What is a comparative statement of tenders?
A comparative statement puts every quotation you have received side by side against the same bill of quantities, line by line. It shows who is lowest overall and on each item, how each bid compares with your own estimate, and whether a bidder's stated total matches the rates they actually quoted.
A comparative statement puts every quotation you have received side by side against the same bill of quantities, line by line, so a decision to award rests on something more than the totals on five covering letters. It is the sheet that shows one bidder is cheapest overall but third on the concrete, that another has priced the steel forty per cent below everybody else, and that a third's stated total does not match the rates they actually quoted.
This template compares five bidders. Enter each bidder's rates and everything else computes: amounts per line, the lowest rate on every line highlighted as you type, ranking from L1 to L5, and each bidder's variance against your own pre-tender estimate.
How does the arithmetic check work?
The sheet sums each bidder's rate column itself and sets that total against the figure the bidder stated on their covering letter. Where the two differ, it says so. This is the check most comparisons skip, and it matters: a bid is normally evaluated on the total written on the letter, while the contract is performed at the rates in the schedule. When those two disagree, whichever is discovered later is expensive, and discovering it before award is free.
What is the difference between item-wise lowest and single lowest?
The workbook computes both: what the job costs awarded whole to the lowest bidder, and what it would cost if every line went to whoever quoted lowest on that line. The gap between them is the theoretical saving from splitting the award — usually a number worth knowing even where splitting is not permitted, because it shows how much of the lowest bid's advantage is real and how much is one aggressive line.
What is in the comparative statement workbook?
Four tabs: a Read Me, Tender Details where bidder names are entered once and flow through as column headers, the Comparative Statement itself, and a Summary carrying the ranking, the variance against estimate, the arithmetic check and the gap analysis.
What are the common mistakes when comparing tenders?
Awarding on the covering-letter total. The rates are what get billed. Check that the total is the sum of them before the total decides anything.
Reading a very low bid as a bargain. A bid well below a sound estimate is a risk signal — an item misread, a quantity missed, or a rate that will be argued back as a variation. The Summary tab flags bids below your estimate by more than a threshold you set, so the question is at least asked.
Comparing bids that are not comparable. Different tax assumptions, different exclusions, or a rate offered on condition of an advance are not like-for-like. Normalise them, or record the condition in Remarks so the comparison is read with it.
Ignoring a wildly out-of-line single rate. One rate far below the field on an item whose quantity is likely to grow is a known tender tactic. Item-wise comparison is what surfaces it; a total never will.
Not dating the comparison. Bids have validity periods. A comparison with no date on it is a document nobody can rely on later.
What does each column mean?
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Sr | Line number, matching the bill the bidders quoted against. |
| Item code | Your own bill reference. It ties each comparison line back to the item in the BOQ that was issued. |
| Description of item | The item as it appeared in the tender document. Comparing rates only means something if every bidder priced the same words. |
| Unit | As tendered. A bidder who quotes steel per kilogram against a bill measured in tonnes is not cheap — they have quoted a different item. |
| Quantity | From the bill put to tender, not from any bidder's submission. |
| Rate (₹) — Your estimate | Your pre-tender estimate rate. This is the baseline the variance column measures against. |
| Rate (₹) — per bidder | What each bidder quoted on this line. Five bidder columns are provided. These are the only cells you type into on this sheet. |
| Amount (₹) — per bidder | Auto-calculated per bidder. Quantity × that bidder's rate. |
| Lowest on this line — Rate (₹) | Auto-calculated. The minimum rate quoted by any bidder on this line, highlighted as you type. |
| Lowest on this line — Bidder | Auto-calculated. Names who quoted it. Where two bidders tie, the column names the first in column order — check the line by eye before relying on it. |
| Lowest on this line — Amount (₹) | Auto-calculated. What this line would cost if awarded to whoever quoted lowest on it. |
| Remarks | Deviations, conditions and qualifications attached to a rate. A conditional rate is not comparable with an unconditional one, and this is where you say so. |
Everything in this band is priced on a bill of quantities. The BOQ format in Excel is that bill — pre-sectioned by trade, with an abstract that totals it — and every rate you settle here is applied against its measured quantities.
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.