Bid Estimate Template

Use it when you are pricing a defined package of work for an owner, general contractor or developer who has invited bids, and you need to show one price for the base scope plus the options they asked you to price separately. The template records the project and bid package, the bid date, priced scope sections, the base bid, alternates, allowances, exclusions, the addenda you priced, a bid-valid-until date and a signature for the person authorized to submit the bid.

If the invitation to bid comes with its own bid form, follow the solicitation's instructions on what to submit and on which form. You can still use this template to build your number and keep a record of how you got there. For private work with no set form, it can serve as the bid itself.

The template comes as three files. The PDF is a blank two-page form to print and fill in. The Word (.docx) and Excel (.xlsx) files have the same layout, filled with sample values for an interior tenant-improvement bid package; overwrite them with your own. In the Excel file, line amounts, section subtotals and totals are formulas, and "Overhead and profit" and "Sales tax, if applicable" read from rate cells you can change (10% and 0% in the sample). To leave either line out, set its rate to 0% instead of deleting the row, because the totals refer to it. Each section ends with a blank row; if you need more lines, insert them above that row so the formulas pick them up.

The sample sets sales tax to 0%. Whether tax applies to construction work depends on where the project is and how the contract is set up, so check your state and local tax rules before you enter a rate.

The base bid is your price for the scope as drawn and specified. Alternates are changes to that scope that the owner has asked bidders to price separately, so they can decide later what to buy. An alternate is either an add (for example, a higher-grade material or an extra area) or a deduct (for example, leaving an item out or using a lower-cost option).

On the template, alternates have their own section, "Alternates (not included in the base bid)", after the allowances. Each line is named by type and number, such as "Add alternate 1" or "Deduct alternate 1", and a deduct is entered as a negative unit price, so its amount shows as a credit. In the Excel file, the rows in that section are left out of "Subtotal" and "Base bid total", so you can price alternates without changing your base bid. The notes printed on the bid say that alternate prices include overhead and profit, and that an alternate is added to or deducted from the base bid total only if the owner accepts it in writing. Because the overhead and profit line is not applied to the alternates section, build overhead and profit into each alternate's unit price.

• Price each alternate against the base scope. Show it as its own line, marked add or deduct, and reference the drawing or specification section it comes from.
• Keep alternates out of the base bid total. The owner decides which alternates, if any, to accept. Adding them into your total makes your base bid impossible to compare with other bidders'.
• Say if alternates affect each other. If accepting one alternate changes the price of another, state how.
• Only price what was asked for. In US federal sealed bidding, a bid that does not conform to the specifications is rejected unless the invitation authorized alternate bids (FAR 14.404-2). For other public or private bids, check the solicitation before offering substitutions it did not ask for.

The exclusions list says what your price does not cover. Be specific: "Excludes permit fees; owner to obtain and pay for building permit" leaves less room for argument than "Excludes permits". The template has an "Exclusions" list (the sample excludes furniture, fixtures and equipment; data, phone and security cabling; fire sprinkler and fire alarm changes; and building permit fees, by the owner) and a separate "Schedule and qualifications" list for what your price depends on, such as the duration from notice to proceed and working hours.

Qualifying a bid on public work carries a risk. In US federal sealed bidding, a bid is rejected when the bidder imposes conditions that would modify the invitation's requirements, for example a price that protects the bidder against future cost increases (FAR 14.404-2). For other public owners, check the solicitation before you add qualifications. On private bids, clear exclusions protect both sides.

Print a bid-valid-until date on every bid. It tells the owner how long you will hold your price. On the template, "Valid until" sits in the "Bid details" block with the bid number, bid date and estimator, and the footnote repeats that the bid is valid until the date shown.

The solicitation may set the period for you. In US federal sealed bidding, the standard provision has the bidder agree to hold its prices if the bid is accepted within the stated number of calendar days, which is 60 unless the bidder inserts a different period (FAR 52.214-15). Where nothing is set, choose a period you can honor, and check it against how long your suppliers' and subcontractors' quotes are good for.

1. Read every document, including all addenda. Note anything unclear and ask before the deadline for questions, rather than guessing in your price.
2. Take off quantities section by section. Measure from the drawings and list the work under the same scope sections you will price.
3. Price labor, materials, equipment and subcontractors. Use current supplier prices and written subcontractor quotes, and check that each sub's scope matches the section you are carrying it in.
4. Add your costs to run the job, overhead and profit. The template has a "General conditions" section for job costs such as supervision, dumpsters and final cleaning, then adds "Overhead and profit" as a percentage of the subtotal (10% in the sample, a placeholder, not a recommendation). If you build overhead and profit into your unit prices instead, set that rate to 0%.
5. Price the alternates and set the allowances. Each alternate against the base scope; each allowance at the amount the documents set or the amount you state.
6. Check it, then sign it. Recheck the arithmetic and the addenda list, compare the total with similar past jobs, and have the person authorized to bind your business sign the "Authorized signature (bidder)" line, with their printed name and title and the date.

The sample figures on the template only show how it works. They are not market rates.

If you'd rather not keep bids in spreadsheets, Billed lets you create and send estimates and convert an approved estimate into an invoice, and its iOS and Android mobile apps let you work on estimates on site. For other layouts, see the budget, business, labor, invoice estimate and commercial cleaning templates, or the Word, Excel, Google Docs and Google Sheets estimate pages.