Bill of Quantities (BOQ) Software
My Trade Hub’s Bill of Quantities software generates a BOQ directly from your construction plans — an itemised, measured list of materials and labour, structured by trade section, ready for you to price and issue. Instead of scaling drawings and typing up line items by hand, you get a structured BOQ in minutes that you review, rate with your own pricing and send to tenderers.
Key takeaways
- MTH’s BOQ software performs the measured takeoff from your plans and assembles it into a structured Bill of Quantities automatically.
- The BOQ is organised into trade or elemental sections plus preliminaries, following the same structure a quantity surveyor would use.
- Every line stays editable — you apply your own rates, adjust quantities and add anything the plans do not capture before it is priced.
- The same measured quantities carry through to progress claims and variations later in the job, not just the original tender.
- It is designed to produce a tender-ready BOQ 60-75% faster than measuring and typing one up by hand.
How MTH’s BOQ software generates your Bill of Quantities
My Trade Hub’s BOQ software reads your construction plans and performs the measured takeoff automatically — identifying the building elements, measuring each one in its correct unit, and assembling the results into a structured Bill of Quantities you can open and check straight away.
Rather than scaling drawings by hand and typing each line into a spreadsheet, you upload your plans and the software produces the itemised structure for you: description, unit, quantity and a space for your rate against every line, organised the way an estimator or quantity surveyor would lay it out.
That matters most when you are pricing more than one tender at a time. Measuring a BOQ by hand is a fixed cost in hours no matter how many jobs are in front of you; generating one takes a fraction of the time, so the number of tenders you can chase in a week stops being limited by how fast you can scale a drawing.
What your generated BOQ includes
A BOQ generated in MTH captures the same detail a manually prepared one would — every measured trade item, plus the supporting sections that make a BOQ usable for tendering and, later, for valuing the job.
- Measured trade items — cubic metres of concrete, square metres of formwork or brickwork, lineal metres of pipe, tonnes of reinforcement, and similar quantities depending on the job.
- A preliminaries section for the site-wide costs of running the job — supervision, site sheds, temporary services and the like.
- Space for provisional sums and prime cost items, where part of the scope is not yet fully designed or specified.
- A consistent unit and description for every item, so the same element is always measured and described the same way.
Pricing your BOQ
With the quantities measured and structured, pricing the BOQ is a matter of applying a rate to each line — quantity multiplied by rate gives the item total, and the item totals build up to the tender price. MTH applies your own rate library to each measured item so you are pricing against numbers you already trust, and every rate stays editable.
| Item | Description | Unit | Qty | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | Supply & place concrete, 25 MPa | m³ | 18 | $295.00 | $5,310 |
| 2.2 | Formwork to slab edges | m² | 42 | $62.00 | $2,604 |
| 2.3 | Reinforcement mesh, SL72 | m² | 56 | $14.50 | $812 |
| 2.4 | Site supervision (preliminaries) | item | 1 | $3,200.00 | $3,200 |
How the BOQ is structured
MTH structures the generated BOQ the way builders and quantity surveyors already read one — organised into sections that mirror how the job is actually built, so each trade can be priced and checked on its own.
- Preliminaries — the project-wide costs of running the site, kept separate from the trade quantities.
- Trade or elemental sections — grouped by trade or by building element, matching how the work will actually be carried out.
- Provisional and PC sums — kept visible as allowances, not folded invisibly into a firm quantity.
Staying in control: reviewing and editing every line
An automatically generated BOQ is a first, checkable draft, not a locked-in final document. Every quantity, description and rate stays fully editable in MTH, so you can adjust anything that does not match your read of the plans, add a line the drawings do not capture, or remove one that does not apply before you price and issue the document.
Your BOQ, your numbers
MTH assembles the structure and measures the quantities; you apply the rates and have the final say on every line before it goes to a client.
Who uses BOQ software
BOQ software suits anyone who currently measures and types up a Bill of Quantities by hand: estimators inside a construction business, builders pricing their own tenders, and quantity surveyors looking to speed up the measurement stage of jobs they would otherwise scale by hand.
It is particularly useful on residential and light commercial work, where turning a set of plans into a priced, itemised BOQ quickly matters as much as the deep, standard-method measurement that larger or more complex projects may still warrant from a dedicated quantity surveyor.
Company admins and managers overseeing several estimators also use it to keep BOQs consistent across a business — the same structure and units apply no matter who is running the takeoff, which makes it easier to review a colleague’s tender or step in on a job partway through.
BOQ software vs a manual or outsourced BOQ
Compared with measuring a BOQ by hand, software removes the slow, repetitive scaling of drawings and typing of line items — the structure and quantities are produced for you, and you focus on the rates and the judgement calls.
Compared with outsourcing the BOQ to a quantity surveyor, software keeps the measurement in-house and available immediately, rather than waiting on a turnaround — though for large, complex or public-sector projects, a QS’s standard-method measurement and independent sign-off can still be the right call.
- Manual BOQ — full control, but slow, and the time cost is the same whether it is a small renovation or a large build.
- Outsourced BOQ — independent and thorough, but you wait on a quantity surveyor’s turnaround before you can price the job.
- BOQ software — measured quantities in minutes, kept in-house and editable, with the option to still bring in a QS for larger or more complex projects.
Common BOQ mistakes this software helps you avoid
Most BOQ errors come from the manual steps software removes — mismeasuring a drawing, missing an item, or letting the document drift out of step with the latest plans.
- Pricing a rate against the wrong unit, which can quietly distort a whole section — MTH keeps the unit fixed to each measured item.
- Under-pricing or forgetting preliminaries because they are easy to overlook next to the trade quantities.
- Working from an outdated set of drawings — always regenerate the takeoff if the plans have been revised.
- Leaving provisional and PC sums vague — keep them clearly flagged so the final reconciliation is not a dispute.
Why My Trade Hub
My Trade Hub’s BOQ software is built into the same platform as the estimation engine and tender preparation tools, so the quantities you generate flow straight through from takeoff to priced BOQ to a client-ready tender, without re-keying anything between steps.
It is designed to produce a structured, tender-ready BOQ 60-75% faster than measuring and typing one up manually, while keeping every line editable so the numbers stay yours. Choose the My Trade Hub plan that matches your tendering volume, with no lock-in contract.
Frequently asked questions
can software create a Bill of Quantities?
Yes. My Trade Hub produces a Bill of Quantities from your plans by performing the measured takeoff and assembling the items for you, which you then price with your own rates. It remains fully editable so you stay in control.
what’s the difference between a BOQ and an estimate?
A Bill of Quantities is the itemised, measured list of the works; an estimate is the priced prediction of total cost. A priced BOQ is one way to build an estimate — MTH generates the BOQ and helps you price it.
do I still need a quantity surveyor?
On larger or more complex projects, a quantity surveyor still adds real value. On many jobs, MTH lets estimators and builders produce their own measured BOQ from the plans without commissioning one for every tender.
how does BOQ software measure quantities from plans?
The software analyses your uploaded plans to identify building elements, then measures each one in its correct unit — area, length, count or volume — and assembles the measured items into a structured Bill of Quantities you can review.
can I edit the BOQ after it’s generated?
Yes. Every quantity, description and rate in a generated BOQ stays fully editable. You can adjust measurements, change rates, or add and remove lines before you price and issue the document.
is BOQ software accurate enough for tendering?
MTH’s software automates the measured takeoff to a consistent standard and leaves every line editable so you can review and correct it before tendering. As with any BOQ, accuracy depends on the quality of the plans and your final review, so treat the generated document as a checkable first draft.
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