Overview
BoQ aggregates everything quantifiable on the project into a structured bill — equipment, cables, labour, ancillaries — with section grouping and totals. It pulls from Assets and Block Diagrams, so you are not maintaining a parallel spreadsheet that drifts out of date the moment design changes.
You define sections (e.g. Active equipment, Passive infrastructure, Installation) and the rules that map assets into them. The view recomputes whenever the underlying data changes.
Export to Excel, PDF or your own template at any time. The export is just a snapshot of the live view.
When to use it
- Tendering — quickly generating priced or unpriced BoQs for a bid.
- Variation orders — diffing the new BoQ against the baseline.
- Procurement handover — exporting an authoritative quantity list with attributes.
How it works
1. Define sections
In the BoQ view, create the sections that match the way your client expects to see costs broken down. Order matters — that order survives into the Excel export.
2. Map assets to sections
Each section has rules ("all assets where type = Switch and location starts with L2 → Active equipment"). Rules are evaluated at view time; you do not maintain duplicate rows.
3. Add unit rates
Optional. If you want a priced BoQ, paste rates against asset types or individual items. Currency follows the project setting.
4. Export
Excel for the tender team, PDF for the client. Both share the same section structure as on screen.
Tips
- Build sections around how the client reads the bill, not how you think about the design — they are not always the same.
- Use rule-based sections; manual line-by-line assignment will fall apart on the first revision.
- Keep ancillary line items (small parts, consumables) in their own section so they are easy to swap with a percentage allowance.