Procurement & finance
Bill of Quantities (BOQ)
An itemised list of the measured work in a project, with quantities against each item, which tenderers price. It makes bids comparable — everyone is pricing the same thing, in the same units.
That comparability is the entire purpose, and it is what an unbalanced bid attacks: a tenderer who front-loads rates on items likely to increase, and cuts rates on items likely to decrease, arrives at the same total and a far better outcome for itself.
The BOQ is also the measurement instrument for progress and payment. Which means a quantity error in the BOQ is not a pricing problem — it is a problem that propagates into every valuation on the project for its entire duration.
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