What the schedule is
It is the schedule of quantities and prices, one of the five parts of the Luxembourg specification.
It lists the items, each describing a work, its unit and its quantity.
Contractors enter their unit prices, whose product with the quantities gives the amount of the bid.
It is not the contractor's quotation. The schedule is prepared by the design team and issued to every contractor invited; the quotation is each one's reply.
This distinction is fundamental: it is because the schedule is common that bids become comparable, developed in the article on what makes bids comparable.
| Document | What it carries | Who it binds |
|---|---|---|
| Measurement | The quantities taken off the design | Its author, usually the quantity surveyor |
| Price schedule | The unit rates offered | The tendering contractor |
The two quantities it carries
They do not bind the same people, nor in the same way. Measurement and the price schedule have distinct authors.
The quantities, established by the design team from the project.
The prices, per unit, established by each contractor in reply.
The design team commits its competence on the quantities, the contractor commits its price on each unit.
How the risk is shared where actual quantities differ from those foreseen depends on the form of contract, covered in the article on measured and lump sum.
What measurement binds
Three often underestimated consequences.
An erroneous quantity distorts the comparison, since every contractor applies it equally but the total shifts.
A missing quantity is not priced. It reappears during the works as additional work, on the terms covered in the article on additional works.
A poorly chosen unit makes the item incomparable, each contractor reading it its own way.
The third case is the most insidious, since it produces price differences that look commercial when they are semantic.
The four defects that make a tender unusable
They recur constantly.
The imprecise item, which does not say what it includes, covered in the article on what an item must contain.
The ambiguous unit, notably where the method of measurement is not stated, covered in the article on units and measurement rules.
The catch-all item, grouping heterogeneous works in a single line and preventing any analysis.
Contradiction with the technical clauses, where the schedule describes something other than the specification.
These four defects share one feature: they transfer to the contractor a decision that belonged to the specifier, and that decision ends up in the price without being visible.
What the schedule does not replace
Two useful clarifications.
It does not replace the technical clauses. An item refers to a requirement; it does not contain it.
It does not replace the drawings. Geometry is read on the drawings; the schedule quantifies it.
A self-contained schedule would be unreadable, and a silent one uninterpretable. The balance between the two is a matter of craft.
The articles in this branch
The article on what an item must contain covers drafting. The mandatory elements are listed there.
The article on units and measurement rules covers quantification. The families of units are compared there.
The article on measured and lump sum covers quantity risk. The two forms are contrasted there.
The article on checking a schedule offers a method. The method is given there step by step.
This article sets out a method of professional orientation. It reproduces no content from normative documents.