Softwr

Construction · head to head

Briq vs On-Screen Takeoff

Briq logo

Briq

Construction

Financial automation and forecasting for contractors sitting on top of construction ERP

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
On-Screen Takeoff logo

On-Screen Takeoff

Construction

Digital quantity takeoff from drawings, now subscription only and bundled rather than sold alone

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Briq briq layers on top of an ERP rather than replacing it, so the total finance software bill goes up and the business case has to come from headcount or close-time savings that are hard to measure in advance.; On-Screen Takeoff perpetual licensing is no longer offered on current releases, so long-standing users who paid once now face a recurring annual cost they never budgeted, and staying on an old version means no support for newer PDF formats
  • They diverge on capability: Briq covers Invoice capture and coding, On-Screen Takeoff covers Drawing takeoff.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Briq and On-Screen Takeoff actually diverge.

Attributes where Briq and On-Screen Takeoff differ
AttributeBriqOn-Screen Takeoff
PlatformsWebWindows

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Construction).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Briq

  • Invoice capture and coding
  • WIP schedules
  • Cash flow forecasting
  • Cost at completion forecasting
  • Multi-entity consolidation
  • Overhead allocation
  • Workflow automation
  • Dashboards and reporting

Only in On-Screen Takeoff

  • Drawing takeoff
  • Revision overlay
  • Condition libraries
  • Automatic scaling
  • Bid zones and phases
  • Quick Bid handoff
  • Excel export

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Briq

  • A contractor whose month-end close runs three weeks because WIP is rebuilt by hand in Excel every periodnot On-Screen Takeoff
  • A group with four operating companies on different chart-of-accounts structures that needs one consolidated margin viewnot On-Screen Takeoff
  • A specialty contractor processing thousands of supplier invoices a month that wants coding and approval automated rather than keyednot On-Screen Takeoff
  • A finance director who needs a defensible cost-at-completion forecast for a surety or lender rather than a project manager's estimatenot On-Screen Takeoff

On-Screen Takeoff

  • A drywall contractor measuring wall area and openings across a 300 sheet set where manual takeoff would take a weeknot Briq
  • An estimator who receives a late addendum and needs to know which rooms changed rather than re-measuring the whole floornot Briq
  • A flooring subcontractor maintaining reusable conditions with waste factors so quantities and material orders stay consistent between estimatorsnot Briq
  • A trade contractor that wants takeoff quantities split by phase so progress billing matches the way work is actually releasednot Briq

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Briq

  • Briq layers on top of an ERP rather than replacing it, so the total finance software bill goes up and the business case has to come from headcount or close-time savings that are hard to measure in advance.
  • The output is only as good as job cost coding in the underlying ledger, and contractors with inconsistent cost codes get faster visibility of a mess rather than a clean forecast.
  • No pricing is published and the contract is scoped by entities, modules and transaction volume, which makes budgeting impossible without a full discovery exercise.
  • Implementation is a data mapping project against systems such as Vista and Sage 300 that were not designed to be read this way, so go-live timelines run into months and depend on your own finance team's availability.
  • It targets mid-market and larger contractors; a firm with one entity and a competent controller in Excel will not recover the cost, and the product is oversized for smaller subcontractors.

On-Screen Takeoff

  • Perpetual licensing is no longer offered on current releases, so long-standing users who paid once now face a recurring annual cost they never budgeted, and staying on an old version means no support for newer PDF formats
  • ConstructConnect does not publish a price, and the product is increasingly sold inside a bundle with lead data and estimating, so buyers who want takeoff alone often find the quote priced around a package they do not need
  • It is Windows desktop only, with no macOS version and no meaningful browser or tablet workflow, which rules it out for firms standardised on Apple hardware
  • The interface has changed little in years and estimators coming from browser-based tools find the condition setup and layer management slow to learn, so onboarding a new estimator takes longer than the software cost would suggest
  • ConstructConnect sells lead data, takeoff and estimating as a portfolio and has consolidated several acquired products, so a buyer committing to On-Screen Takeoff should ask directly where it sits against the newer cloud takeoff products in the same portfolio

Pricing, plan by plan

Briq

On request
  • Briq$undefined/year
    • Annual platform subscription
    • Scoped by modules, entities and transaction volume
    • Implementation and data mapping quoted separately

On-Screen Takeoff

On request
  • On-Screen Takeoff$undefined/year
    • Annual subscription per seat on version 4 and later
    • Sold increasingly as part of a ConstructConnect takeoff and estimating bundle
    • Perpetual licensing not offered on current releases

Which should you pick?

Choose Briq if

  • You need invoice capture and coding.
  • You also want wip schedules.
Briq review

Choose On-Screen Takeoff if

  • You need drawing takeoff.
  • You work on Windows.
  • You also want revision overlay.
On-Screen Takeoff review

Questions people ask

Is Briq or On-Screen Takeoff better?
Neither clearly leads. Briq starts at On request and On-Screen Takeoff at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Briq or On-Screen Takeoff?
Briq starts at On request and On-Screen Takeoff at On request.
Does Briq or On-Screen Takeoff run on more platforms?
Briq runs on Web. On-Screen Takeoff runs on Windows.
What is Briq best used for?
Briq is most often used for a contractor whose month-end close runs three weeks because wip is rebuilt by hand in excel every period, a group with four operating companies on different chart-of-accounts structures that needs one consolidated margin view, a specialty contractor processing thousands of supplier invoices a month that wants coding and approval automated rather than keyed, a finance director who needs a defensible cost-at-completion forecast for a surety or lender rather than a project manager's estimate. Of those, a contractor whose month-end close runs three weeks because wip is rebuilt by hand in excel every period and a group with four operating companies on different chart-of-accounts structures that needs one consolidated margin view are not what On-Screen Takeoff is typically brought in for.
What can Briq do that On-Screen Takeoff cannot?
Briq covers Invoice capture and coding, WIP schedules, Cash flow forecasting, Cost at completion forecasting. On-Screen Takeoff covers Drawing takeoff, Revision overlay, Condition libraries, Automatic scaling.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Briq: Does Briq replace my construction accounting system?

No. It reads from Vista, Sage or similar and automates the reporting and forecasting layer above them. You keep the ERP.

On-Screen Takeoff: Can I still buy a perpetual licence?

No. Current releases are annual subscription. Older perpetual licences continue to run but do not receive updates.

Briq: What does it cost?

Briq does not publish pricing. Contracts are scoped by module, entity count and transaction volume and quoted annually.

On-Screen Takeoff: Is it sold separately from Quick Bid?

It can be, but ConstructConnect increasingly quotes it as part of a takeoff and estimating package. Ask explicitly for standalone pricing if that is what you want.

Briq: How long does implementation take?

Expect months rather than weeks, because most of the work is mapping and cleaning job cost data from the existing ledger.

On-Screen Takeoff: Does it run on a Mac?

Not natively. It is a Windows application and Mac users run it under virtualisation, which is unsupported in practice for large drawing sets.

Briq: Is it useful for a single-entity contractor?

Less so. The strongest case is multi-entity consolidation and high invoice volume; a small contractor gets thinner returns.

On-Screen Takeoff: Will it read a scanned drawing?

Yes, but measurement accuracy on a scanned raster set depends entirely on the scan quality and on setting scale from a verified dimension.

Share

Related pages

More on Briq

More on On-Screen Takeoff

Keep looking

Other head to heads