Estimating & costing
Check an estimate before you send it
Put a priced bill through the validation rules, clear every warning and error, then export…
3 steps8 minOpen
Cases / Estimating & costing
Estimating & costing
Analyse a schedule rate into labour, material and machinery
Open a schedule item into the material, labour and plant it actually consumes, price those with your own rates, keep profit and overheads as a visible percentage, and save the result as an assembly you can defend and reuse.
How it works, step by step
5 steps across the platform - what you do at each one, and why it matters.
1
Find the item and read what its rate is supposed to include
Cost DatabaseLocate the nearest schedule item to the work in hand and read its description against the specification: the grade, the thickness, whether centering and shuttering are inside the item or billed separately, whether carriage is included.
Why: Most rate arguments are really description arguments. Two people agree on the cost of concrete and disagree about whether the item was supposed to include the formwork, and no amount of analysis settles that. Reading the description first tells you whether you are analysing a rate or discovering a missing item.
InThe loaded schedule of ratesThe specification for the workOutThe item and what its rate covers
2
Open the unit into what it consumes
Production NormsExpand one unit of the item into its constituents: the materials and their wastage allowance, the trade and helper hours to place them, and the plant hours the method needs. Adjust the assumed method where your site does it differently, and leave a note saying so.
Why: This step is where an inherited norm meets a real site, and the mismatch is worth finding now. A norm that assumes machine mixing on a job doing hand mixing will be wrong in the labour line and right in the material line, and only an opened analysis shows you which half to trust.
InThe construction method assumedOne unit of finished workOutMaterial per unit, with wastageLabour and plant hours per unit
3
Price the hours at what labour costs you
Labor RatesBuild the labour rate per trade from the wage you pay plus what sits on top of it: the statutory contributions, the site allowances, the non-productive time you carry. Use the minimum wage notified for the state as a floor rather than as the answer.
Why: Labour is where a schedule rate ages fastest and where a contractor's own figure is genuinely better information than a published one. It is also the constituent most often priced at the bare wage, which quietly removes the contribution and allowance cost from every item in the estimate at once.
InHours from the analysisThe wages you actually payOutAn all-in rate per trade
4
Save it as an assembly, with the percentage kept outside
AssembliesStore the analysis as a named assembly so the next bill can use it, and keep the contractor's profit and overheads as a percentage on the direct cost rather than absorbing it into the constituent prices.
Why: A tender is often accepted at a percentage above or below the estimated rates, and an assembly whose profit line is visible can be re-quoted at a different percentage in one move. One whose profit is spread through the material prices has to be rebuilt from the beginning, and usually is not.
InThe priced constituentsOutA reusable analysed rateProfit and overheads as their own line
5
Hold your rate against the published one
Cost ExplorerCompare the analysed rate with the schedule rate for the same item and look at the constituents rather than the totals. Note which constituent carries the difference: material price, labour, plant, or the percentage on top.
Why: A gap in the material line usually means the schedule is out of date and is an argument you can win with quotations. A gap in the labour line usually means the method differs and is an argument you win with the analysis. Knowing which one you have before the meeting decides how it goes.
InYour analysed rateThe published schedule rateOutWhere the two disagree, and why
