practical.

What to expect when you first open it

GetCost is free to download, and it contains no ads. It does offer in-app purchases alongside the free app.

The app was updated in September 2026, and the developer's note for that release mentions an improved interface and navigation along with bug fixes. That is a modest update note, but it does suggest the app is still being worked on rather than left as it was at launch in January 2018.

The other thing to know before you start is the scale of the thing. This is not a single-purpose invoice generator; it covers estimates, invoices, payments, client records, photos, timesheets, team management, store pricing and a calculator. The breadth is the selling point, but it also means there is more to set up and learn than in a simpler tool.

Who gets the most from GetCost

The app names a long list of trades it is built for: contractors, carpenters, painters, roofers, drywall and general contractors, carpet and flooring, concrete, fencing, guttering, HVAC and refrigeration, insulation, janitors, excavation, landscapers, masonry, plumbers, remodelers, electricians, restoration, siding, tiles, window and door contractors, framers and freelancers. That is a wide net, but the common thread is work priced by job and billed to a client.

The team features point to a specific kind of user: a small business with employees or subcontractors, where one person is not doing all the quoting and all the collecting. If you work alone, the client history, store pricing and calculator still apply, but the work orders and team review tools will sit unused.

Freelancers billing by the hour are also a good fit, given the timesheet-to-invoice shortcut.

With a 4.6 average from over 3,000 ratings, there is a reasonable body of feedback behind it, though ratings alone never tell you whether a tool fits the way you work. The more useful question is whether you want one app for quoting, collecting and scheduling, or separate tools for each.

A practical pick for trades that bill by the job

GetCost is worth considering if you run a trade business where quotes, invoices and payments are the daily admin, and especially if you have a small crew to coordinate. The combination of per-item taxes and discounts, hidden markup, client payment by card or PayPal, store product pricing and a timesheet that turns into an invoice covers a lot of the paperwork a contractor deals with in a week.

The trade-offs are the ones you would expect from a broad tool. It offers in-app purchases, the store pricing is described as estimated rather than exact, and the feature set is large enough that there is a learning curve before it feels quick. If you only need to send the occasional invoice, a simpler tool may be less work to maintain.

For a contractor, remodeler or small trade business that wants estimates, payments, client records and team scheduling in one place, this is a sensible app to try first. Downloading it costs nothing, and the features that matter most, quoting and getting paid, are the ones the developer has built the app around.

What's new in version 1.856

Improved interface and navigation. Bux fixes.