BOQ in tender: what it is, how to read it and how to price it

What is BOQ in tender?

BOQ stands for bill of quantities. In a tender, it is the schedule the buyer issues with the bid documents: a numbered list of every item of work or supply, each with a description, a unit of measurement and an estimated quantity. The rate and amount columns are left for the bidder.

CPWD and many state public works departments call the same document a schedule of quantities. On e-procurement portals it is usually the financial bid itself: the spreadsheet you fill and upload as your price.

BOQ kya hota hai? In simple Hinglish: BOQ ka matlab hai bill of quantities, yaani kaam ke har item ki list, unit aur quantity ke saath, jisme bidder apna rate bharta hai.

A BOQ is not a bill of materials (BOM). A BOM lists the components of an item or system. A BOQ describes measured work or supply for pricing.

The BOQ is one part of the tender pack. The specification, drawings and contract conditions tell you what each line actually includes. Our guide to tender documents shows where each of these sits.

How to read a BOQ: the columns and what they mean

Most BOQs in Indian building and civil tenders follow the same six columns. The extract below is illustrative: the items, quantities and rates are examples, not taken from any schedule of rates edition.

Item no. is the reference the contract, measurements and bills will use for the life of the job. Description is the scope you are pricing. Unit and quantity are the buyer's. Rate is yours, and amount is quantity times rate.

• Read every description to the end. Words such as "excluding reinforcement" or "including disposal within 50 m" decide what your rate must cover.
• Check the unit before you price. The same activity priced per cum and per sqm gives very different rates.
• Find the specification clause or schedule item each description refers to, and read it.
• Note provisional items or nominal quantities where the tender has them, and how the tender says they will be paid.
• Check that the summary sheet picks up the total of every sub-head.

CPWD DSR and schedule of rates vs BOQ

A schedule of rates (SOR) is a rate book. The CPWD Delhi Schedule of Rates (DSR) lists standard items of building work with item numbers, descriptions, units and rates for Delhi, and CPWD (opens in a new tab) revises it from time to time. State PWDs, irrigation departments and railways publish their own SORs.

A BOQ is tender-specific. It lists only the items of one project, with that project's quantities. The buyer typically prepares its estimate by applying SOR rates to the BOQ quantities, and prices items that are not in the SOR (non-schedule items) through a separate analysis of market rates.

For work outside Delhi, CPWD estimates typically adjust DSR rates with a cost index for the location. The tender or estimate states which SOR edition it is based on; check it before you compare your rates with the estimate.

Item rate tender vs percentage rate tender

Central government works follow the Ministry of Finance Manual for Procurement of Works (opens in a new tab), and CPWD follows its own Works Manual. Both recognize two common ways of pricing a BOQ.

In an item rate tender, you enter a rate against every BOQ item. The amounts and the total are calculated from your rates, and the buyer compares totals. CPWD uses its form CPWD-8 for item rate tenders.

In a percentage rate tender, the BOQ already carries the estimated rates, usually based on the schedule of rates. You quote one percentage above, below or at par with the estimated cost, and it applies to all those items. CPWD uses its form CPWD-7 for percentage rate tenders.

Some tenders combine the two, for example a percentage on schedule items and item rates for non-schedule items. The instructions in the financial bid say which basis applies to each part.

How to price a BOQ, item by item

1. Read each item with its specification clause and drawings, and write down everything the rate must cover.
2. Check quantities against the drawings where you can. Mark items that look under-measured, and scope you can see on drawings but not in the BOQ.
3. Build a rate analysis for each item: materials with wastage, labour, equipment, transport, then your overheads and profit.
4. Sense-check against the schedule rate or recent award prices. Use them as a check, not as your rate.
5. Mark items whose quantity is likely to grow. A thin rate on those items loses money on every extra unit.
6. Recover project costs such as site setup, testing and insurance the way the tender allows: within item rates, or against a separate item if the BOQ has one.
7. Fill the BOQ in the buyer's format, check the total, and have a second person review it before you sign.

Do not quote rates you cannot explain. Under the Manual for Procurement of Goods, a buyer may ask for a detailed price analysis when a bid looks abnormally low, and may reject it if the bidder cannot show it can deliver at that price (CBCL, NLIU (opens in a new tab)). Many works tenders carry similar clauses.

If you are still deciding whether the job is worth pricing at all, settle that first: our guide to the tendering process and the bid/no-bid use case cover that decision.

Worked example: pricing one BOQ item (illustrative)

Take item 1.4 from the sample BOQ: 11,500 kg of reinforcement. An illustrative rate analysis per kg might look like this.

• TMT bars delivered to site: ₹68.00
• Wastage and binding wire: ₹4.00
• Labour to cut, bend and place: ₹9.00
• Handling and site transport: ₹2.00
• Overheads and profit: ₹9.00
• Rate: ₹92.00 per kg, so ₹10,58,000.00 for 11,500 kg

Now suppose the measured quantity at site turns out to be 14,000 kg. At ₹92.00 you are paid ₹2,30,000.00 more for the extra 2,500 kg, and your margin grows with the work.

Suppose instead you had cut the rate to ₹84.00 to lower your total. You would recover ₹8.00 less overheads and profit on every kilogram: ₹1,12,000.00 less on 14,000 kg, not the ₹92,000.00 you expected on 11,500 kg.

In a percentage rate tender the arithmetic is simpler. If the estimate for the same six items is ₹40,00,000.00 at schedule rates and you quote 4.50% below, your bid is ₹38,20,000.00. Your single percentage then has to work for every item, including the ones whose quantities grow.

BOQ quantity variation: what happens when actual quantities differ

BOQ quantities are the buyer's estimates. In an item rate or percentage rate contract, you are usually paid for the quantities actually executed and measured, at your contract rates.

Contracts typically set a limit on how far quantities may change at the contract rate. Beyond that limit, the variation or deviation clause decides how the rate for the extra quantity is fixed. The limit and the method differ between CPWD, state PWD, railway and FIDIC-based contracts, so read the clause in your own tender.

Who causes the change matters. In Som Datt Builders-NCC-NEC (JV) v. NHAI (2025), the geogrid used on a highway project exceeded the BOQ estimate without any change in design by the Engineer. The Supreme Court held this was not an instructed variation, and the contractor was paid at the original BOQ rate for all the geogrid used (judgment (opens in a new tab); commentary (opens in a new tab)-v.-nhai/view)).

The lesson for pricing: under that kind of clause your rate applies to the real quantity, not the estimate. Set every rate so it still makes sense if the quantity grows.

BOQ Excel on CPPP, and how to extract a BOQ from PDF

On the Central Public Procurement Portal (CPPP) and the state portals built on the same NIC system, the financial bid is usually a BOQ spreadsheet uploaded by the buyer. You download it, fill only the unlocked cells (typically your name and the rate column), and upload it with your bid.

• Do not rename the file or change its format. One NITI Aayog corrigendum told bidders to save the file as "financialbid.xls" with the type "Excel 97-2003 Workbook" (corrigendum (opens in a new tab)).
• If the template contains macros and Excel blocks them, follow the portal's help instructions. Do not copy the values into a new workbook.
• Enter rates only in the cells and format the sheet asks for, then check the total it calculates against your own estimate.
• Never show prices in the technical bid. Price disclosed outside the financial bid can disqualify an offer.

Private, EPC and many PSU buyers issue the BOQ as a PDF or a scanned annexure. To price it, you first convert it into a spreadsheet. Check the result line by line: descriptions that wrap into two rows, merged cells, units shifted into the wrong column and dropped decimal places are the usual faults.

BOQ software and AI: what helps and what you still decide

BOQ software falls into three groups: estimating and rate-analysis tools that build rates from resources, spreadsheet templates, and tender analysis tools that read the tender pack around the BOQ.

TenderGenie is in the third group. Document Intelligence analyzes tender packs in PDF, DWG, XLS and DOC formats, including BOQ and BOM information, and keeps a reference to the source so a reviewer can confirm the wording.

TenderGenie's Drawing & BOQ Intelligence reads engineering drawings and prepares BOQ line items for comparison with the tender's own quantity schedule, so differences show up before pricing starts.

People still make the decisions. Engineers and estimators check quantities, units, scope boundaries and the drawing revision before any line item is used. Rates, risk allowances and the choice to bid stay with your team.

Questions and answers