BOQ guides for estimators and quantity surveyors
Practical guides for the person with a Bill of Quantities on the desk: how to read it, price it, add it up and return it, with the Excel layouts that go with each step. They describe common practice. Your contract and tender documents govern.
Reading a bill
What the document is, which rules it was measured to, and what each unit and description is telling you.
BOQ vs bill of materials A construction BOQ prices measured work; a manufacturing BOM lists the parts of a product. NRM 2, CESMM4 and SMM7 What the common measurement standards cover and what to check before you price a bill. Item descriptions and units What m, m², m³, nr, item and sum mean and how to read an item description.
Pricing it
Building a rate, pricing preliminaries, and carrying the client's own sums without re-pricing them.
Totals and Excel
How the pages add up to a tender sum, how to prove it, and how to turn a priced bill into a cost plan.
Collection and summary pages How page totals, collections and the summary add up to the tender sum. Tender arithmetic checks Quantity x rate, collections, the summary and front-loading checks before you submit. BOQ to cost plan in Excel Sheet layout, cost codes and SUMIF formulas that tie a cost plan to the tender sum.
Tender documents and risk
What arrives in the pack, what to return, where errors come from and when to measure for yourself.