What the template contains, plainly
This template holds four tabs. A configurable cover sheet carrying the client's details and the tendering contractor's, propagated automatically across the whole file. A tab of rules of use, addressed to the contractors consulting the tender pack. A cost report that consolidates the totals, the 20 % VAT and the gross figure on its own. And a model work package tab to duplicate, with columns for item number, description, unit, quantities supplied, quantities entered by the contractor, unit rate and selling price, both excluding VAT.
It does not hold the names of the work packages, the item descriptions or the quantities. What you see in the Quostra case studies, with named packages, dozens of items each and quantities measured precisely, is what a surveyor who knows the subject produces. This template is the blank frame beneath it.
Who the template is for
It is meant for architects, design teams and quantity surveyors producing pricing schedules within their tender packs, on private or public contracts. It suits every kind of programme and every size of operation.
It is most useful to practices working from non-standard frames, or reformatting their spreadsheets on every new project. A common structure across all your tender packs makes your consultations easier to read for contractors, and your bid analysis faster for you.
The built-in rules of use, a detail that makes a real difference
The rules of use tab is often the first one contractors open before filling in their response. It states how to complete the document, which cells are locked, and where to record variants and options. When those rules are clear, questions during the tender period fall away, the bids become comparable, and the analysis afterwards goes faster.
It is a detail of method. But in a tender, details of method make a concrete difference to the result.
The limit of any blank template
A template gives the frame. It does not give the content. And in a pricing schedule the content decides everything: items described well enough to spare you the contractors' questions, quantities checked well enough to produce comparable bids, and interfaces between packages handled explicitly so that they do not become variations on site.
A badly filled schedule in a handsome template is still a badly filled schedule. What you see in the Quostra case studies is what this template looks like when a senior surveyor fills it in with the rigour of someone who has produced tender packs on dozens of projects like yours.
Quostra, when the template is no longer enough
If you have a tender pack to produce and drafting the pricing schedules becomes a subject in its own right, packages to name, items to describe, quantities to measure, interfaces between trades to settle, Quostra puts a senior construction economist at your disposal, available 365 days a year on subscription.
Quostra pricing schedules are produced in your practice's own livery and delivered in under 72 working hours, with the descriptions and quantities matched to your programme. Three plans, from 495 euros a month. The template you download today, we fill in for you tomorrow.