Winning the work

Once the bill is built, most of the price is not yours — it is your subcontractors’. This section is about getting those prices, comparing them, and getting them back into the estimate without re-typing anything.

Two ways a price arrives

Through a tender. You build a package from BOQ items, send it to several subcontractors, and compare what comes back. Structured, comparable, and the right approach for anything significant.

Outside a tender. A price arrives by email or over the phone. Recorded in Quotes Received, and attached to the items it covers.

Both end in the same place: a rate on a BOQ item, with a link back to where it came from.

Why it is worth doing here

Emailing a drawing set to five subcontractors and comparing the replies in a spreadsheet works, and every builder has done it. What it does not give you is a trail.

Six months later, “who quoted the roof, at what, and what were they told?” has to be reconstructed from a mailbox. Run through Tenders, the package, the recipients, the dates and the prices are all attached to the job, and a bid brought into the bill carries a Related bid link back to its source.

The shape of a tender

1. Build the package from BOQ items — see Building a tender package.
2. Choose who to invite, from your suppliers.
3. Attach the drawings they need.
4. Send it, and track who has responded.
5. Compare the bids and award.
6. Bring the winning price into the bill.

In this section

• Leads — enquiries in, followed up, converted into a quote, won or lost
• Tenders & Quotes — packages, invitations, tracking and awarding
• Quotes Received — prices that arrive outside a tender