Kotelys
What Excel does very well: calculating and presenting
The classic take-off sheet fits in a spreadsheet: description, number, length, width, height, quantity, total. Excel calculates, presents and is easy to exchange; bills of quantities often arrive in that form, and everyone can open it. For pricing, it remains the most widespread tool.
What Excel cannot see: the drawing
A spreadsheet only knows what is typed into it. Each dimension is read from the drawing, or measured with a scale rule, then keyed in. Nothing links row 42 to the wall it stands for: to know whether a partition has been counted, you have to reread the sheet with the drawing beside it.
Simple shapes suit it well. An L-shaped room is split into rectangles, a façade with its openings needs one row per deduction, and an irregular shape simply cannot be calculated from dimensions.
Where mistakes come from: dimensions read, retyped, forgotten
- Reading: a dimension taken on the wrong axis, a scale misread on a reduced print.
- Retyping: two digits swapped, a decimal point moved.
- Omissions and double counting: with no mark on the drawing, nothing tells what is done from what remains.
- Formulas: a sum that misses the last row added, a cell overwritten by a value.
- Changes: the drawing changes, and nobody knows which rows to redo.
None of these mistakes comes from the spreadsheet itself: they come from the path between the drawing and the cell.
Both together: measure on the drawing, finish in Excel
So the question is not “one or the other”. Take-off software takes the quantities from the drawing and keeps their trace; Excel receives them for prices, alternatives and the presentation to the client. A few habits make that hand-over safe:
- keep the quantities workbook separate from the estimate;
- receive fixed values in it, not formulas from elsewhere;
- keep, alongside, the take-off calculations that justify each quantity;
- follow the order of your bill from the take-off onwards, so there is no sorting afterwards.
When Excel alone is enough
Take-off software is not always useful. A spreadsheet is enough when:
- the job is small, with few items;
- the drawings are fully dimensioned and the shapes rectangular;
- the take-off will be done only once, with no later revision;
- the quantities are supplied and only spot-checked.
Conversely, irregular shapes, many deductions, several storeys or drawings that keep changing tip the balance towards a take-off on the drawing. The general method is in the guide how to do a take-off.
Kotelys and Excel
Kotelys does not replace Excel: it feeds it. Quantities are drawn on the PDF drawing, then:
- the Excel export gives a workbook of two sheets, “Summary” and “Detail by object”, in fixed values, with no formulas at all;
- each row shows the colour and symbol of its type, as on the drawing;
- the take-off calculations in PDF write each working out, deductions included;
- a total is the sum of the written values, as in a bill of quantities.
Your pricing formulas, your factors and your layout stay in your own workbook. Kotelys is free during the beta, by invitation. The announced price afterwards is €24.90 excl. VAT per month per computer, or €249 excl. VAT per year (2 months free), with a one-month free trial. To see the workbook on one of your drawings: ask for access to the beta.
What Kotelys does not do
Kotelys does neither prices nor quotes, and does not import Excel workbooks. More broadly:
- No DWG or DXF import: Kotelys works on PDFs and images.
- No pricing or estimating: it gives quantities; prices stay in your own tool.
- No automatic symbol recognition: every counted item is clicked.
- No online collaboration: a project is a file, opened by one person at a time.
- No Mac or web version: Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit.
- No earthworks volumes from a terrain model: a volume is an area multiplied by a thickness.
Frequently asked questions
Which columns for a take-off sheet in Excel?
Most often: reference, description, number, length, width, height or thickness, partial quantity, total and unit. The guide on take-off calculations gives a worked model.
Does the workbook exported by Kotelys contain formulas?
No: fixed values. You add your own pricing formulas, with no link to the software.
Can the quantities be pasted into my own bill of quantities?
Yes: they are ordinary cells, which copy to any workbook.
And starting from a paper drawing?
See paper take-off or PDF take-off.
Further reading: the features of Kotelys, and the other guides.
The software and company names mentioned on this page are trademarks of their respective owners. Kotelys is not affiliated with any of them.