Pricing a bill of quantities

Read before you price

Read the specifications, drawings and the preambles to the BQ before you open a spreadsheet. The description of an item, not its one-line name, decides what it costs: grade, brand or equivalent, finish, delivery point and who installs it.

Note what the tender says about VAT, currency, price adjustment, provisional sums and day works. These change how you fill the BQ, not just the total.

Build up each rate

A rate that holds up is built from its parts:

• Materials or goods, from current written quotes, with delivery and wastage
• Labour, plant and transport, for works and installation items
• Overheads: the firm's running costs spread over the job
• Financing cost: you may wait for payment after you have paid suppliers
• Bonds, insurance and the cost of bidding
• Profit, and an allowance for risk you can explain

Fill it exactly as asked

• Price every line unless the tender says otherwise. An unpriced item may be treated as included elsewhere, or may make the bid non-responsive
• Do not change quantities, descriptions or units
• Check every extension (quantity times rate) and every total by hand or with a second person
• Make sure the total in the BQ, the Form of Tender and any summary match exactly

Why arithmetic matters so much

In Kenyan public tenders the tender sum read out at opening is generally treated as final, so an arithmetic error is not simply corrected in your favour. A mistake can leave you bound to a price you did not intend, or make the bid fail evaluation. Check the tender's instructions on how errors are handled, and check the rules in force.

Sense-check the result

Compare your total with the engineer's estimate if it is published, and with past awards for similar work. A price far below the market can be rejected as abnormally low, or win you a contract you cannot deliver.