Bill of quantities: what it is and how to read it | archim

§ 01 / Glossary

Bill of quantities

The bill of quantities is the detailed list of works in a project, with their quantities, units of measure and unit prices, used to determine the estimated total cost.

Updated 3 September 2026Reviewed by Matthieu Crétier
§ 02

What is Bill of quantities?

The bill of quantities is the detailed list of works in a project, with their quantities, units of measure and unit prices, used to determine the estimated total cost.

Key points
  • •It is used at tender, estimating and cost-control stages.
  • •Each item has an estimated quantity, a unit price and a total amount.
  • •During the project the bill is compared with quantities actually executed.
§ 03

In practice

  • •It is used at tender, estimating and cost-control stages.
  • •Each item has an estimated quantity, a unit price and a total amount.
  • •During the project the bill is compared with quantities actually executed.
§ 04

How archim handles it

  • •Upload the PDF or Excel bill: archim extracts items, quantities and amounts.
  • •Bill items link to daily reports, DDTs and invoices for management control.
  • •See at any time how much you have spent against what you estimated.
§ 05

FAQ

§ 06

Continue

Go deeper with the related resources.

Feature

Site accounting, simplified

Construction job costing tracks the costs and revenue of a single project: labour, materials, equipment hire and subcontractors, measured against the quote. With archim every hour, delivery note and invoice is attributed to the job automatically, so your margin is current every day instead of at handover.

Guide

How to keep your site margin under control

A simple system to monitor costs and revenues project by project, without waiting until the end of the job.

Turn the bill into control data

See how archim extracts items and amounts from bills of quantities to keep the project under control.

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