Pre-construction
Everything before the award — chase the enquiry, build the rates and the BOQ, send the quotation, and award the contract that turns a bid into a project.
Pre-construction is the bid side of the job. It starts when an enquiry or tender comes in and ends the moment you record the award. From then on the work lives in a project.
📷 Screenshot spot — the Commercial hub with its Bid, Win and AI agents sections
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The chain from enquiry to award
- A lead records the enquiry: who it is from, where the site is, how big, and where it sits in your funnel.
- The prospect becomes a client — a quotation cannot be raised without one.
- Resources (materials, labour, plant, subcontract, services) carry your standard rates. Rate analyses build an item rate from them.
- A BOQ lists the work with quantities, priced from rate analyses or by hand. You can type it, import the client's Excel file, or have the BOQ Generator draft it.
- A quotation copies the BOQ into an offer, which you sharpen, send and revise.
- Awarding a contract from the quotation creates or links the project, sets its contract value and terms, and marks the quotation and the lead won — all in one step.
Where to find it
The Company Admin, Project Manager and QS / Estimator see Commercial in the sidebar. It opens a hub of tiles:
| Section | Tile | Opens |
|---|---|---|
| Bid | Rate Library | The Estimation page, rate analyses first |
| Bid | Bills of Quantities | The Estimation page, BOQ list |
| Bid | Quotations | The quotation register |
| Win | Leads | The enquiry pipeline |
| Win | Contracts | The contract register and the award |
| Win | Clients | The client master |
Leads and Estimation also have their own sidebar entries. Resources and Clients sit under Masters.
Pages in this section
| Page | What you do there |
|---|---|
| Leads | Log enquiries, work the funnel, convert a prospect to a client |
| Clients | Keep the client master — contacts, sites, GSTIN and state code |
| Resources | Maintain the catalogue and the standard rates every estimate starts from |
| Rate analysis | Build an item rate from coefficients, wastage, overhead and profit |
| Bills of quantities | Build, price and approve a BOQ |
| Import a BOQ from Excel | Bring the client's BOQ workbook in without retyping it |
| Takeoff | Upload a drawing set, check sheet scales and take quick measurements |
| Quotations | Turn a BOQ into an offer, send it, revise it |
| Contracts | Award the job and keep its agreed terms |
Who does what
| Role | Their part |
|---|---|
| QS / Estimator | Logs and works leads, maintains resources, builds rate analyses and BOQs, drafts quotations |
| Project Manager | Reads the pipeline, approves BOQs, sends quotations and records the outcome |
| Company Admin | Everything above, plus creating clients, converting leads and awarding contracts |
| Procurement Manager | Adds and edits resources; sees BOQ quantities but not rates |
| Accountant | Edits clients, reads contracts and BOQ rates |
The rules that govern this area
A rate analysis rate is copied onto a BOQ line when you add it, and a BOQ is copied into a quotation when you create it. Changing a rate upstream never changes a document you have already priced or sent. That protects a bid that is already with a client — and it means you update downstream documents yourself.
- A quotation is won only by an award. Nobody marks a quotation won by hand; awarding the contract does it, together with the project and the lead.
- The person who prices is not the person who signs. A QS / Estimator prepares; a Project Manager approves the BOQ and sends the quotation; the Company Admin awards.
- Rates are shown only to roles that need them. A Site Engineer or QA/QC Engineer opening a BOQ sees quantities with the rate and amount columns missing. See Roles and permissions.
Four AI agents work in this area and appear in the hub's AI agents section: the BOQ Generator drafts a BOQ from a scope or a messy file, Rate Suggestion fills blank coefficients, Resource Catalog Match links BOQ lines to your catalogue, and the Tender & Contract Analyser pulls the clauses that move money out of a tender. They only draft — nothing changes until you confirm.
Related
- Projects overview — what happens to the job after the award.
- Project budget — the budget is derived from the contract BOQ at cost.