Job costing and estimating software for contractors
See what every job
really costs.
Before it's done.
Obra prices the estimate from your own costs, reads the receipts your crew sends by WhatsApp, email or photo, and shows cost against budget on every job the same day, while there's still time to fix it.
Best for crews whose receipts arrive from the field, often over WhatsApp, in English or Spanish. Free for one project, then $12 per user a month.
Receipts follow the crew.
Four ways in. One review queue. Zero typing. The AI reads amount, vendor, date, category and tax — a human confirms with one tap.
Each crew member links their own number. Snap → send → filed on the right project, sender attached. If they can text, they're trained. In English or Spanish, whichever they speak.
Email-in
A private address per organization. Forward supplier invoices and PDFs; they queue up next to the photos.
Photo upload
In-app quick capture, installable on the home screen, built for one hand and gloves.
AI assistant
Hand a receipt to Claude or ChatGPT, or ask how the Westlake job is doing. It reads your real numbers and files into the same queue — nothing skips review.
Review
Nothing posts itself. Extractions wait for approval — routed by custom roles, so the office keeps control.
One book. Zero surprises.
Every dollar in context: project, category, vendor, currency. Totals stay bucketed per currency — never silently mixed.
Illustrative numbers
Quote it. Bill it. Same book.
Price the work from what your own jobs actually cost, send it as a PDF the client can accept, and bill it back from the same numbers — no second spreadsheet to keep in step.
Price it
Build it line by line with your own cost history beside it — or describe the job in a voice note or a photo of the space and let Obra draft the scope and the lines.
Send it
One press makes a PDF and a private link for the client to accept or decline. What the work costs you never appears on it.
Turn it into the job
An accepted estimate opens the project with its contract value and category budgets already set, so you read quoted against actual while the job runs.
Bill it
Deposits, progress draws or the extras already in your ledger. Obra keeps you from billing past the contract and shows what's outstanding by age.
Price book, optional add-ons, e-signatures, payment links and automatic follow-ups: everything estimates and invoices do
The rest of the book.
See every featurePriced like a box of screws.
All prices in USD
Free
- 1 active project, unlimited history
- Real-time cash collected & recorded cost
- Unlimited income & expense entries
- WhatsApp & email capture
- 20 AI receipt scans / month
- 3 AI estimate requests / month
- Sales tax capture, manual or scanned
- 1 published portfolio page
- Receipt & file attachments
- Unlimited clients & custom categories
- Multi-currency support
Pro
- Everything in Free plus:
- Unlimited active projects
- Team seats — approvals & custom roles
- 300 pooled scans per seat / month
- 50 pooled AI estimate requests per seat / month
- Unlimited published project pages
- Full organization portfolio page
- CSV & full-organization exports
- Claude & ChatGPT connection — ask your assistant about any job
- Priority support
Asked on every site.
Q-01 What does job costing software do? +
It puts every cost on the job it belongs to — materials, labor, subs, permits, equipment — so you can compare what a job is costing with what you estimated while the job is still running, not after the last invoice. Obra adds the capture: the crew sends receipts by WhatsApp, email or photo, the AI reads them, and the figures land on the right project the same day.
Q-02 Is my financial data private? +
Yes. Your costs and income are visible only to you and your team. Even if you publish a project to your public portfolio, financial details are never shown. We don't run ads or sell data — see our Privacy Policy for the details. Privacy Policy
Q-03 Does Obra sync with QuickBooks? +
Not yet. Obra is the field side: receipts, estimates, invoices and the live figures on each job. For the books, every category carries an accounting classification and an account code, any filtered list exports as a CSV, and the whole organization exports as a ZIP of CSVs that lists every receipt with its download link, so a bookkeeper maps a month in one pass. How Obra and QuickBooks fit together
Q-04 Can my team use Obra? +
Yes. Obra is built around organizations: invite teammates and everyone works from the same projects, clients and categories.
Q-05 Does Obra work in Spanish? +
Yes. Obra is fully bilingual, English and Spanish. Each person picks their own language, so the office can keep the books in English while the crew sends receipts and reads WhatsApp replies in Spanish. Help articles, guides and the Monday digest come in both languages too.
Show 12 more questions More questions
Q-06 How does receipt scanning work? +
While adding a transaction, attach a photo or PDF of the receipt or invoice. Obra reads it and extracts the amount, date, vendor, sales tax and a category matched against your own category list, then prefills the transaction form. Supported formats: JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC and PDF — PDFs are scanned up to 5 MB, and larger files still attach to the transaction.
Q-07 Can I send receipts by WhatsApp or email? +
Yes. Link your WhatsApp number from Settings, then send photos or PDFs of your receipts to Obra's number. Every organization also gets its own private email address you can forward invoices to. Each one arrives already scanned as a draft in your Receipts inbox, waiting for you to confirm it into a transaction — and every transaction remembers whether it came from WhatsApp, email or your own typing.
Q-08 What if the scan gets something wrong? +
Nothing is saved without your review. The scan only fills fields you haven't typed in, and you can change any value before saving. Think of it as a very fast first draft.
Q-09 Can I work in multiple currencies? +
Yes. Each project has its own currency, and totals stay bucketed per currency — Obra never silently converts or mixes them.
Q-10 Can I track change orders? +
Yes. Log every approved extra — or deduction — with its date, description, amount and an optional attachment. Obra adjusts the project's contract value while keeping the original value visible, so you always know what you signed for, what changed and who logged it.
Q-11 Can I send estimates and invoices to clients? +
Yes. Price an estimate from your own cost history, then send it as a PDF with a private client link — the client reads it and accepts or declines from that page. One press then turns the accepted estimate into the job, and the project opens with its contract value and category budgets already set. Bill it back with deposits, progress draws, the estimate itself or extras from your ledger; Obra keeps you from billing past the contract, corrects an issued document with a credit note, and shows what is outstanding by age. Clients can pay online through your own Stripe, Square or PayPal link on the invoice, or however they pay you today — either way you record the payment against it, and Obra can email the follow-ups for you. Mexican organizations issue payment requests; Obra does not stamp CFDI.
Q-12 How does per-seat billing work? +
Pro costs $12 per user per month, or $120 per user per year. Sending an invitation is free — a seat is only added to your bill once someone accepts it, and it stays counted (even while that member is suspended) until they are removed. If people join or leave mid-cycle, the difference is prorated onto your next invoice automatically, so you never pay for a seat nobody is using.
Q-13 Can I use Obra from Claude or ChatGPT? +
Yes. Connect the assistant you already use — Claude, ChatGPT or a coding agent — and ask how a job is doing, send in a receipt, or record an expense from the conversation. It only sees what your own role allows, it can never delete, approve or pay anything, and you can revoke it from Settings at any time. Assistant connections are part of Pro, and the 14-day trial includes them.
Q-14 Is there a free trial? What happens when it ends? +
Every account starts with 14 days of Pro — the full feature set, no credit card, with 300 receipt scans and 50 AI estimate requests for your organization during the trial. When it ends you simply continue on the Free plan: one active project, one published project page, 20 receipt scans and 3 AI estimate requests a month. Drafting lines from a scope, categorizing the lines you typed and the what's-missing check each spend one request. Nothing is deleted or hidden — your other projects become read-only until you upgrade or make room, and you choose which one stays active. Teammates are paused rather than removed, so upgrading brings everyone back exactly as they were.
Q-15 Can I cancel anytime? What happens to my data? +
Cancel anytime from your account settings — no phone calls, no retention flows. You keep Pro until the end of the period you already paid for, so download a structured export (CSV files) before then if you want a copy. After that you continue on the Free plan with everything you created intact, and you can delete your organization and account right from Settings. support@tryobra.com is there if you need a hand.
Q-16 Is there a mobile app? +
Obra installs straight from your browser on iPhone and Android — no app store, no download. Add it to your home screen and it opens full screen like any other app, with a shortcut that jumps right to adding an expense while you're still standing at the counter.
Q-17 What languages does Obra support? +
Obra is available in English and Spanish today, with more languages on the way. You can switch language anytime from the menu.
More questions? Visit the Help Center
Not ready for an app? Start with our free Excel template.
A ready-made spreadsheet to track costs and income per project — with categories and the totals already set up.
Prefer to work in the browser? Try the free tools
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