BOQ & Estimate Sheet Maker

About the BOQ & Estimate Sheet Maker

Make a bill of quantities the way it is measured on site: sections of items, each with its description, unit and rate, and under each item its measurement rows — nos × L × B × D, with deductions for doors, windows and voids. The quantities, the amounts, the section totals, additions such as contingencies or a discount, and the tax (CGST + SGST or IGST, or a VAT or sales tax of your own) are worked out as you type, in decimal, rounded the way a hand-written estimate is. Dimensions may be calculations — 2×3, (3.00−0.23) — and an item can also take a quantity straight from a bar bending schedule or a take-off.

The estimate becomes a measurement sheet, a BOQ with the abstract of cost and a summary with the grand total (in words, for rupees), with your letterhead and notes; an unpriced BOQ leaves the rates for bidders. With a Premium pass you download it as a PDF, an Excel workbook whose formulas recalculate, and a CSV that the RA Bill Generator imports for running bills; without one, the free preview shows every page as a marked image, with the quantities and amounts after the first items hidden. Estimates are kept in this browser.

Common uses

• Contractors pricing a job item by item from the drawings.
• Engineers preparing a detailed estimate with its measurement sheet and abstract of cost.
• Clients and consultants issuing an unpriced BOQ for bidders to quote on.
• Builders checking a quotation against their own measurements before signing.

How the quantities and totals are worked out

• Measurement row = nos × L × B × D, an empty dimension counting as 1 (so an area is nos × L × B or nos × L × D, a length nos × L), or the quantity you type on the row. Each row is rounded to the step you choose; a deduction counts negative.
• Item quantity = the sum of its rows — or the quantity you type when it has none — times its factor, if any (rounded again after the factor).
• Amount = quantity × rate, rounded to the cent, paisa or penny (or to whole units); a section total adds its amounts.
• Additions are a percentage of the subtotal or a fixed amount; a negative amount is a discount.
• Tax is worked on the subtotal plus additions: CGST and SGST at half the rate each, IGST at the full rate, or one tax with your own name and rate. The grand total can be rounded to whole units, with the rounding shown.

All of it is decimal arithmetic, so 0.1 + 0.2 is 0.3 and every rounding is the half-up rounding of a spreadsheet’s ROUND().

Measuring by IS 1200

The Indian Standard methods of measurement (IS 1200, one part per trade) book dimensions in the sequence of length, breadth or width and height or depth or thickness (clause 2.2) and measure work net, with each dimension … measured to the nearest 0.01 m, areas … worked out to the nearest 0.01 m² and cubical contents … worked out to the nearest 0.01 m³ (clause 2.3 of Part 1, earthwork, and Part 3, brickwork). That is why the rounding starts at 0.01 for each row; choose 0.001 or no rounding when your contract measures differently. The parts also say how each trade is measured — what is deducted for openings, what is measured in square or cubic metres — so read the part for your trade when you write the items.

Documents and files

• Estimate: the measurement sheet, the bill of quantities (item, description, unit, quantity, rate, amount, with a total for each section carried to the summary) and the summary with additions, tax and the grand total.
• BOQ only or Measurement sheet on their own, on A4 portrait, A4 landscape or A3 landscape.
• Unpriced BOQ: untick “Priced estimate” on the Project tab; the documents and the workbook leave rates and amounts for bidders.
• Excel workbook: Project, Measurements, BOQ and Summary sheets; every quantity, amount and total is a formula with its value stored beside it, and yellow cells are entries, so a change of a dimension or a rate recalculates everything in Excel, LibreOffice or Google Sheets.
• CSV: one row per item — section, item no., description, unit, quantity, rate, amount and currency — with the column names the RA Bill Generator imports as the BOQ of a contract.

The free preview shows the documents as page images marked “MySmartCoPilot preview · not for use”, with the quantities and amounts of the first half of the items (up to ten) and everything you typed; the other figures and the totals are hidden until a Premium pass, or unlocking this estimate, opens them.

Bringing in quantities and rates

Import items from a CSV or Excel file, or paste rows copied from a spreadsheet: a header row naming the columns (section, item no., description, unit, quantity, rate) is recognised in any order, and a Blank items template shows the layout. An item’s measurements import the same way (particulars, nos, L, B, D or a quantity, deduct), or from the CSV of the PDF Measure Tool, which measures lengths and areas on drawings: each length or area becomes a row with its quantity and its unit in the particulars (feet and inches come in as decimal feet), so check that the unit matches the item’s. This page’s own CSV imports back too: a section written “3. Masonry” becomes the section Masonry, and items numbered by their place are numbered by their place again.

Sources

• IS 1200, Method of measurement of building and civil engineering works — Part 1, Earthwork and Part 3, Brickwork, clauses 2.2 and 2.3, copies published by Public.Resource.Org.

Tax rates are not built in: enter the rate that applies to your work and check it before you quote or bill.

Limitations

• Item descriptions and rates are yours: no schedule of rates is built in.
• Tax and its rate are what you enter; check the rate that applies to your supply. This is not tax advice.
• The measurement rows multiply dimensions; areas of irregular shapes, centre-line lengths and volumes of slopes are worked out by you and entered as dimensions or quantities.
• Estimates are kept in this browser on this device: download a backup to move them or keep them safe.

Privacy

On this device: nothing is sent

Estimates, measurements and logos are kept in this browser’s storage on your device and never sent to MySmartCoPilot or anyone else. The PDF, the workbook and the CSV are made on the device; a backup file leaves it only when you download it.