Rate analysis software: the build-up behind every rate, adjusted for your site
Rate analysis software should answer the question every estimator is eventually asked: why is this rate what it is? In CivilOS a rate is not a bare number. It is a build-up — the labour, material and plant one unit of work needs, at your prices, plus sundries, wastage, overhead and profit — and it prints its working line by line.
Because each build-up refers to wages and prices rather than copying them, a site can be priced rather than guessed: change the mason's wage or the cement price and every rate that uses them moves. The CPWD DSR 2023 ships as data, a State schedule can be loaded, and the rates go straight into an IS-code BOQ. It runs in the browser on a Free plan.
What you can do
| Feature | What it does | Export / status |
|---|---|---|
| Build-up | Materials, labour and plant per unit with their coefficients and basis; sundries, wastage, overhead and profit | Excel · PDF |
| Prices and wages | One table of site prices that every rate refers to | — |
| CPWD DSR 2023 | The Delhi Schedule of Rates shipped as data, searchable by item and description | — |
| State SOR | Load your State PWD or BSR schedule from Excel, PDF or an image | — |
| Market rates | Your own quotations with dates, kept as a history | Excel |
| Matching | Rates matched to BOQ items; a unit mismatch refuses the match instead of pricing nonsense | — |
A rate you can defend
When a client questions a rate, a bare figure has no answer and a build-up has one: so much cement, sand and labour per cubic metre, at these prices, with this overhead and profit. Each coefficient carries where it came from, so the rate cites its basis instead of asking to be trusted — and a figure that is wrong for your specification is visible, and correctable, rather than buried.
Factors at pricing time
Location, height and other factors are applied when the BOQ is priced, not written into the stored rate. A rate therefore stays the rate its schedule published, and the same factor is never applied twice — a mistake that survives unnoticed in many spreadsheets.
How to start
- Open the Cost Estimator from the sidebar.
- Set your prices — wages, cement, sand, aggregate, steel — for the site.
- Open a rate and read its build-up; adjust a coefficient where your specification differs.
- Choose the schedule — CPWD DSR 2023, or load your State schedule.
- Price the BOQ and export the rates with their working.
What CivilOS does not do
- The coefficients are drafts. They follow standard practice but vary with specification, lead, lift and locality; check them before you rely on them.
- No official schedule of its own. The DSR is CPWD's; a State schedule is the State's.
- No live market feed. Market rates are the ones you enter, with their dates.
- No AI in the arithmetic. Reading a scanned State schedule is AI-assisted and is a draft; the rates themselves are arithmetic.
Where a browser tool fits
Large contractors keep rate libraries in their ERP, approved by a cost department and tied to procurement. That is the right home for them.
The estimator who needs a defensible rate today, the student learning how a DSR rate is built, the small contractor adjusting rates for a district where cement costs more — for them a browser tool with the build-ups, the DSR and their own prices in one place is the faster way.
Open the Cost Estimator free → read a rate's build-upFrequently asked questions
What is rate analysis?
Rate analysis works out the cost of one unit of an item of work — one cubic metre of brickwork, one square metre of plaster — from the quantities of labour, material and plant it needs, their prices, and the contractor's overhead and profit. It is how a schedule of rates is made and how a rate is defended when a client questions it.
Is it free?
Yes, to start. Create a free account (no card) and the Free plan opens every module, including the Cost Estimator, with a monthly allowance; prints carry the CivilOS letterhead. Pro, Max and Enterprise Seats plans add more hours and generations and put your own letterhead on every print. The Training Corner, Knowledge Library and Feedback are free without limit.
Does it follow the CPWD method?
Yes. The build-ups follow CPWD analysis-of-rates and DSR conventions and common State PWD practice: materials and labour per unit, sundries and wastage, then overhead and profit (10 % and 10 % by default, both editable). The coefficients are draft values with their basis shown, to be checked against your specification, lead and lift.
Can I use my own wages and prices?
Yes, and that is the point. Change the mason's daily wage or the price of cement and every rate that uses them updates, each still showing its working.
Is the CPWD DSR included?
Yes. The CPWD Delhi Schedule of Rates 2023 — 3,047 items — ships as data and can be searched and matched to BOQ items. A State PWD schedule can be loaded from Excel, PDF or an image.
Do I need to install anything or create an account?
No installation: CivilOS opens in an ordinary browser on a laptop, tablet or phone and can be installed as an app from the sidebar. A free account is needed to open the engineering modules; it takes a minute and asks for no card.
Draft for checking. Every safety-critical output of CivilOS is a preparation document. Drawings, quantities, rates, programmes and inspections must be verified, and the result signed off, by a licensed professional before they are issued, tendered, built or paid against.