Two quotes, one baseline.
The cheapest return is usually the one that left the most out. Levelling puts every quote onto a single baseline and sets out what each of them excluded, so what you are comparing is the same job done by different firms.
What we deliver
- —Enquiry lists built for the package and the project, not pulled off a standing list
- —Invitations issued and a tracker showing who has been asked, who has opened the pack and who has confirmed they are pricing
- —Returns chased, against a date
- —Every quote levelled onto one baseline, with gaps, exclusions and qualifications clarified
- —A recommendation, with the reasoning written down rather than delivered on the phone
What we watch for
- —The lowest number is very often the most heavily qualified number. An exclusion does not remove work from the project. It moves it onto your account, at a point when the firm that excluded it is the only one still holding a price.
- —Chasing is not administration, it is information. A subcontractor who has not opened the pack with days to go is not pricing it, whatever they said on the phone. Knowing that while there is still time to bring in another firm is the difference between three returns and one.
- —Never give a subcontractor your own return date. Tell them when you have to submit and that is the day their price arrives, with nothing left to level and no time to query it. Their date is set back from yours deliberately, and it is not negotiable for a reason.
Subcontractor Coordination, answered
Do you go out under your name or ours?
Whichever you prefer, and it is worth deciding early because it changes how the returns read. Going out under your name keeps your relationships in front of the supply chain. Going out under ours keeps you at arm's length while the numbers are still moving, which some clients want when they are testing a market they intend to negotiate in later.
What does levelling actually change about the numbers?
It makes visible what each quote left out. If one firm has excluded builders work and another has allowed for it, the two lump sums are not comparable, and until that is spelled out the difference reads as a saving when it is really a gap. The output is a single comparison where every exclusion, gap and qualification is set against the bidder who made it, so you can see why a headline low number is not the cheapest once the scope is the same.
Will you tell us who to appoint?
We will give you a recommendation and the reasoning behind it. The appointment is yours, and there are usually reasons to place a package that do not appear anywhere in the numbers, from programme and workload to how a firm behaved on the last job. What we will not do is hand over a comparison with no view attached, because that leaves the hardest part of the work undone.
Not the question you had?
Send us the drawings and the return date. We will tell you what we would need and what we would give you back, before anyone commits to anything.
The rest of what we do
Let's discuss your project.
Tell us about your tender or project and we'll show you exactly how we can help you win it, and deliver it.