BOQ, estimating and budget: study sheet

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Zeyto Academy · Core · Module 42

BOQ, estimating and budget

Build a priced BOQ, estimate from rates, lock a contract baseline and control it with budget versions (Zeyto Construction & Contracting, pre-release).

You will be able to

Explain the BOQ as the items of the breakdown and compute sell, cost and margin
Organise cost by category and by the six cost natures
Price an estimate item in Zeyto's fixed order and read the rounded sell rate
Describe BOQ version states and what locking and award do
Set, approve and check a budget by nature, and know the available amount
Treat revisions, transfers, forecasts and baselines as new versions

The bill of quantities in Zeyto

The BOQ is the set of items of the breakdown, not a separate file.
Sell amount and cost amount are quantity times rate, and their difference is the planned margin.
Check margin by line as well as in total.

Categories, codes and the six cost natures

Two slices: where (item of work) and what kind (nature).
The six natures are material, own labour, machines, subcontract, third-party manpower and other.
Copying a category into a project detaches it from the master.

Building an estimate from rates

Pricing has a fixed order: direct, allowance, adders, cost, overhead then profit, rounded rate.
Wastage lives inside component unit costs.
Quotes are compared on comparable cost, including retention, advance, camp and permit terms.

From tender to a locked contract baseline

Draft, submitted, accepted, locked: only locked is the baseline.
A locked BOQ is changed only through a variation order.
The award builds project, BOQ, budget, schedule, contract and clauses in one go.

The budget: by item, by nature, in versions

A budget is by item, by nature and in versions.
Only a draft can be edited; approving makes a version current; the original baseline is kept.
Available = budget - actual - open commitments.

Revisions, transfers, contingency and baselines

Budget changes are new versions, approved by two people, and never post to the ledger.
A transfer keeps the total; a revision changes it.
Forecast snapshots freeze the numbers monthly with a cause split.

The bill of quantities in Zeyto: key table

Item	Qty	Unit	Sell rate	Sell amount	Cost rate	Cost amount
Excavation in soil	800	m3	45	36,000	32	25,600
Concrete C40	250	m3	620	155,000	505	126,250
Reinforcement steel	30	t	3,900	117,000	3,250	97,500
Blockwork 200 mm	1,400	m2	78	109,200	61	85,400
Cement plaster	2,800	m2	36	100,800	27	75,600
Total				518,000		410,350

Categories, codes and the six cost natures: key table

Nature	What it covers	How cost reaches it
Material	Goods bought or taken from stock	Purchase invoices and stock issues to the item
Own labour	Your own staff	Timesheets and the monthly labour allocation
Machines	Your own plant and equipment	Charge-out, fuel and parts, or depreciation allocation
Subcontract	Work done by a subcontractor	Subcontract bills (certificates)
Third-party manpower	Workers supplied by an agency	Agency bills matched to approved timesheets
Other	Everything else, including commercial adders	Service purchases, petty cash, other journals

From tender to a locked contract baseline: key table

State	Meaning	What can still change
Draft	Being priced	Quantities and rates
Submitted	Sent to the client	Can go back to draft, or be accepted or lost
Accepted	Client agreed	Can be locked or superseded
Locked	The contract baseline	Only through a variation order

Revisions, transfers, contingency and baselines: key table

Change	What it does	Approval
Budget transfer	Moves budget between two items of the same project, total unchanged	Two approvers, neither the creator
Budget revision	Changes the project total, for example after an approved variation	Two approvers, neither the creator
Contingency drawdown	Moves budget from the project's contingency item to another item; the pool keeps an original, a drawn and a floor amount	A kind of budget transfer: two approvers
Schedule baseline	A frozen copy of the plan's dates kept beside the current plan	Taken by the planner; earlier baselines stay