A Bill of Quantities (BOQ) breaks the works into measurable items — each with a description, a unit, a quantity, a rate and an amount. It's the backbone of tendering (everyone prices the same list) and of valuation (you get paid for what's actually in the ground).
Build it so it wins work and gets paid
- Follow a standard method of measurement. SMM, CESMM, POMI, or your local standard — so every tenderer is pricing the same thing and you can compare like for like.
- Build your rates, don't guess them. A real rate = material + labour + plant + overhead + profit. If you can't break it down, you don't understand it yet.
- Always allow for wastage. The delivered quantity is never the drawing quantity. Rough starting points, then tune to your site:
Concrete ~5%
Rebar ~3–5%
Blocks / tiles ~5–10%
Formwork ~10%+
- Mind your units religiously (m, m², m³, kg, No., item). One wrong unit can swing a rate by orders of magnitude and lose the job.
- Don't forget the preliminaries. Site set-up, supervision, temporary works, scaffold, welfare, plant standing time — none of it is free. Price it or bleed it.
- Sanity-check with ratios. Steel per m³ of concrete, formwork per m³, blocks per m² — a quick cross-check catches gross errors before they're priced.
- Reference your take-off back to drawing numbers. Future-you, doing the valuation under pressure, will be grateful.
The five columns, in one line
Every BOQ item earns its place with the same five things: a clear description, the right unit, an honest quantity, a built-up rate, and the amount they multiply out to. Get any one of those wrong and the whole line lies to you — and a bill full of small lies is how a job goes underwater before the first pour.
A neat, referenced take-off is the difference between getting paid and arguing about it.