Tender estimation and bid evaluation software — from the client's BOQ to the priced bid
Tender estimation in most firms is a workbook per tender: the client's BOQ with a rate column typed in, a separate sheet of rate analyses that nobody else can follow, vendors' quotations in email attachments, and the overheads and profit added at the end by whoever is senior that week. CivilOS keeps it as one calculation. The client's BOQ is read in as it came; every item is priced from a rate analysis or a vendor's quotation against the tender's own rate sheet; the markups are added as one loading; and the priced BOQ goes back out in the client's own layout — with nothing of our cost in it.
It is written from a hospital contractor's brief — civil, structural, finishes, electrical, HVAC, plumbing, fire, ELV, medical gas and façade — and it works the same for a road, a factory or a housing block. On the other side of the table, a client or PMC uses the same module to evaluate the bids it receives.
What you can do
| Feature | What it does | Export / status |
|---|---|---|
| BOQ import | Every sheet of the client's workbook, with the heading, columns and structure shown before anything is created; packages by discipline; frozen as received | Excel in |
| Rate analysis | Coefficients × rates for materials (wastage and carriage separate), labour, plant, transport, subcontract; sundries; templates for hospital work; copy from earlier tenders | Excel |
| Rates & library | The tender's rate sheet with the material requirement; the firm's library with rate history, templates and imported schedules of rates | Excel in / out |
| Quotations | RFQ workbook for vendors, their filled copy read back, landed rates, loading of missing items, L1 per item and package, split award, comparative statement | Excel · PDF |
| Overheads & profit | Site overheads built up head by head, HO overheads, finance, contingency, profit by package, charges on the bill, rebate, escalation, rounding | — |
| What-if | Scenarios, target price, break-even rebate, sensitivity, standing among the other bidders | — |
| Revisions & summary | Revised BOQs matched and priced; the tender summary; bid approval sheet; priced BOQ for submission; estimate workbook | Excel · PDF |
| Bid evaluation | Arithmetic checked and corrected, items loaded, abnormal rates, L1, QCBS, recommendation | Excel · PDF |
One calculation instead of five workbooks
The rate of an item is its analysis; the analysis reads the tender's rate sheet; the rate sheet came from the firm's library; the quotations feed the items and analysis lines that name them; the overheads and profit are one loading over all of it. Change any input and everything downstream moves — and the estimate workbook that comes out of it is the same live calculation, so a reviewer in Excel sees the chain rather than a column of typed numbers.
Arithmetic a checker can redo
Quantity to three decimals, rates to the paisa, every amount quantity × rate rounded once, every total the sum of the amounts above it, and every split — cost by kind, overheads by package — divided to the paisa so the parts add up exactly. Supply and installation amounts are added the way the client adds them. The profit is what the price leaves over the total cost and the charges, so the summary always agrees with the bill the client reads.
Who may see the margins
A bid is the most confidential document a contractor writes. The commercial half — overheads, profit, quoted rates, scenarios — is a separate grant, and is removed on the server before a tender reaches anyone without it. Procurement enters quotations and costs; Projects reads the budget; Management and Estimation see the whole. A tender can be restricted to named people, and two people editing one tender at the same time are merged, not overwritten.
How to start
- Create a free account; to work as a team, create a team and set each person's tender access and margins.
- Import the client's BOQ from Excel and check what each sheet was read as.
- Price the items: apply a template or write the analysis, or send each package's RFQ to vendors and read their quotations back.
- Add the overheads and profit, try the what-if, and read the summary.
- Download the priced BOQ for submission and print the bid approval sheet.
What CivilOS does not do
- No quantity take-off inside the module. Our quantity is typed against each item; measuring from a drawing is done in Quantity Survey or IndoCAD.
- No market rates of its own. The starter library's rates are samples marked as such; the firm's own rates, quotations and the published schedules are what price a real tender.
- No e-tendering portal submission. It produces the priced BOQ and the documents; uploading them to a portal is done on the portal.
- No ERP, purchase orders or accounting. An awarded BOQ goes to BOQ & Estimation for the estimate pack and running bills; procurement after award is outside it.
- No legal or tax advice. GST, input credit, the labour cess and the evaluation rules are settings the tender's own conditions and the law decide.
Where a browser tool fits
Firms already running a full estimating suite with resource-loaded databases wired to their ERP will find this lighter than what they have.
The contractor whose tenders live in Excel files passed between an estimator, a procurement desk and a director — and who wants the rate analyses, the vendors' quotations, the margins and the revisions of one tender in one place that each of them can open, with the right half hidden from the right people — is who this is for.
Open Contract & Tender Evaluation free → load the sample hospital tenderFrequently asked questions
Can it read the BOQ exactly as the client sent it?
Yes. Every sheet of the workbook is read and shown with what it was taken to mean before anything is created: the heading row (one row or two), the columns, section headings, sub-items under a preamble, rows that run on, "Rate only" and lump-sum items, and the Supply and Installation rate columns an MEP BOQ has. Summary and notes sheets are left out and say why. The priced BOQ comes back out in the same layout.
How is an item's rate built up?
From a rate analysis — coefficients of materials, labour, plant, transport and subcontract for one unit, each at the tender's rate, with a material's wastage and carriage shown as separate figures and sundries charged only on the contractor's own work — or from a vendor's quotation at its landed rate, a schedule rate less the profit it already contains, or a typed rate. Then overheads, finance, contingency and profit are added as a loading on every rate, and the charges levied on the bill are grossed up.
Is it free?
Yes, to start. Create a free account (no card) and the Free plan opens every module, including Contract & Tender Evaluation, 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 changing a material rate really re-price the tender?
Yes, at once. The tender keeps its own rate sheet; every analysis line refers to it, so a new cement rate moves every item that uses cement, in every package, and the summary with them. The firm's library supplies the rates, but a submitted tender keeps its own copy and never changes when the library does.
Can procurement see our margins?
Only if the Admin allows it. Tender access (off, read, update) and the margins (yes or no) are set per person. Someone without the margins never receives the overheads, the profit, the quoted rates or a frozen revision's prices — they are removed on the server, not hidden on the screen — and cannot save them.
Can a client or PMC use it to evaluate bids?
Yes. Each bidder's priced BOQ is read from Excel and checked: amounts corrected to quantity × rate with the rate governing, changed quantities flagged, items left out loaded, rates more than 25 % from the estimate marked. L1 is ranked on the evaluated price; with technical scores, QCBS. The tender's own conditions govern each rule, and the settings say so.
Does it measure quantities from the drawings?
Not inside this module. Our own quantity is written against each item — a number or its working — with the drawing reference, and every difference from the BOQ can become a pre-bid query. The measuring is done in CivilOS Quantity Survey (from an uploaded drawing) or IndoCAD (from a DWG or DXF).
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.