Less time on the mechanics. More time on the proposal that actually wins the work.
Every estimator knows the blank page moment: a new Basis of Estimate (BOE), an empty narrative field, and a deadline that isn't waiting for inspiration. A few desks over, the proposal team is fighting a different fire: retyping the same disclaimer, boilerplate, and background sections into yet another cost volume template, hoping nothing gets missed this time around.
Neither is really about skill. Both are friction, and the industry says so out loud. According to Deltek's 2026 GovCon Clarity Study, accurate cost estimation is the number one challenge in estimating and pricing today, and 38% of contractors say inadequate proposal quality that is unclear, incomplete or unpersuasive, is a top reason their proposals don't get selected.
ProPricer's Q3 2026 release goes after exactly that friction. If you're already running BOE Pro or Cost Volume Pro, here's what changes starting now. If you're evaluating either one, here's what you'd be starting with.
Guided, Governed BOE Authoring
A Guided Path from Setup to Submission
Building a BOE means moving through several stages: setup, method selection, section narrative, historical actuals, formula review, and travel. Skip one, or complete them out of order, and it usually surfaces later than you'd like, already turned into rework.
BOE Authoring View walks estimators through each stage in order, requiring a complete answer before the next one unlocks, so every BOE comes together the same dependable way, no matter who's building it.
BOE Authoring View's guided stage sequence
An AI Drafting Partner Where the Blank Page Used to Be
This is the big one: Dela Agent Foundation & Interactive BOE Text Drafter brings Dela into BOE Pro for the first time. For an estimator who only writes a BOE a few times a year, a blank narrative field is exactly where things stall, and per the Clarity study, that kind of gap is what turns into the inadequate proposal quality nearly 4 in 10 contractors say costs them the bid.
Dela's drafting panel next to the BOE narrative editor
Give Dela the governing Statement of Work (SOW) and the estimate's cost data, and it hands back a structured first draft, assumptions, methodology, labor roll-up, risk factors, and traceability, with its reasoning laid out so you can see how it got there. You still review and accept every section before it's inserted, every accepted change gets logged, and Dela only ever works inside what you're actually permitted to see and do. The blank page disappears but the control doesn't.
Faster, More Consistent Cost Volume Development
Update It Once. It Updates Everywhere.
Cost volume templates share a lot of the same content: standard disclaimers, boilerplate, background sections. Today, keeping that content current means opening every template that uses it and making the same edit, one by one.
Section Library gives that shared content one home instead: update it there, and every linked template picks it up automatically.
A shared section linked into a template from the Section Library
Formatting Built to Travel
When content gets pivoted into a new report structure, formatting and styling are often stripped or simplified in the process.
Pivoted Styling Support keeps that formatting, hierarchy, and emphasis intact through the pivot, so what a reviewer sees is exactly what you meant them to see.
A pivoted cost volume section keeping its original formatting
Built for Reading Long Documents, Not Just Editing Them
Long cost volumes are hard to work through as one continuous block of text. It's easy to lose your place, easy to miss something that still needs an update.
Page View (Phase 2) adds true page-by-page navigation, so you can jump straight to the section that matters instead of scrolling to find it.
Page View navigating a long document
What Changes, What Doesn't
Estimators and proposal teams are still on the hook for the same thing they've always been on the hook for: a complete, defensible BOE, and a cost volume that holds up under review. What's different is how much of their time goes into getting there. Less of it gets lost to rework, reformatting, and hunting for the right template or the right page. More of it goes to the judgment calls only a person can make, the actual estimate, the actual proposal, the work that wins.
Already running BOE Pro or Cost Volume Pro? This release is live now. Upgrade through Deltek Software Manager to put it to work.
Not yet on either one? This is what you'd be starting with: guided authoring, a governed AI drafting partner, and cost volume content that finally holds together on its own.
Webinar
See it in Action
Join our upcoming session, Eliminating Spreadsheet Chaos: The Business Case for ProPricer, to see guided BOEs, AI-assisted drafting, and Cost Volume Pro capabilities in action, and build the case for standardized, more defensible pricing.
