Reading a BOQ Before You Sign: What Every Admin Head Should Check

What a BOQ should contain: and what it often does not

A well-prepared BOQ itemises every scope element: false ceiling sq ft rates, flooring sq ft rates, electrical point counts, AC tonnage and duct runs, plumbing points, furniture SITC (Supply, Install, Test, Commission), at unit rates that allow you to compare across vendors on an apples-to-apples basis.

What a poorly prepared BOQ often omits: site protection and making-good costs (who pays to protect existing finishes during the works?), vertical transport charges on multi-floor buildings, statutory approvals and liaison costs, and the cost of obtaining and handing over as-built drawings on completion.

Six line-item categories to check before signing

In order of frequency of abuse:

• False ceiling: confirm whether rates include the primary and secondary grid, insulation, and access panels, or only the board itself. The delta between an all-inclusive rate and a board-only rate on a 5,000 sq ft floor is ₹4–8 Lakhs.
• Electrical: count actual points (power outlets, data, light fixtures, switches) and verify the rate is per point including conduit, cable, and board connection. Lump-sum electrical rates are a red flag.
• MEP provisional sums: "provisional sum for HVAC" is a cost avoidance mechanism. Push for itemised AC unit specifications, tonnage, and duct run lengths at unit rates.
• Flooring: confirm whether the rate includes levelling compound and adhesive, or only tile/vinyl supply and lay. Levelling compound on an uneven slab can add ₹40–60/sq ft.
• Furniture SITC: verify whether "supply" means ex-factory or delivered-and-installed, and whether assembly is included.
• Retention and defects liability: ensure the BOQ and contract define the retention percentage (typically 5–10%) and the defects liability period (minimum 12 months for all finishes).

Provisional sums, and why they matter more than the total

A provisional sum is a placeholder for work that cannot be priced yet. It is legitimate, and it becomes a problem only when it is not labelled as one.

A quotation with three clearly identified provisional sums is more trustworthy than one with a single confident total that quietly contains the same uncertainty.

• Every provisional sum identified as provisional, with what would firm it up
• The basis of the allowance stated, not just the number
• Which party carries the risk if the actual exceeds the allowance
• A date by which the sum will be converted to a firm price
• Whether the contractor's margin applies to the sum or only to the firmed figure

Generic lines: where specification quietly disappears

The most expensive words in a BOQ are the vague ones, because they let two very different products carry the same line item and the same price.

• "LED driver" with no brand, when the driver is the first component to fail
• "Laminate" with no grade or brand, which spans a wide range of durability
• "Standard hardware" on joinery, where the hinge and slide quality decides the life
• "Painting" without stating the number of coats or the primer specification
• "Cabling" without stating the category or whether termination and testing are included
• "Making good" without defining to what standard, which becomes an argument at handover

Read the exclusions before you read the price

The exclusions page is where a quotation tells you what it is not, and it is the section most often skipped. Read it first, because it changes the meaning of every number that precedes it.

• Access assumptions: working hours, lift availability, material route
• Whether statutory approvals and landlord NOCs sit with you or the contractor
• Whether base-building services are assumed adequate for your density
• What condition the space is assumed to be in at handover to the contractor
• Whether debris removal, deep clean and making good are included
• What happens to the programme, not just the price, if an assumption fails

Payment terms and how work is measured

Measurement disputes are almost always avoidable, and they are avoided at signature rather than at the bill. Agreeing who measures, on what basis, and how the client can verify it turns a later disagreement into an arithmetic question instead of a negotiation.

The BOQ decides what is built. The payment schedule decides who carries risk while it is being built, and the two are read together or not at all.

• RA bills raised against measured work completed, not against elapsed calendar time
• A stated retention percentage, and the date it is released
• Milestones tied to verifiable events rather than to dates alone
• Who measures, and whether the client can verify the measurement
• Material-on-site payments, and whether title passes to you when you pay
• What happens to the payment schedule if the programme is extended by client-side delay

Red flags that are worth walking away from

Most weaknesses in a quotation are worth a conversation rather than a rejection. A few are worth treating as information about how the contract will run.

The common thread is a quotation designed to win an award rather than to describe a project, which is a preview of how variations will be handled later.

• A single lump sum with no line items, offered as "simpler for you"
• A per-square-foot rate presented as a price, with no specification attached
• No exclusions page at all, which means the exclusions arrive as variations
• Provisional sums buried in rates rather than identified
• Component brands refused on request, which usually means they are not fixed
• A programme that appears only after award, rather than with the price
• Payment weighted heavily to mobilisation, with little tied to measured progress

A short pre-signature checklist

None of this requires a quantity surveyor. It requires reading the document as though the contractor and the client will disagree at some point, because on a project of any size they will, and the BOQ is the text both parties will be arguing from when they do.

Everything above condenses into a review that takes under an hour and is worth doing on any contract above a trivial value.

If a contractor resists supplying any of these, that resistance is itself the useful answer.

• Read the exclusions page before the price
• Confirm every provisional sum is labelled as one, with its basis stated
• Check that component brands are named on the lines that matter
• Confirm the programme is issued with the price, not after award
• Check payment is tied to measured progress rather than to dates
• Confirm the defect liability period, in months, and when it starts
• Confirm what is in the closeout pack, in writing
• Normalise both quotations for exclusions before comparing totals