Ask ten people on a construction or fit-out project what a Bill of Quantities is and you'll get ten slightly different answers. Here's the plain version: a BoQ is an itemised, measured, and priced list of everything a project needs — every material and every unit of labour — that turns a scope of work into a number you can stand behind.
What's in a BoQ
Each line typically carries a code, a description, a quantity, a unit, a rate, and an amount. Group the lines by section or discipline and the document reads top to bottom as the full cost of the works.
- Item & description — what's being priced (e.g. "4MP IP dome camera").
- Quantity & unit — how many, in what unit (180 EA, 640 m).
- Rate — the unit price, built from material, labour, plant, overhead, and margin.
- Amount — quantity × rate.
Where the quantities come from
The quantities come from a quantity take-off — reading the drawings and specifications and counting what's there. Garbage in, garbage out: a BoQ is only as good as the take-off underneath it.
Why the BoQ matters
A BoQ does three jobs at once. It makes your bid comparable — the client can line yours up against competitors line for line. It makes it defensible — when the client's quantity surveyor interrogates a rate, you trace it to its build-up. And it makes it reusable — priced from a rate library, the next tender is faster and more consistent.
A quote is a number. A Bill of Quantities is the argument behind the number — which is why serious tenders are won and defended on the BoQ, not the bottom line.
Turning a take-off into a costed, defensible BoQ is exactly what EstiWright — one of our products — is built to do.