What is a BOQ format?
A BOQ format is a bill of quantities layout: a list of work items grouped by trade, each with a unit, a measured quantity, a rate and an amount, totalled by section. Contractors bid from it, clients approve budgets against it, and site engineers bill against it.
A Bill of Quantities is the priced item-by-item breakdown of everything a building consumes — earthwork, concrete, steel, brick, plaster, finishes — with a measured quantity and a rate against each line. It is the document a contractor bids from, a client approves a budget against, and a site engineer bills against. Get it wrong and every downstream number is wrong with it.
Most free BOQ formats floating around are a dead table with column headers and nothing else — no sections, no formulas, no subtotals. This one is a working sheet. Quantities and rates multiply automatically, each trade section subtotals on its own, and a second Abstract sheet pulls those subtotals into a summary you can hand to a client without retyping anything.
Which sections does the BOQ format include?
Earthwork · PCC · RCC · Brickwork · Plastering · Flooring · Doors & Windows · Painting · Waterproofing · Plumbing · Electrical
What does a worked brickwork section look like?
Take a 230mm external wall, 6.0m long and 3.0m floor-to-floor, with one 1.0m × 2.1m door and one 1.2m × 1.2m window. Gross volume is 6.0 × 3.0 × 0.23 = 4.14 cum. Deduct the door (1.0 × 2.1 × 0.23 = 0.48 cum) and the window (1.2 × 1.2 × 0.23 = 0.33 cum) to get a net measured quantity of 3.33 cum. That's the number that goes in the Quantity column — everything else in the row follows from it.
| Description | Unit | Qty | Rate (₹, illustrative) | Amount (₹) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brickwork in superstructure, 230mm external wall, CM 1:6 | cum | 3.33 | 5,500 | 18,315 |
| Brickwork in superstructure, 115mm internal partition, CM 1:4 | cum | 2.10 | 6,000 | 12,600 |
| Brickwork in parapet/coping above roof level, 230mm, CM 1:6 | cum | 0.85 | 5,500 | 4,675 |
| Brickwork section subtotal | 35,590 | |||
The rate column above is illustrative, not a current DSR or market figure — use your own measured quantities and current rates. What matters is the pattern: gross volume minus openings, one row per wall type and mortar mix, and a subtotal that carries into the Abstract sheet untouched.
What are the common mistakes when preparing a BOQ?
Mixing DSR and market rates in one sheet. DSR rates are usually inclusive of labour, material, and contractor profit at a defined percentage. Market rates you collect from a supplier typically are not. Pricing half your BOQ one way and half the other produces a total that means nothing.
Unit mismatches. Steel quoted per quintal against a quantity measured in kg is a 100× error that survives review because both numbers look plausible in isolation. Lock your units before you start measuring.
Missing items rather than wrong items. An omitted waterproofing line costs more than a slightly wrong plaster rate. Work through the section list even where the quantity is zero, and write zero explicitly rather than leaving the row out.
Zero-rate lines. If an item has no rate against it, the amount silently reads zero and the grand total is understated. Scan the Rate column for blanks before you send anything.
Not recording the rate basis and date. A BOQ priced eight months ago against rates that have moved is a liability. Fill the header block.
Which BOQ template do I need?
| Your job | Use this template |
|---|---|
| Government, PWD or public-sector tender priced from a schedule of rates | BOQ Format in Excel (this page) |
| New house or builder floor, private work — turnkey or labour contract | House Construction BOQ Format in Excel (Private Work) |
| Renovation or repair mixing several trades: dismantling, waterproofing, tiling, painting, fabrication, POP | Renovation & Trade Works BOQ Format in Excel |
| Only waterproofing: terrace, toilets, basement or water tank | Waterproofing BOQ Format in Excel |
| Only flooring and tiling: tiles, stone, skirting and dado | Flooring & Tiling BOQ Format in Excel |
| Only painting: interior, exterior, steel and woodwork | Painting BOQ Format in Excel |
| Only the boundary wall and gate | Boundary Wall BOQ Format in Excel |
| Office, shop or home interior fit-out | Interior Work BOQ Format in Excel |
| Only plumbing and sanitary work | Plumbing & Sanitary BOQ Format in Excel |
| Only internal electrical work | Electrical BOQ Format in Excel |
| A building's fire-fighting system: pumps, hydrants, sprinklers, extinguishers | Fire Fighting BOQ Format in Excel |
| A road, pavement or internal road | Road Work BOQ Format in Excel |
| Adding several BOQs up into one project total | Abstract of Cost Format in Excel |
What does each column mean?
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| S.No | Sequential within each section. Restart numbering per section if you prefer — the formulas don't depend on it. |
| DSR Code | The schedule-of-rates item code. For UP work this is the UP PWD DSR 2023 code. Leave blank if you're pricing at market rates. |
| Description of Item | The full specification as written in the DSR, not a shorthand. "PCC 1:4:8" is not enough — a contractor will price nominal mix differently from design mix. |
| Unit | cum, sqm, rm, kg, quintal, or nos. This must match the unit the rate is quoted in, and it is the single most common source of a wrong BOQ. |
| Quantity | The measured quantity from the drawing. |
| Rate (₹) | DSR rate or current local market rate. Note which basis you used in the header block — mixing the two silently is how BOQs get disputed. |
| Amount (₹) | Auto-calculated. Quantity × Rate. |
| Remarks | Assumptions, exclusions, deviations from the DSR item. Anything you'd otherwise have to explain in a phone call. |
Once the bill is priced, rank the quotations you receive against it with the comparative statement format, and build up any rate a consultant queries with the analysis of rates format.
Get the quantities from your drawings
A template gives you the structure. The measuring — scaling every quantity off the drawing set — is still three to seven days of work. Upload your architectural and structural PDFs and InstaBOQ reads the drawings, extracts the quantities, and fills this same structure.