Confirm the job identity and version
Before reviewing the money, make sure everyone is reviewing the same job. Record the customer, site, quote number, revision, issue date and the drawings or specification used. A commercially perfect calculation can still fail if it prices an outdated revision.
- Customer and site details
- Unique quote or estimate reference
- Revision number and issue date
- Drawing, schedule or specification references
- Named estimator or internal owner
Reconcile scope against the cost build-up
Read the written scope and cost build-up side by side. Every meaningful promise in the scope should have a corresponding labour, material, subcontract, plant or overhead allowance. Equally, every large cost allowance should relate to something the customer can identify in the scope.
This check catches one of the most expensive estimating errors: a task described in the proposal but never included in the calculation.
Check quantities and labour separately
Quantity errors and rate errors have different causes, so review them separately. First ask whether the quantity is complete and measured on the right basis. Then ask whether the unit rate or labour productivity is appropriate. If a line looks unusually cheap, identify whether the problem is the quantity, the rate or both.
- Waste and cutting allowances where relevant
- Delivery, handling and small consumables
- Setup, protection and cleanup labour
- Testing, commissioning and handover time
- Travel, access or supervision that is job-specific
Make exclusions and allowances explicit
Exclusions should resolve uncertainty, not create it. State what is outside the price when a reasonable customer might otherwise expect it to be included. If a cost cannot yet be fixed, identify the allowance and explain how the final amount will be adjusted when the actual requirement is known.
Run a final commercial sense check
After the detailed review, step back and look at the project as a whole. Compare the price with similar completed work, expected programme, crew size, cash requirements and risk. A quote can be mathematically correct and still be commercially wrong if the assumptions do not fit the actual job.