How to Prepare a Bill of Quantities in Construction

Bill of Quantity or BoQ is a document that has been prepared by a cost consultant. The project-specific estimated quantities of the items that were pointed out while designing the building construction project were provided by the bill of quantities. A complete project design and specification should be prepared while preparing the bill of quantities. The quantities that have been listed within the bill of quantities have been measured in terms of weight, volume, time, number, or length. Generally in the case of large building construction projects, the bill of quantities is prepared.

Sample of the bill of quantity

Benefits of the Bill of Quantities

Doing tendering efficiently

A fair and accurate bidding process has been ensured by the bill of quantities. This helps to reduce the risks of misunderstanding during the project and also saves the time of the owner or project team members regarding the analysis of the bids.

Proper planning and scheduling of the building construction project

The bill of quantities helps to provide information about the completion of the project works. The bill of quantities helps to provide time-related information regarding the project work which improves the planning and scheduling of the construction project. Thus, the project regarding building construction has been delivered within the proposed time and avoids the waste of materials, equipment, or labor.

Controlling the project cost

An accurate cost control has been also provided by the bill of quantities. This helps to provide a detailed overview of the project's items along with their prices which helps to point out the costly items and thus the project owner can look for alternative items and control the overall budget of the project.

Collecting, analyzing, and storing the project cost data

The cost professional can use the bill of quantities to estimate the costs of the upcoming building project. This type of cost data can be retrieved and reserved for estimating costs and other purposes.

Maintaining transparency and accountability in the project

The bill of quantities helps to provide a detailed layout of costs and tasks which reduces the chances of mistakes and saves the time of the owner and the contractor by avoiding inessential meetings. All the costs of the project can be tracked by the project owner which helps to boost the accountability and transparency of the project-related building construction.

Factors should be considered while preparing the Bill of Quantities

The following items should be included while preparing the bill of quantities for the building construction project.

The list of the items

By making the lists of the items, it can be possible to note if the item is labor or material. This helps to differentiate the types of items in the bill of quantities.

The number of items

An individual who makes the bill of quantity should have to give the number of the lists as this numbering helps to find out the lists while it grow long.

Description of the items

Adding context regarding the items helps to describe the items.

Quantity of the items

It is another important piece of information that needs to be collected for each item while making the bill of quantities.

Work Breakdown Structure

The work breakdown structure helps to provide an organized framework for performing the tasks of the projects.

Measurement units

It also needs to define how the items are measured by using appropriate measurement units for each of the items.

Cost per unit

The price of each item including labor or materials regarding the building construction project should be measured and listed.

Total cost of the items

The total cost of each line item should be addressed which helps to get the overall idea about the cost of the building construction project.

Types of Bill of Quantities

Firm Bill of Quantities

This type of bill of quantities is used for obtaining the lump sum price. Thus, this bill of quantities indicates that the full design project has been completed at a fixed amount. In this regard, the items of the projects should have to be measured more accurately. This helps to ensure that the tendered prices of the projects are fully reliable.

Approximate Bill of Quantities

If there is not enough detailed information about the item quantities and measurements, the approximate bill of quantities will be used. In the approximate bill of quantities, the contractors do not provide a lump sump price as the firm bill of quantities. But in this case, contractors provide a quantified schedule of rates.

Provisional Bill of Quantities

In this bill of quantities, those items are included which cost quantities are not defined fully. This bill of quantity type does not specify or measure the time of tendering precisely.

Detailed Bill of Quantities

The comprehensive measurement for each and every item of the project has been included in this type of bill of quantity. This is the reason, this detailed bill of quantity is used for making contracts or tenders.

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Video Source: Engineering Academy

Elemental Bill of Quantities

This bill of quantity is used to categorize the items into the specific elements of the project. The breakdown of the project elements helps to organize the overall project costs and also helps to compare the cost of the different sections of the building construction projects.

Trade Bill of Quantities

Specific trades of a building construction project have been focused on the trade bill of quantities. In this case, the project work has been divided on the basis of the different types of trades and helps to provide detailed descriptions about the quantities of each item of the project.