VETTING COmpliant Quotes
"Vetting" is the term where an estimator uses his or her BOQ or an SOW to ensure that a trade package is compliant.
When a trade looks at a set of drawings they want to price everything that they feel comfortable pricing. Now sometime this is really helpful but sometimes if a subbie detours off the requested scope it can be confusing, to say the least. Estimators are looking for a compliant scope based on the documents, a BOQ or an SOW. The problem with that is that you somehow need to ensure that the returning quote is compliant. so the estimators have a list of trade-specific questions / Checklist to ensure that you can check the scope. It is still ok for a trade to price different items over different packages – but an estimator wants a quote presented is a certain way so it is easy to tick the boxes.
Some of the question that an estimator may ask when reading a quote go like :
- Has the trade captured the tender documents in the quote?
- Has the Trade included for all of the addenda?
- Is the trade pricing your documents and not another builder with the wrong scope?
- Has the Trade included for the site-specific issues of the site?
- Have they included for materials handling, EWP and cranes, etc?
- Is the quote Supply or supply and install?
- Is the validity the same as the competition, etc.
- What has been excluded?
- Etc, etc, the questions that are asked are normally traded specific but I think you get the point.
So vetting is the process of getting a quote apples to apples before you can compare one price to a competing price. The best way to do this is to compare the quote to a BOQ or an SOW.
Some colleagues have asked me why do you do a BOQ and then rate the Bill.
This is why...
A BOQ is the best way to vett a scope of works.
Rating is the best way to ensure you don’t blindly accept a price.
You always aspire to a cluster of quotes. Now if you don’t get a cluster, the Rated BOQ becomes a very important number to possibly close off that missing third price. It could be a second or third quote basically to help De-Risk a trade. (So this is why an estimator will always prefer a “first principle”s rated BOQ as you don’t’ know when that first principles number may save your bacon. Even if you do get your three-second principles price that is in a cluster, the added check price may also help you analyze possible margin gains or risk within a trade price.
Again every bit of science helps.
Services trade is often known as the “dark arts” in the estimating fraternity. Their prices are very specialized and the only way a building estimator can check prices is a benchmarking from either current or older projects or ensuring that the services trades fill in the services schedules within disciplines engineering specifications.
The next trick is to provide fitting & fixtures schedules. Over time your record becomes pretty accurate when comparing service trade to another service trade.
The other way is to compare quotes and like schedules with one subbies to another. This way you can ask one subbie a question and subsequently develop a list of questions to ensure the scope is complete.
SUBCONTRACTOR COMPARISON
Back to the process –
At this stage you hopefully have a “Rated” Builders Bill (BOQ), certain trades you have rated using “First Principles” and other trades you are using “Second Principles” and then there a few minor trades you may have benchmarked a price based on a recent job.
You have reviewed a number of prices from different subcontractors and you have walked their number up or down depending on how compliant their quote is compared against the internal BOQ. At this stage, you may need to adjust your BOQ and estimate to better suit the trades descriptions. Maybe you were time-starved and you had done a bit of catch up by using the different quotes to develop a compliant SOW. (Just remember this – if you have issued a BOQ to the industry during the tender and you find a mistake or you change tactics. Make sure you don’t change the BOQ until all the quotes have been received – Then reissue the trade package followed up with phone calls to ensure the subbie meets the closing deadline).
Now it is time to do a Subcontractor comparison. Basically, you line your quotes beside each other including the estimated budget. You then review each trade descriptions again the quantity and price in the estimated budget. I tend to start at the exclusions within the trade quote and then work backwards from there.
You then either select a complaint tender or you create a Hybrid of the most compliant trade descriptions to work up a tender price for that individual trade package.
As a rule - First-principles rating backed up with Second principles Quotes.
Vett Your Quotes against the Budget.
Then Compare Apples to Apples.
This is the safest science.
When looking at the specific quotes you check that the quotes have the scope within your BOQ. Then you look at the quotes exclusions – and either add or subtract money. The third step is to ring, send an email, etc to understand any grey unknowns, It takes time whilst the clock is ticking towards a deadline.
So this is now the challenge – Let’s say you have an average of 5 quotes per trades and you have approximately 60 trades to vett over 16 hours. So you have 3.2 Minutes to plug in all the trades, vett them “apple for apples”, ring and chase up any outstanding quotes, do any preliminaries cost and also attend all final reviews. meeting etc.
If you wish to read more about
Tender Process – Click Here