Six commercial estimating desks

A tender estimate bay is the first desk a project visits. We take the issued drawing set and the specification, measure the quantities that matter to a computer integrated systems package, and build a priced document that can be submitted with confidence. Measurements are taken from the drawing and cross-checked against the schedule rather than copied from a covering brief, because a schedule and a drawing disagree more often than a design team expects. Where the documents leave a boundary undefined, the bay sets the boundary on the face of the sheet and states the assumption in a plain sentence, so the client can see exactly what has been priced and what has been left out.

Pricing follows a three-position rule: where the market permits, each package line is tested against three independent supplier positions, and the basis for the chosen position is written beside the number. Risk allowances are shown separately from the base estimate, never folded in silently, so a client can ask what is held back and why. Before the bid leaves the desk, a named reviewer reads the whole sheet from cover to cover and signs it. That signature is the promise of the practice: if it is on the sheet, it has been checked.

• Quantity take-off from the issued drawing set and the schedule of works.
• Three supplier positions per line where the market allows a round.
• Risk allowances shown apart from the base price.
• Single named reviewer sign-off before submission.

A cost sheet run is the standing forecast for a project already on site. We rebuild the sheet on a fixed cycle, compare the forecast against orders and invoices, and mark every line that has moved since the last round. The distinction between an allowance, a commitment and an actual is kept in separate columns so that no reader can confuse money held back with money spent. A run is not a report on the past; it is a forecast the project manager can act on, and everything in it is dated so that the reader knows how fresh the picture is.

Each run ends with a short written note that names the three largest movements and the reason for each. That note is what a project board actually reads, and it is written in sentences rather than in a dashboard. When a line drifts beyond the tolerance agreed at the start of the engagement, the run flags it and the desk calls the client before the next cycle rather than after it. The aim is simple: the forecast should never be more than one round behind the site.

• Fixed-cycle rebuild of the live project cost sheet.
• Separate columns for allowance, commitment and actual.
• Named note on the three largest movements per run.
• Early call to the client when a line breaks its tolerance.

The variation order desk exists to price a change at the moment it is instructed. When a design team issues an instruction, the desk measures the change against the original drawings, prices it on the same rate basis as the tender, and dates the response. The result is a variation that can be compared directly to the line it replaces, which is what a client needs in order to decide whether to proceed. Changes that are priced weeks after the event tend to attract arguments about memory, and those arguments are expensive on both sides.

Each variation is filed with its supporting take-off, its priced response and its instruction date in a single folder, so the record is complete from the first day. The desk also reviews the change for its knock-on effect, because a change to a comms room rarely stops at the room. If the instruction touches a programme milestone, that consequence is written on the variation rather than discovered at the final account. A variation order that is priced promptly is a small document; one that is left to fester becomes a claim.

• Measurement of each change against the original drawings.
• Pricing on the tender rate basis for direct comparison.
• Instruction date recorded on the face of the variation.
• Knock-on programme effects written down at the time.

The subcontractor quote round is the quiet engine behind every price this practice puts on paper. We issue a structured inquiry to the supply chain, collect the returns in a common format, and compare them on equal terms. A quote that excludes a part of the scope is not cheaper than one that includes it; it is a different quote. The desk normalises every return against the same scope statement so that the comparison is honest, and it records why the chosen position was chosen. That record is reviewed again at the final account, when someone asks whether the market was tested properly.

Rounds are run for both new tenders and live variations, and the desk keeps a short list of suppliers whose returns have been reliable over time. We do not promise the lowest number; we promise a number that means the same thing across every return. Where a round produces only one credible position, the desk says so plainly rather than dressing up a thin market as competition. A client who understands the strength of the market can price risk sensibly, and that is the whole point of running the round.

• Structured inquiry issued in a common return format.
• Normalisation of every quote against one scope statement.
• Written reason for the chosen position, kept for the final account.
• Plain statement when a market is thin or single-source.

An escalation claim review is for the cases where the contract allows a price to move because the market moved. The desk builds the evidence file as if it will be read in a hearing, because sometimes it is. We gather the supplier notices, the index movements and the dated commitments that show what was ordered and when, and we test the entitlement against the wording of the contract before the claim is put forward. A claim that cannot survive its own review should not leave the desk, and we will say so to the client in plain terms rather than build a document that fails later.

Where the entitlement holds, the review assembles the claim in a form the other side can follow: a statement of the condition, the supporting record and a priced schedule. The desk sets out what is agreed, what is disputed and what has been left open, so that a negotiation starts from a map rather than from a surprise. Reviews are run for contractors pursuing a claim and for clients testing one, and the method is the same in both directions, because an evidence file that is good enough to press a claim is also good enough to resist one.

• Evidence file built to a hearing standard from dated records.
• Entitlement tested against the contract wording first.
• Claim set out as condition, record and priced schedule.
• Agreed, disputed and open items marked before negotiation.

The final account sitting is the last desk and the one that decides whether a project ends well. We prepare the close-out in advance: every variation reconciled against its instruction, every change to the measured works accounted for, and the full supporting record bound in the order a reader will want it. The sitting itself is a meeting with a prepared agenda, not a scramble through files. A project that arrives at the sitting with its records intact can close in a single session, and that is the outcome the practice works toward from the first tender estimate.

Before the sitting we circulate a reconciliation that shows how the final account has moved from the original tender, line by line, with the reason for each movement. During the sitting we work through the disputed items against the record rather than against recollection, and where a point remains unresolved, we record it as unresolved with the reason written down. The account closes with a signed number and a document that can be handed to an auditor or a successor without further explanation. That document is the real deliverable of the desk.

• Close-out prepared in advance with the record bound in reading order.
• Reconciliation from tender to final account, line by line.
• Disputed items resolved against the record, not recollection.
• Signed number plus a document that can be handed on.