The client tender
The estimate, as the client should see it
Why this one matters
The client should never see your estimate. They should see a price, a scope, and enough detail to believe both — without your margins, your supplier names or the forty lines that make up the bathroom.
This is where the working document becomes the one you are happy to put your name on.
What you will see
- Choosing how much detail the client sees, and what stays internal
- The cover and the scope built from the job itself
- The finished document, ready to send
What was said
The narration, word for word, for anyone who would rather read it than watch it — or who is on a train.
The client tender is the document you send with your price. SmarteBuild builds it from your estimate, so the scope, the price and the allowances always match the bill.
On the left, every part of the tender in the order it prints, each with a line saying what's in it. Six stages, seven allowances, nine clauses.
The eye shows or hides a section. A hidden one becomes a slim grey bar in the document, and never prints.
Click a section and only its settings open. The document scrolls to it, so you always see what you're changing.
Click any text in the document to change it: the letter, the scope, the inclusions, the terms.
The tender price page sets how the price is shown, and the stages it's split into. Group the price by any of your cost code lists.
Type client, project or total in curly brackets, and the right value fills itself in.
Save keeps your wording for this estimate. Refresh brings in any change to the estimate, without losing what you've typed.
When it's right, print it or save it as a P-D-F. Read the scope before it goes. It's the part the client will hold you to.
The scope can be one line per cost code, every item under its stage, or only the words you write for each stage. Show each stage's amount if the client should see it. And leave out the small things, items worth less than a figure you choose, so the scope reads as what matters.
Whole document sets the look of every page: your colour, a number on every line so the client and the building contract can refer to them, the page footer with your company and the job, and the order the sections print in.
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 client tender — the full reference
Read about it instead: Tenders · Bill of Quantities · Client Portal
Start with one job and see
Try the whole thing free for 30 days. No credit card to start, and no lock-in contract.