Stop Submitting Prices You Priced Six Months Ago

Rates go stale faster than people think

A price built three or four months ago is already carrying rates that may have moved. Material costs shift, labour rates change, supplier quotes expire. Submit that price unchanged and you are pricing against numbers that no longer reflect what the job will actually cost to build.

When a price needs a second look

A price should get checked again at a handful of clear points, not left alone from the day it was written. Before submission, obviously, but also at any point drawings change, before you commit to a subcontractor package, and at intervals through construction if the job runs long. Treating the original price as fixed once it is written is where the trouble starts.

What happens when nobody checks

A stale price causes the same problems every time. Margin gets eaten by costs that moved after the price was fixed. Clients lose confidence when a figure keeps changing after the event instead of being managed through the job. Disputes over what was or was not included get harder to settle the longer a price has gone unchecked.

Your responsibilities do not end at submission

Under CDM 2015, keeping proper records and managing risk through a project sits with the contractor, not just at the pricing stage. That includes keeping the cost picture current, not treating the original estimate as a document you file away once the job starts.

The habits that keep a price honest

Treat a check on rates and quantities as a normal part of running a job, not an extra step. Keep a note of what changed and why, so a client questioning a figure gets a straight answer instead of a guess. A price that gets looked at again holds up. One that does not, does not.

Send your drawings over if a price needs building from scratch or checking against where it stands now. See a sample estimate to see how we lay it out.

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