Stop funding your client's dream home out of your own pocket.
Custom builds are where the best builders make their name — and where the best margins go to die. BuiltUp gives you real-time cost tracking per room, AI-powered scope protection, and a client portal that stops the daily 'just checking in' calls.
94%
Of variations captured before work starts
11 hrs
Saved weekly on client admin
45 min
Average quote time with AI
3x
Faster milestone payments
You love the craft. You hate the chaos.
Custom home building should be the most profitable work you do. Instead, it is where margin disappears one 'small change' at a time.
The client changed the kitchen again — and nobody priced it
They upgraded to stone benchtops. Then they wanted the island 200mm wider. Then the tap changed. Each one felt small so your site manager said yes. By lock-up, the kitchen is $14,000 over budget and there is no variation trail. You absorb it because the relationship matters more than the argument.
You are the bank and nobody is paying interest
Timber supplier wants payment on delivery. The electrician invoices weekly. The tiler wants 50% upfront. But your client pays on milestones — and the next milestone is three weeks away. You are floating $40,000 of someone else's house on your line of credit and praying nothing else goes wrong.
Finish selections are a black hole of back-and-forth
The client emails a Pinterest board. You price three tile options. They pick one, then change their mind after the waterproofing is done. You spend more time managing selections than managing the build. Meanwhile, your tiler is waiting and your schedule is slipping.
Built for how custom homes actually get built.
Not enterprise software dumbed down. Not a generic PM tool with a construction skin. Built from the ground up for residential builders who run 2 to 10 jobs a year.
AI Scope Generation
Describe the build or upload plans. The AI generates a detailed room-by-room scope with your labour rates, your suppliers, and your preferred materials. A quote that took you a full weekend now takes 45 minutes.
Client Finish Selections Portal
Clients browse tile, paint, fixture, and benchtop options online with photos, lead times, and price impacts shown live. When they pick the $180 tap over the $90 one, the variation is created automatically. No more Pinterest boards.
Scope Creep Detection
BuiltUp reads every message on the project and flags anything that sounds like a scope change. When the client texts 'could we add a niche in the shower,' it drafts the variation with cost before your tiler touches a thing.
Milestone Invoicing
Set up slab, frame, lock-up, fix-out, and completion invoices tied to your build stages. Clients pay online through their portal. You see exactly when the next payment is due and how much runway you have.
Room-by-Room Budget Tracking
See your margin on the kitchen, the ensuite, the garage — every room, every trade, every line item, updated in real time. When the bathroom starts going over, you know before the grouting starts, not after.
Client Portal
Give your clients a branded portal with progress photos, the current schedule, approved selections, and payment history. They check the portal instead of calling you at 7am on a Saturday.
GPS Time Tracking
Selfie and GPS on every clock-in. When your carpenter says he did 8 hours and your client asks why the frame is not done, you have the data. No more he-said-she-said.
Full Audit Trail
Every selection approval, every variation sign-off, every progress photo — timestamped and stored forever. When the client says 'I never approved that tile' six months after handover, you pull up their signed approval in seconds.
I handed over a $1.2M build last year and made $18,000 profit. Scope creep and unpriced selections destroyed me. On my first BuiltUp project, the AI caught 11 variations I would have missed and the client portal handled all the finish selections without a single phone call. I made more margin on that one job than the previous three combined.
Brendan W.
Owner, Custom Home Builder — 6 builds per year
Pricing
Profitable pricing for every stage.
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FAQ
You've got questions. Fair enough.
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 build does not have to end with a margin post-mortem.
Builders who switch to BuiltUp recover an average of 12% margin on custom homes. Track every selection, catch every variation, and get paid on time. Start free — no credit card needed.