The Bill of Quantities: a tour
Every number on the screen, and where it comes from
Why this one matters
A bill of quantities is where an estimate stops being a guess. Every line is a thing to be bought or built, with a quantity, a rate and a margin, and the total at the bottom is the sum of decisions you can point at rather than a number you arrived at.
If you have only ever priced in a spreadsheet, this is the two minutes that shows the difference.
What you will see
- A real estimate with its items, quantities, rates and totals
- Where markup sits, and what separates it from margin
- How the bill is grouped, and why the grouping is the cost codes again
What was said
The narration, word for word, for anyone who would rather read it than watch it — or who is on a train.
This is the Bill of Quantities: every item in the estimate, with its quantity, its rate, and what it adds up to.
The ribbon across the top groups the tools: adding and organising items, the operations you run on what you've ticked, and the reports.
The Cost Codes button chooses what the grid shows. Pick one cost code to see its items, or pick several, and the grid shows each as its own section.
Each line is one item: what it is, the product and supplier, the unit, the quantity, the cost, and the total.
The switch in the INC column turns an item on or off. Switched off, it keeps its quantity and its rate, but it doesn't count. That's how you price an option without deleting anything.
The bar above the grid adds it up: the total cost, the markup, the GST, and the quote total.
Filter narrows what you see: only the items that are included, flagged, or over budget.
Tick some items and Actions works on all of them at once: duplicate them, switch them off, set their GST, or raise an order, a quote or a tender.
And the calculator on each row is how a quantity gets worked out. That's the next video.
Doing it, rather than watching it
This page is the tour. When you are in SmarteBuild with a job open and need the detail — every option, every exception, the things the video had no time for — the help centre has the full article.
The BOQ explained — the full reference
Read about it instead: Bill of Quantities · Cost Codes & WBS · Price Lists & Products
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