BOQ for Civil Work: What It Is and How to Prepare It

A bill of quantities (BOQ) lists every item of work in a project with its unit, quantity and rate. It is the basis for the contract price, for comparing contractors, and for every bill raised during the work.

What a BOQ contains

Each line has:

• Item number, grouped by trade: earthwork, concrete, steel, masonry, plaster, flooring, painting.
• Description detailed enough to price: "RCC M20 in columns including shuttering", not just "concrete".
• Unit: cum for concrete and excavation, kg or MT for steel, sqm for plaster and tiles, rmt for skirting, nos for doors.
• Quantity taken from the drawings.
• Rate and amount (quantity × rate).

How to prepare one

1. Study the drawings and specifications.
2. Take off quantities item by item: volume of each footing and column, area of each wall for plaster, length of skirting. Write the calculation so it can be checked.
3. Add a small margin for wastage where your specification allows.
4. Rate each item from current material prices, labour and overheads, or from a schedule of rates if the client uses one.
5. Total by section and for the whole project.

Units that cause confusion

Steel is measured by weight (kg), not by length. Brickwork is usually in cum for thick walls and sqm for half-brick walls. Plaster and painting are in sqm; deduct large openings as your contract says.

From BOQ to running bills

During the work, the site engineer and the client measure what has been done and record it in the measurement book. The running account bill is:

• value of work done till date (executed quantity × rate),
• minus the total of previous bills,
• minus retention (often 5 to 10 percent),
• plus GST as applicable.

The difference between BOQ quantity and executed quantity at the end decides the final bill. Items that exceed the BOQ need written approval.

Tips

• Keep one BOQ file per project and update executed quantities after every measurement.
• Flag items above 100 percent of BOQ before billing.
• Keep labour wages and advances alongside, so the site's real cost is clear.

Our Contractor BOQ, Running Bill & Labour workbook keeps the BOQ, running bill with retention and GST, and a labour register in one file.