BillMate is built around the four things a bill of quantities actually needs: a defensible measurement, a defensible rate, a library the rates come from, and a document a client can read.
Add the item, then measure it. Linear, area, volume and count, with timesing for repeats and deductions for openings. The squaring is calculated; the working stays attached to the item for as long as the project exists.
| Times | Dimensions | Squaring | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 32.40 0.60 1.20 |
23.33 | Excavate trench, external walls. Centre-line girth 32.40, trench width 0.60, depth 1.20. | |
| 2/ | 7.80 0.60 1.20 |
11.23 | Ditto, the two cross walls. Timesing 2/ because both walls are identical — measured once, multiplied. |
| 9.60 0.60 1.20 |
6.91 | Ditto, the rear return. | |
| 3.50 0.60 1.20 |
2.52 | Deduct — trench through the existing apron slab, which is measured separately. | |
| Cast into the bill | 38.95 | m³ | |
A unit rate assembled from its constituents — materials with waste, labour with an output, plant with a utilisation — and then overheads and profit added as percentages you set rather than a number you guessed.
| Constituent | Quantity | Unit | Cost | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Material Ready-mixed concrete grade 30, delivered — including 4% waste | 1.04 | m³ | $78 | $81.12 |
| Material Curing compound and protection allowance | 1.00 | item | $2.40 | $2.40 |
| Labour Gang — place, compact and finish | 1.20 | hr | $22 | $26.40 |
| Plant Poker vibrator — hire and fuel | 0.40 | hr | $5.50 | $2.20 |
| Net cost | $112.12 | |||
| Overheads and establishment charges, 10% | $11.21 | |||
| Profit and risk, 15% on net cost plus overheads | $18.50 | |||
| Unit rate per m³ | $141.83 | |||
Illustrative constituent costs. The arithmetic is the product’s; the figures are yours.
Every rate built from resource prices is multiplied out over the bill and added up by resource: the materials to order, the labour in hours and man-days, and the plant time — each with its cost, so the schedule ties back to the bill.
| Resource | Quantity | Unit | Hours | Man-days | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Material Ready-mixed concrete grade 30, delivered | 99.84 | m³ | $7,787.52 | ||
| Material Hollow block 440 × 215 × 200 mm | 4,410 | nr | $4,851.00 | ||
| Material Cement mortar 1:4 | 8.4 | m³ | $798.00 | ||
| Material Curing compound and protection allowance | 96 | item | $230.40 | ||
| Materials subtotal | $13,666.92 | ||||
| Labour Mason | 315 | hr | 315 | 39.38 | $7,560.00 |
| Labour Labourer | 315 | hr | 315 | 39.38 | $4,410.00 |
| Labour Gang | 115.2 | hr | 115.2 | 14.4 | $2,534.40 |
| Labour subtotal | 745.2 | 93.15 | $14,504.40 | ||
| Plant Poker vibrator | 38.4 | hr | 38.4 | 4.8 | $211.20 |
| Plant subtotal | 38.4 | 4.8 | $211.20 | ||
| Total of resources | $28,382.52 | ||||
Import a CSV or Excel schedule up to 8 MB, map its columns once, and price a whole bill from it. Capture rates back from every job you price, and the library compounds.
| Description | Unit | Rate | Location | Priced | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Excavate to reduce levels, n.e. 2.00 m deep, dispose off site | m³ | $18.50 | Site A — coastal | 2026-06 | Priced tender | Current |
| Reinforced concrete grade 30 in pad and strip foundations | m³ | $141.83 | Site A — coastal | 2026-06 | Own build-up | Current |
| Ditto, same specification | m³ | $167.20 | Site B — remote | 2026-05 | Priced tender | Current |
| High-yield reinforcement, cut, bent and fixed | t | $1,320 | Site A — coastal | 2026-04 | Subcontract quote | Current |
Pagination that breaks between items rather than through them, your firm name as the letterhead, collections at the end of each bill and a summary that carries forward. Plus a basis-of-estimate note recording where the rates came from.
Clean exports are Pro. The free plan exports 2 bills in total, each marked as a free export, so you can see exactly what a client would receive. Everything that makes the bill is free on 2 projects. Pricing.
| Item | Description | Unit | Qty | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.01 | Excavate to reduce levels, not exceeding 2.00 m deep; load, cart away and dispose off site | m³ | 420.00 | $18.50 | $7,770 |
| 1.02 | Plain concrete grade 15 blinding, 50 mm thick, to receive foundations | m² | 640.00 | $9.40 | $6,016 |
| 1.03 | Reinforced concrete grade 30 in isolated pad and strip foundations | m³ | 96.00 | $141.83 | $13,615.68 |
| 1.04 | High-yield steel reinforcement, cut, bent and fixed in position | t | 7.20 | $1,320 | $9,504 |
| 1.05 | Sawn formwork to vertical sides of foundations, height not exceeding 1.00 m | m² | 210.00 | $31.50 | $6,615 |
| 1.06 | Provisional sum for ground-improvement works, to be expended as directed | sum | 1 | $65,000 | $65,000 |
| Carried to collection | $108,520.68 | ||||
Send the bill to tender as a workbook, bring each priced copy back, and BillMate checks it the way you would with a calculator and a long evening: every extension, every total, every item left blank or quietly changed. Tenders are ranked on their corrected sums, the report prints on your letterhead, and the accepted tender becomes the contract bill that valuations run against.
Paid feature. Tender analysis and post-contract are part of Pro. Tenders are read from Excel, CSV or a priced PDF; a PDF is checked line by line on a review screen before it counts, and a scanned PDF has to be keyed. Pricing.
| Tenderer | Submitted | Corrected |
|---|---|---|
| Coastline Builders Summary short by 100,000.00 · provisional sum cut · a quantity changed · one item unpriced | 20,364,549.81 | 21,076,049.81 |
| Kestrel Works Arithmetic correct · no preliminaries figure | 21,732,162.43 | 21,732,162.43 |
| Adebayo Construction One extension overstated by 50,000.00 | 21,912,100.81 | 21,862,100.81 |
Before there is a drawing, there is usually a building to look at. Take up to three photos of the outside, give it one size, and Snap drafts a bill under the measurement standard’s sections. The AI only reads what it can see: storeys, walling, roof type, openings. The quantities come from arithmetic on your size, so you can follow every one of them.
A starting point, not a measurement. Snap is for the first conversation with a client, before drawings exist. Bills come out in BESMM4(R) sections and metric units for now, and a draft from photos is replaced by taking-off once the drawings arrive. Paid feature. Pricing.
Your build-ups are only as current as the resource prices behind them. The Market rates add-on brings in material prices collected each week in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt. Each pack is signed, so the app can tell it came from us, and stamped with its city and date. The prices go into your resource list, and every build-up that uses them is listed for you to review and update in one tap.
Prices, not finished rates. The packs carry material prices, which your own build-ups turn into rates. It is a monthly add-on to a licence; message us on WhatsApp to have it added.
| Resource | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Dangote cement 42.5R, 50 kg | bag | 13,700.00 |
| 9″ hollow sandcrete block | piece | 875.00 |
| Sharp sand | m³ | 22,400.00 |
| Granite ¾″ | m³ | 21,052.63 |
| Diesel | litre | 1,787.50 |
Most firms already swap rates, by WhatsApp and by spreadsheet. A rate circle does it properly. Start a circle, send its invite code to the people you choose, and each member shares their own rates with the rest. Received rates land in your library marked with who they came from, so you always know whose figure you are using.
Pro and Team licences. Members can be on different licences, but each needs a Pro licence or a Team pack. A member who leaves takes their rates with them; if the circle is closed, you keep what you received. Pricing.
| Description | Unit | Rate | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 225 mm sandcrete blockwork | m² | 14,500.00 | Own build-up |
| Ditto, Abuja | m² | 13,900.00 | From A. Bello |
| Long-span aluminium roofing sheets | m² | 17,500.00 | From C. Eze |
| Reinforced concrete 1:2:4 in columns | m³ | 205,000.00 | Priced tender |
Carried as sums with their own descriptions, excluded from rate checks, and printed as sums on the bill.
Start from a measurement-standard template or build your own. Rename, add, reorder and renumber; item references follow.
USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, INR, AED, SAR, SGD, ZAR, KES, GHS, NGN, KWD — each rounded to its own precision, so a Kuwaiti dinar shows three decimals.
English, Arabic (right-to-left), French, Spanish, Hindi, Tamil. Terms of art stay in English by default, because most surveyors read them that way — switchable.
One file holds everything. Restore merges rate libraries rather than overwriting, so moving between devices never costs you rates.
An 8-second window to take back a deleted section or item, because the alternative is re-measuring it.
2 projects, no sign-up, nothing to install if you would rather use a browser.