You cannot afford to find margin leaks at practical completion.
Fit-outs run on razor margins and impossible deadlines. One unpriced variation, one missed defect, one late trade — and your 15% margin becomes 5%. BuiltUp gives you live cost tracking, AI scope protection, and multi-trade coordination so you finish every job on time, on budget, and actually profitable.
41%
Reduction in unpriced variations
2.8 days
Faster average programme delivery
97%
Of defects closed before PC
3.2x
Faster scope pricing with AI
The fit-out margin trap is real.
You do not have a skills problem. You have a visibility problem. These are the three places where commercial fit-outs lose money every single time.
Your margin disappears between tender and handover
You win the job at 16%. The client's fit-out manager sends 30 emails of 'minor adjustments' — different power locations, extra data points, upgraded ceiling tiles. Your site team does the work because they are already there. At practical completion you run the numbers and you are at 7%. Every single job.
One late trade blows the entire programme
The partition guys finish two days late. Now the electrician cannot do first fix. Which means the ceiling cannot go in. Which means the sprinkler contractor is standing down. You are on the phone to six subbies rescheduling a week of work because one crew was slow. And the client still expects handover on the same date.
Defects at handover eat your final payment
You walk the floor for practical completion and the client's rep has a 40-item snag list. Half of it is cosmetic, a quarter is fair, and the rest is scope they never paid for. But they are holding your retention and you need that cash. So you fix it all, spend two weekends on site, and tell yourself next job will be different.
Project controls that actually work on site.
Not a tool built for infrastructure projects and squeezed into an office fit-out. Built from scratch for the speed, complexity, and margin pressure of commercial interiors.
AI Scope Generation
Upload fit-out drawings or a spec document. The AI generates a fully itemised scope — partitions, ceilings, mechanical, electrical, joinery, finishes — using your rates and your supply chain. Price a 500sqm office fit-out in an hour instead of a week.
AI Scope Creep Guard
Every email, portal message, and uploaded document is scanned by AI. When the client's project manager asks for 'a few extra power points in the boardroom,' BuiltUp flags it, costs it, and drafts the variation before your electrician even sees the message.
Real-Time WIP and Margin Tracking
Track earned value, committed costs, cost to complete, and over/under billing on every active fit-out. When your ceiling subbie invoices $12,000 more than planned, you see it the same day — not at month-end reconciliation.
Multi-Trade Programme Board
Map every trade in sequence with dependencies. When the partition crew marks their section complete, the electrician gets an automatic notification to start first fix. When someone is late, dependent trades get rescheduled and notified without you making 10 phone calls.
Client Portal
Give the fit-out manager a branded portal with the live programme, cost report, variation log, and document register. They check the portal instead of sending you a status request email every Monday morning.
Defect and Snag Management
Log defects with photos, assign them to the responsible trade, set a due date, and track completion. At practical completion, your snag list is half the length because you have been closing items throughout the job, not discovering them all at the walk-through.
Sub-Contract Management
Send sub-contracts with e-signatures, attach scope documents, and track insurance and compliance. When a sub starts on site, you know their contract is signed, their insurance is current, and their scope is locked in.
Live Supplier Price Tracking
Monitor material costs from your key suppliers. When plasterboard or ceiling grid prices move mid-project, BuiltUp alerts you and shows the exact impact on your active quotes and WIP. No more end-of-job surprises from price escalation.
We were running fit-outs on a shared Excel tracker and WhatsApp. Every job, we would lose margin to unpriced extras and find out too late. First month on BuiltUp, the AI flagged 8 scope changes we would have missed — worth about $27,000 in variations. The multi-trade board alone saved us 5 hours a week in phone calls. It is the first tool that actually understands how fit-outs work.
Sarah L.
Operations Director, Commercial Interiors — 15 staff
Pricing
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FAQ
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You've been promised “the one platform” before. Here's why this one's different.
Got a question we missed?
Email us — we reply fastYour next fit-out does not have to end at 7% margin.
Fit-out contractors on BuiltUp recover an average of 9 margin points through better variation capture and cost visibility. See it on your first project. Start free — no credit card needed.