Bid Proposal breakdown

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Mule

Mule

Senior Member
Location
Oklahoma
I would like to know how your bid proposals are broken down. Do you just quote the overal price, do you break it down to materials and labor, or even further breaking it down to cost, profit, bla bla....Just curious how much you actually expose to the customer.

Thanks Mule
 
I spell out to the customer what he is getting for the quoted price but I don't feel that it's any of his business to know how I run my business.
 
Mule said:
I would like to know how your bid proposals are broken down. Do you just quote the overal price, do you break it down to materials and labor, or even further breaking it down to cost, profit, bla bla....Just curious how much you actually expose to the customer.

Thanks Mule
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No more information than I can get away with. Basic scope of work to be done. List out what is not included fixtures,fans ect... Total price.
I am not giving them my break down sheet just to have them bid shop it and or try and pick each item apart
 
I prefer to work in totals only. If you break everything down to each item it's not unusual for someone to get upset about the cost of one of the items and extrapolate that all the costs are high. Then the whole contract may be rejected.

I once had someone comment about a generator charge on a service upgrade. While I still have a generator charge, I combine it with the upgrade rather than splitting it out.
 
ceb58 said:
No more information than I can get away with. Basic scope of work to be done. List out what is not included fixtures,fans ect... Total price.
I am not giving them my break down sheet just to have them bid shop it and or try and pick each item apart
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Curtis and SEO, I whole heartedly agree, I will send a scope letter specifying "what is" and "what is not" included and the selling price(plus add x percent for bond if required) nothing more.


Roger
 
roger said:
Curtis and SEO, I whole heartedly agree, I will send a scope letter specifying "what is" and "what is not" included and the selling price(plus add x percent for bond if required) nothing more.


Roger
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Roger this is an example of what I would give you.
4 ft romex tied around tree to hold shed post with knot
Not included no power, no breakers, no fixtures, not responsible for anything
3 payments of $19.95
:D :D :D
 
ceb58 said:
Roger this is an example of what I would give you.
4 ft romex tied around tree to hold shed post with knot
Not included no power, no breakers, no fixtures, not responsible for anything
3 payments of $19.95
:D :D :D
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I would add, Yellow Jacket extermination included if necessary. :grin:


Roger
 
Yep I'm learning the hard way, a bid I turned in a couple of weeks ago that included such broken down items is now being questioned. But Im holding on to my guns with my price.
 
Roger this is an example of what I would give you.
4 ft romex tied around tree to hold shed post with knot
Not included no power, no breakers, no fixtures, not responsible for anything
3 payments of $19.95
Click to expand...


7EFEC65EA136029498CF87.jpg



Call in the next 10 minutes and we'll double your order.......:grin: :grin:
 
Lump sum
Tax breakout
Detailed scope

If you break down your number it will only invite them to pick it apart.
 
I agree with giving a detailed quote (firm price on a firm scope of work)

with a total price


I bid a lot of misc work in peoples home and when they ask for everything to be broken out, I tell them that I can do that but I would have to assign a trip charge, set up and clean up charge to every task - and that I cant give them the best deal that way

if you break down the numbers almost everyone will pick through looking for something that looks "out of line"
 
Never give more than absolutely neccesary. There will be items in the bid you will lose money on for various reasons, there will also be items in the bid you score big bucks with. Your looking to have an "average" to the positive side, in good margin. The customer is not going to want to pay anything extra you missed in the bid, why should he get any of your profit on the stuff you did really good on?

You want your house wired to minimum code? That will be $12,497.89. Sign the dotted line. He, or she, has no idea How much, or little, you did to arrive at that number. The market will have decided what is "ballpark" a long time ago. what the owner bases his decision on may be contractor reputation, word of mouth, you are a niche contractor, or whatever, lots of items besides cheapest bid.
 
Rockyd said:
Never give more than absolutely neccesary. There will be items in the bid you will lose money on for various reasons, there will also be items in the bid you score big bucks with. Your looking to have an "average" to the positive side, in good margin. The customer is not going to want to pay anything extra you missed in the bid, why should he get any of your profit on the stuff you did really good on?

I agree 100%, almost every job has areas where you make out good and other areas where you don't. Take the good whenever you can because there will be plenty of times when you take the bad.
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Breaking things down will not benefit you.

Be specific in your scope of work but not in how much money is allocated for each item.
 
I think you guys have the correct answer for the most part. You might be biting yourself in the shorts now and then where someone needs to cut something out to make budget, but I think you are better off handling that in a less formal way.

If they collapse when you hand them the estimate, its a good time to talk over whatever options there are to reduce the overall cost. There may be things that they decide they can live without.
 
This is such an easy lesson to learn, it only takes one instance of that special customer to value engineering your work based on your break outs, or that one guy who decides to count the wire nuts an other misc parts to make an adjustment to your billing.

My lesson came when a GC called me to tell say my competitor was questioning the labor I had for the gear on my bid, and wanted to know if it was correct. I had only done the break down because the GC had asked for it on the pretence it was a bid requirement from the owner, but all it really did was let all my competitors basically see my estimate and have a shot peddling a better number to the GC.
 
I agree totally with the minimum breakdown to dollars theories shared thus far. I've had general contractors call after reciept of bid proposal asking what specifically did I mean by: " We propose to furnish and install electrical for project per plans and specifications for the sum of two dollars ($2.00). They start with is this or that included and I end it with whatever is shown on the plans and specifications is included LESS any work specifcally EXCLUDED in proposal. Used to stress and attempt to compenstate for "Holes" in the design - learned lesson hard way that most others don't - Majority of plan sets generated these days are far from complete and can usually generate "Fat Pencil" change orders. I run on the principal that one of three things happens when bidding a job, not specifically in this order: 1. We were sucessful bidder. 2. We were unsucessuful bidder. 3. The bid was shopped out by general contractor/owner.

The grandest of headaches however it to perform work for a government enity for example - VA - They want changes broken to task with individual breakouts for labor, materials, craft labor, supervison labor and project management & office overhead makes for a lengthy AIA continuation sheet.

Oh not related to this topic they also want Made in American materials - in hard dollars a .34 cent superb steel compression T&B EMT coupling made in China is suddenly a $1.38E Americian Fitting Coupling (they have this as a nitch market) with all of 5/8" for conduit makeup - Sheesh...Told my superintendent if I were having to use those coupling I would have thrown them at someone and said "Get me some real material to work with"....
 
Terms for payment should be included on your estimate or proposal. Specify materials furnished by the owner/gc and those furnished by your company. Keep labor hours and unit costs private.
 
You might be biting yourself in the shorts now and then where someone needs to cut something out to make budget,
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Actually, that's where it's beneficial. If you line item it they may choose to cut things that make you good money as opposed to things that are marginal.

If part of your proposal says "four recesed cans in room A = $600", they will assume that eliminating 2 cans will cut $300. That will not be the case. Dropping the two cans will not cut the time or the materials in half.

If the price is too much for their budget they can cut out whatever they like and I will adjust the bottom line according to my figures.
 
220/221 said:
Actually, that's where it's beneficial. If you line item it they may choose to cut things that make you good money as opposed to things that are marginal.

If part of your proposal says "four recesed cans in room A = $600", they will assume that eliminating 2 cans will cut $300. That will not be the case. Dropping the two cans will not cut the time or the materials in half.

If the price is too much for their budget they can cut out whatever they like and I will adjust the bottom line according to my figures.
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it looks like this is not your first rodeo?

I agree with you 100 percent
 
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