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BOQ software · UK
Bill of quantities software that measures, prices and revises
Suddeco is bill of quantities software for UK contractors and quantity surveyors. Upload a drawing, let the quantities be measured, and get a structured bill — areas, stages, tasks, materials — priced against UK labour and material rates, with every rate and margin open to you.
A bill of quantities is the document the money is argued over. If the quantities are measured properly and the structure is clear, the argument is a conversation. If they are not, it becomes a variation. This page explains what BOQ software should do, how Suddeco builds a bill from a drawing, and what to check before you buy.
From £49/month plus VAT · 7-day free trial · cancel anytime
What bill of quantities software should do
Search for BOQ software, bills of quantities software or bill of quantity software and you will find the same handful of tools described the same few ways. Most of them do one of three jobs: measurement, pricing, or presentation. A bill needs all three, in that order, and the hand-offs between them are where most of the lost time hides.
Measure from the drawing
Quantities should come off the drawing rather than being typed from a printed scale. When the drawing is reissued, the quantities should be re-measured, not re-keyed.
Structure the bill
Work should be grouped so a reader can see what a section costs. Disciplined headings — the kind a QS builds by hand — are what make a bill reviewable line by line.
Price it your way
Rates belong to the contractor, not the software. A rate library you own, overrideable per project, stage or line, keeps the margin where you put it.
Carry the rest of the cost
Preliminaries, contingency, provisional sums and dayworks all belong in the document, visible. A single lump-sum total hides the part the client will question.
Revise it without rebuilding
Drawings change. A revision should show exactly what moved between issues, so you can reissue a bill rather than redo one.
Issue it properly
The output is a document a client or main contractor can price, sign and keep. Export and presentation are part of the product, not an afterthought.
How Suddeco builds a bill of quantities from a drawing
- Add the project and the drawings. Create the project, then upload the drawing set, or PDF and Excel files. Each file stays with the project.
- Quantities are measured. Automated drawing analysis extracts the measurable content of the drawings — rooms, areas and the elements within them — rather than asking you to trace each line by hand.
- The job is structured. Everything is arranged as areas, stages, tasks and materials, which is what turns a pile of quantities into a bill you can read, check and defend.
- It is priced. The measured quantities are priced against current UK labour and material rates, producing a cost plan and a scope of works from the same numbers.
- You check and override. Keep a rate library, then override globally or per project, stage or line. The automation never overrides your professional judgement — every figure traces back to a measured quantity and a rate.
- You issue it. Export a branded, signed scope of works and cost plan straight from the priced bill, ready for the client to approve. Revisions are tracked between issues.
Bill of quantities, estimate and scope of works — what is the difference?
The three documents are often used as if they were interchangeable. They are not, and using the wrong one in front of a client is how a pricing conversation turns into a scope argument.
| Document | What it is for | What it contains |
|---|---|---|
| Bill of quantities | Pricing and tendering work, and administering the contract sum | Measured quantities of work, itemised by trade or works section, with a rate and an amount against each item, plus preliminaries and allowances |
| Estimate / cost plan | Deciding whether a job is affordable before it is priced in detail | Priced allowances and rates built up from the design, often less granular than a bill and used to steer decisions |
| Scope of works | Recording what is and is not included, so the job cannot be redefined later | Descriptions of the work, inclusions and exclusions, qualifications, programme and terms — the words around the numbers |
In practice a UK contractor needs all three from the same set of measured quantities. That is why measuring once and generating the rest matters: three documents produced separately will disagree with each other, and the disagreement will be found by a client.
More on the structure of a bill, and how contractors price one, in the bill of quantities explainer.
What to check before you buy BOQ software
- Measurement rules. Ask how quantities are derived and what happens at an awkward detail — a stepped foundation, a sloped ceiling, a room with a bulkhead. If the answer is "you measure it and type it in", you are buying a spreadsheet with a nicer font.
- Whether the quantities are editable. Automated measurement will sometimes read a drawing differently to you. You need to correct a quantity without rebuilding the bill.
- Ownership of the rate library. Your rates are commercial intelligence. They should be yours, exportable, and overrideable per project without touching the global library.
- Revision handling. A tool that cannot diff two issues of a drawing will quietly cost you the hours you saved on the first takeoff.
- Output that a client will accept. Check the document you can export. If it is a spreadsheet dump rather than a presentable bill and scope, you are still formatting by hand.
- Transparency on price. Plans should be published, not quoted. You should be able to see the cost before you spend time in a sales process.
- A trial that tests your real work. Use the trial on a live job, not the demo drawing, and time how long the bill takes to get to an issue.
- Where your data lives. You need to be able to get your projects and rates out again.
Suddeco plans and inclusions are published on the pricing page. If a question there is not answered, ask us directly rather than inferring it.
Free BOQ builder — if you just need the arithmetic now
Not every job needs software. If you have quantities and rates and you need a clean, sectioned total — with preliminaries, contingency and VAT — the free BOQ builder runs in your browser and needs no account. Add sections, enter your measured items and rates, and print or export the summary.
It deliberately contains no built-in rates: the rates are yours. What it will not do is measure the drawing, which is the part that takes the time and the part Suddeco automates.
Who this is for
Suddeco is built for UK professionals who price work from drawings: main contractors pricing a tender, specialist subcontractors pricing their own package, contractors preparing a bill for a client, and quantity surveyors who need measured quantities fast enough to spend their time on judgement instead of scale rules.
If your work is measured, priced and issued from drawings, a bill is already how you communicate cost. The only question is how long it takes to produce.
Price a drawing this week
Start a project, upload a drawing and see the measured, priced bill for yourself. Plans start at £49/month plus VAT with a 7-day free trial for new customers. If you would rather see it on your own job first, book a Pro demo and bring a drawing.
Bill of quantities software — questions
What is bill of quantities software?
Software used to measure work from drawings and set those quantities out in a structured, priced bill, replacing a spreadsheet and a scale rule with measured quantities that trace back to the drawing and totals that can be revised when the drawing changes.
Is Suddeco bill of quantities software?
Yes. Suddeco takes a drawing, measures the quantities, structures the job as areas, stages, tasks and materials, and prices it against UK labour and material rates. You keep every rate and margin, and the result can be issued as a branded, client-ready pack.
Can I use my own rates?
Yes. Keep a rate library you own, and override pricing globally or per project, stage or line. The automated takeoff does the measuring; the rates and margins stay yours.
Does it work from PDF drawings?
Yes. PDF and Excel files can be uploaded to a project, and the quantities measured from the drawing set are structured into the bill for you to check and adjust.
Can I revise the bill when the drawing changes?
Yes. Revisions and version history show what changed between one issue of the bill and the next, so you reissue rather than rebuild.
How much does it cost?
Plans start at £49 per month plus VAT, with a 7-day free trial for new customers. Full details are on the pricing page.
Where can I see the related tools?
Construction takeoff software, quantity surveying software, construction estimating software and tender and bid software each cover a different part of the same workflow.
Measure once. Price it once. Issue it.
Drawings in, a measured and priced bill out — then a scope of works and cost plan from the same numbers. Start free, or book a demo and bring a live drawing.
From £49/month plus VAT. See what each plan includes.