PlanIt Estimating · Commercial Tenders & Bills of Quantities

Price a bill of quantities item by item

What does this do?

When the contractor sends a bill to rate, price it in the bill workspace instead of measuring rooms. Every item gets a build-up (materials, labour, waste, overhead and margin behind the rate) and a rate card supplies default rates by item type, so each rate can be justified line by line.

How to use it

  1. Open Tenders, press + New Tender and under How is this tender priced? choose Bill of quantities. Press Create tender →.
  2. Press Open the bill → (or the 📋 Bill tab). Set the defaults for every item: Profit %, MCD % and the MCD convention (grossed up or added on).
  3. Press ⚙ Rate card… to set your standing rates by item type. These feed every bill on every tender until you override an item.
  4. Add sections and items by hand with + Add section, or press 📥 Paste bill… to bring the bill in from Excel.
  5. Press Build-up on an item to see and edit the materials, labour, waste, overhead and margin behind its rate. Any figure can be overridden per item.
  6. To change several items at once, tick them and use the bar to set Profit %, Wastage %, Discount %, Type or Site cost, or Apply product… to price them from your catalogue.
  7. Add any Exclusions on this tender (blank uses the rate card's standing text).
  8. Press 🖨 Priced bill for the client document (rates and amounts only). 🖨 Build-up 🔒 and 🖨 Summary are internal and never show to the client.
Questions this guide answers
  • How do I price a contractor's bill of quantities?
  • What is a build-up?
  • What does the rate card do?
  • How do I send the client a priced bill without showing my build-up?

Last updated 2026-09-03 · Direct link for this feature