The estimate was never verified against a plan
Nobody can say which task the money was for. So nobody notices when a task costs twice what was assumed.
Budget from the plan. Defend the margin when prices move.
Building Pal derives a project’s real cost from the tasks that make it up, turns that into a price with margin, and then tracks that number through execution and through inflation. Built for contractors in LATAM.
- Derived budget, inflation and procurement: working today.
- Every screenshot is the real product, not a mockup
- Start free, no card
THE PROBLEM
Three things quietly eat the margin
A contractor estimates roughly — by hand, in a spreadsheet, from experience — and bids that number. If they win, that number is what they will be paid, milestone by milestone, for the next two years.
Prices move
The budget was approved at one moment and executed at another. In an economy with meaningful inflation, a project that slips six months can lose its entire margin without a single mistake being made.
What the site asks for gets lost
A material needed in three weeks is asked for in a WhatsApp group, the approval never arrives, and the task stops. “I sent you the message” / “nothing ever reached me.”
01 · THE PLAN DERIVES THE COST
A budget isn’t typed in. It’s derived.
You enter the tasks, their quantities and the resources each one consumes: labour, materials, subcontracts, equipment. The cost falls out of that, at the directory’s current prices. Change the plan and the cost follows — which is precisely what replaces estimating by hand.
Five spend layers on the same line item
- Budgeted Task resources × their price. The plan.
- Unplanned Approved with no budget line behind it. The estimating miss, made visible.
- Committed Issued purchase orders.
- Actual Certifications, deliveries and the daily log.
- Paid Payments made.
Every layer is recomputed from its source, never incremented. A cancelled purchase order removes its commitment, because the commitment was always a function of the orders — not a running total someone remembered to decrement.
02 · INFLATION, BUILT IN
Every price knows its date
Indices carry monthly series, every price records the date it was true, and cost is projected to the month the schedule says the work actually happens. The budget shows value-today beside value-at-execution: what the delay will cost, before it has cost it.
An index per cost code
Escalation to the execution date
Polynomial redetermination
And what inflation ate is not absorbed — it is claimed. The redetermination comes out as a document, using the formula the contract sets.
TODAY
$958,571
AT EXECUTION
$1,066,790
The demo project’s offer price, projected to the month the schedule says the work actually happens. Same line item, same resources, same quantities. The only thing that changed is when.
03 · NOTHING GETS LOST
From the site to the office, without WhatsApp
What the site needs comes in as a requirement, with a responsible person and the task it will land on. It is approved or rejected, recording who and when. Approved, it is the only door to a purchase order — and it posts against the budget: if nobody estimated it, it lands as unplanned and reads as the overrun it is, from the moment it is committed.
04 · DEFEND THE MARGIN
Cost, price and margin are three different numbers
Cost is what the work takes. Margin is a decision, and it is made per line — owning the equipment can mean both a better price for the client and a better margin for you. Price is what gets bid. Confusing them is exactly how a contractor loses money.
General expenses, taxes and margin build the offer price, and the offer comes out as a document: declaring the margin in a public tender, keeping it quiet with a private client.
WHAT CHANGES
Every peso on this project knows which task it came from, at what price, from what date, and who approved it.
It is not a report someone assembles at month end. It is how the number is stored.
MODULES
Where the product is today
Thirteen modules connected by the budget’s line-item structure. Each one says what state it is actually in: nothing here claims to exist without existing.
Access & Permissions
Ready to useOrganizations, membership, roles, permissions, modules and plans.
Directory
Ready to useClients, workers, charges, subcontractors, suppliers, equipment and materials, with their dated rates and the paperwork each one has to hold.
Projects
Ready to useThe project lifecycle, its membership, its supplier roster, its currency and its zone.
Tasks
Ready to useThe work breakdown: quantities, dependencies, cycles and the resources each task consumes.
Budget
Ready to usePlan to ledger: cost codes, the five spend layers, pricing and freezing.
Pricing & Margin
Ready to useMargin per budget line, general expenses, taxes and the offer price.
Inflation & Indices
Ready to useIndex series, escalation to the execution date, redetermination.
Prerequisites
Ready to useWhat must be true before a task may start.
Requirement Orders
Ready to useWhat the site asks for; the only door to a purchase order.
Procurement
BetaThe project’s supplier roster, purchase orders, supplier comparison, deliveries and payments.
Contract & Billing
On the wayThe contract, its milestones, certifications, advances, retentions and change orders.
Notifications & Reports
BetaChannel-agnostic notifications, generated documents, periodic reports.
Mobile
On the wayThe offline-first field app.
SURFACES
Where each thing lives
Configuration and finance live on the web. Capture, evidence and approvals live on the phone. The API exposes both.
Ready to use
Admin Web
Plan projects, derive and price budgets, bid, buy, certify and analyze.
On the way
Mobile App
Request what the next task needs, approve, report the day and record progress with photographic evidence. The site has no signal and will not wait for one: capture works offline and syncs later.
Ready to use
API
Integration with accounting and payroll; everything the other two surfaces do.
QUESTIONS
What people ask before signing up
The same answers we give on a call, including the one about price.
Do I have to enter every task to get a budget?
No. Cost is derived from what you entered and grows with the plan: half a dozen tasks already tell you more than the spreadsheet does, because every number has a task behind it. Entering the whole project is what gets you the precision you bid with.
I already estimate in a spreadsheet and it works. What changes?
A spreadsheet does not know what date each price is from, or which task consumed what. When the schedule slips six months it hands you the same number; here the cost is reprojected to the month the work actually happens, and the difference is written beside it.
How much does it cost?
There is a free plan, a limited one, to start with and see whether it fits. The full plan is a single one and is agreed by talking to someone on the team: it is not paid for here yet, and we will not ask for a card to get on the list.
Does it work outside Argentina?
Each project carries its own currency and zone, and indices are loaded as series rather than shipped fixed. We are opening country by country: Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru.
Who sees my company’s data?
Each organization is a separate space, and inside it access is defined by role and by module: whoever buys does not see the margin unless they should. Nothing is shared between companies.
Do I need the mobile app to start?
No. Everything on this page runs on the web, today. The field app is on the way and the web does not wait for it: you can plan, budget, bid and buy without it.
What happens when I leave my email?
We write once, when access opens for your country. We open in batches and the list goes first. There is no newsletter, and you can leave by replying to that same email.
EARLY ACCESS
Build on data, not assumptions.
We’re opening staged access to contractors in Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru. Leave your email and we’ll reach out.
- Start free
- No card
- One email, and you can leave