Pricing guide
BOQ pricing: a practical guide for contractors
Published:
How to price a bill of quantities step by step: scope, measurement, unit-rate build-up, overheads, risk and review, with links to deeper guides.
Original guide. It explains a method. It gives no market rates, no tender advice and no guarantee about any price.
What pricing a BOQ means
A bill of quantities (BOQ) lists the work as measurable items, each with a description, a unit and a quantity. Pricing it means giving every item a unit rate, multiplying by the quantity and adding the costs that belong to the project rather than to one item. The result is a priced BOQ that can be compared, checked and defended.
A good priced BOQ is traceable: a reviewer can see where each rate came from, what it includes and which assumptions it rests on. That matters more than the total, because traceability is what lets a team correct a price before it becomes a commitment.
Step 1: confirm the scope and the measurement rules
Before writing any rate, read the preambles, the specification and the drawings the quantities were measured from. Note which measurement standard the BOQ follows, because it decides what each unit rate must include.
- Check that each item has one unit and one quantity, and that headings and subtotals are not priced as work.
- Keep provisional sums, prime cost sums and daywork apart: each is priced under its own rules.
- Mark ambiguous descriptions and raise them as tender queries instead of guessing.
Step 2: build each unit rate
A unit rate is built from resources: labour, materials, plant and equipment, and any subcontract. Each resource is a quantity per unit of work multiplied by its cost. The unit-rate analysis guide works through a full build-up.
| Component | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Labour | Crew make-up, output per hour or day, and the all-in cost of each trade. |
| Materials | Quantity per unit including waste and laps, at the delivered price. |
| Plant and equipment | Hire or ownership cost, fuel and operator, divided by output. |
| Subcontract | A quotation for the item, checked for scope and exclusions. |
Step 3: add what is not in the items
Site overheads (preliminaries), head office overheads, profit, risk allowance and contingency are costs of the project as a whole. Decide whether each is spread across the item rates or shown as its own item, and say which. Taxes such as VAT are normally stated outside the rates; follow the tender instructions.
Step 4: review before you submit
Review the largest items first, then the most uncertain ones. Recalculate quantity × rate, check the units, compare rates with recent comparable work and current quotations, and reconcile every subtotal to the total. Keep a log of each change and its reason.
- Look for work priced twice, once in an allowance and again in a rate.
- Check that rates in one trade share the same assumptions about access, height and productivity.
- Ask a second estimator to review the build-ups of the ten largest items.
Where AI fits
AI can draft rate build-ups and flag missing or inconsistent items quickly, which leaves more time for the judgement pricing needs. It does not replace current supplier prices or a qualified estimator. The CAIS pricing trial prices an existing BOQ from Excel or CSV and returns the build-ups and assumptions for you to review.