The bill of quantities in Zeyto
You will be able to: Explain what a BOQ line contains and how the sell and cost amounts are formed; Read a BOQ total and its margin; State which BOQ fields the project hub shows and where they come from.
- Read not done yet
- Watched not done yet
- Self-check: not taken not done yet
- Lesson complete not done yet
A bill of quantities (BOQ) lists the work of a contract in measured items. Each line has a description, a quantity, a unit and a rate. The client prices the work from it, and the contractor uses the same lines to bill progress, so the BOQ is the common language of tender, contract, cost control and billing.
Show transcript
1. Open Projects and choose a project 2. Structure: the breakdown the BOQ is built on 3. BOQ: quantity, sell rate and unit cost of each item 4. Scroll to read the margin line by line 5. Budget: what you plan to spend, by item and nature 6. Finance: budget against open orders and actual cost 7. Tenders: where the estimate behind the BOQ is built 8. The Rate Library holds the components of every rate
In Zeyto Construction & Contracting the BOQ is not a separate document. It is the set of items (the leaves) of the project's breakdown. The BOQ tab of the project hub lists them with quantity, unit, sell rate, unit cost, sell amount and cost amount, plus the BOQ versions. Because items are the same nodes that carry budget, cost and progress, a change to an item shows everywhere at once.
- Sell rate is what the client pays per unit; sell amount is quantity times sell rate.
- Unit cost is what you expect to pay per unit; cost amount is quantity times unit cost.
- The difference is the planned margin of the line, and the sum of all sell amounts is the contract value shown on the project.
| 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 |
Look at the margin line by line, not only in total. Excavation earns 13 per m3 (about 29% of its sell rate), concrete 115 per m3 (about 19%) and plaster 9 per m2 (25%). A BOQ whose total margin looks acceptable can hide a line that loses money, and the BOQ tab lets you see it before you lock.
Walk it through
- Price a five-line BOQ for a small building with a sell rate and a cost rate for each line.
- Compute the margin per line and in total.
- In the demo, open a project's BOQ tab and compare the totals with the Structure tab. Without access, add the totals up on paper and check that parent categories would equal their items.
Public demo company, sign in as admin / demoAdmin123. Data refreshes nightly.
- 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.
Check yourself
3 questions on this lesson. Not timed, not the exam, and you can try again. Score 60% or more, and read the lesson, to complete it.