Cost Plans That Still Hold Up Once the Job Is Running

A cost plan is only useful if it survives contact with the actual job. Too many get built in a rush before tender and then quietly ignored once work starts, because nobody trusts the numbers enough to keep using them.

Start with the drawings, not a rate book

A cost plan built from a full read of the drawings and specification will always beat one built from a quick scan and a set of assumed rates. If you haven't gone through the detail properly, you're pricing guesswork and calling it a plan.

Quantities have to be measured, not estimated by eye

This is the step most often rushed. Measuring off the drawings properly, line by line, against NRM2, takes time most contractors don't have between live jobs. Skip it and your cost plan is only as good as whoever's guess went into it.

Regional pricing is not optional

A rate that works for a job in one part of the country won't hold up in another. Labour availability and material supply both shift regionally, and a cost plan that ignores this will be wrong in a predictable direction, usually against you.

Check it before you commit to it

A second look at a cost plan before it goes out catches the errors that slip through when one person's built the whole thing under time pressure. It doesn't need to be complicated, it just needs someone else's eyes on the quantities and the rates before they go in front of a client.

A cost plan should still make sense on site

The real test of a cost plan isn't how it looks at tender stage, it's whether it still makes sense three months into the job when someone's asking why a line item costs what it does. Build it on measured quantities against NRM2 and it will.

We build cost plans from your drawings and specification, measured properly and broken down to NRM2, so the numbers still hold up once you're on site. Send your drawings for your next cost plan, or see a sample estimate first to check our level of detail.

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