SectionProduct
PageFeatures
VersionBillMate 1.0
Reviewed26 August 2026

Everything between a site visit and an issued bill

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.

01 — Measurement

A dimension sheet, not a quantity column

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.

  • Linear, area, volume and enumerated quantities
  • Timesing multipliers for repeated elements
  • Deductions that read as deductions, not as negative numbers
  • Cast the total into the bill in one action
  • On-screen plan measurement, on a paid licence, feeding the same sheet
  • Reopen the sheet from the item whenever a dimension changes

The taking-off sheet, in detail

Excavate trench for strip foundation, not exceeding 1.50 m deep — item 1.01
Dimension sheet: timesing, dimensions, squared quantity and description for each measurement.
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
02 — Pricing

Rate build-ups with the arithmetic showing

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.

  • Material, labour and plant lines, each with quantity and unit cost
  • Waste and productivity carried in the constituent quantity
  • Overheads default to 10%, profit to 15% — both editable
  • Preliminaries and contingency default to 3% and 5%
  • Save the finished build-up straight into your library

A rate built up line by line

Reinforced concrete grade 30 in isolated pad and strip foundations — unit rate per m³
Unit rate build-up for Reinforced concrete grade 30 in isolated pad and strip foundations: constituent, quantity, unit, unit cost and amount, with percentage additions.
Constituent Quantity Unit Cost Amount
Material Ready-mixed concrete grade 30, delivered — including 4% waste 1.04 $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.

03 — The rate library

The schedule you already keep, made useful

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.

  • Import, column mapping and fuzzy description matching
  • Unit and dimensional checks before a match is accepted
  • Location and pricing date recorded against every rate
  • Rates flagged stale after 12 months
  • Percentage uplift across a whole schedule
  • Provenance kept — where each rate came from, and whether it was verified

How the rate library works

Library extract with provenance
Rate library extract: description, unit, rate, location, month priced, source and currency status.
Description Unit Rate Location Priced Source Status
Excavate to reduce levels, n.e. 2.00 m deep, dispose off site $18.50 Site A — coastal 2026-06 Priced tender Current
Reinforced concrete grade 30 in pad and strip foundations $141.83 Site A — coastal 2026-06 Own build-up Current
Ditto, same specification $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
04 — Output

A document, not a spreadsheet print

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.

  • Paginated, letterheaded BOQ export
  • Collection and carried-forward pages
  • Provisional and prime cost sums handled as sums, not as rated items
  • CSV export carrying the rate-source audit column
  • A count of unverified AI rates printed on the document

Paid feature. Export is the one thing the free tier does not include. Everything that makes the bill is free on 2 projects. Pricing.

See what comes out

Bill no. 1 — Substructure, extract
Specimen bill — proposed light industrial unit, prepared to RICS POMI
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 420.00 $18.50 $7,770
1.02 Plain concrete grade 15 blinding, 50 mm thick, to receive foundations 640.00 $9.40 $6,016
1.03 Reinforced concrete grade 30 in isolated pad and strip foundations 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 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
From your rate library AI estimate — verify before issue Keyed by hand
Also in the box

The parts nobody demos, that you use every day.

Provisional and prime cost sums

Carried as sums with their own descriptions, excluded from rate checks, and printed as sums on the bill.

Sections and reordering

Start from a measurement-standard template or build your own. Rename, add, reorder and renumber; item references follow.

14 currencies

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.

6 interface languages

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.

Backup and restore

One file holds everything. Restore merges rate libraries rather than overwriting, so moving between devices never costs you rates.

Undo on deletion

An 8-second window to take back a deleted section or item, because the alternative is re-measuring it.

Honest limits

What is not in the box.

AI drafts; the surveyor verifies.
Every AI-generated rate is marked on screen and counted on the exported document. An AI rate is a starting point for your judgement, never a verified market price.
On-screen measurement works on an image, not a file.
Load a photo, screenshot or exported page of the drawing and set the scale from one known dimension. BillMate does not read PDFs or CAD files directly, and there is no BIM or IFC model take-off. If your work is model-led, you need a package built for that.
Your data lives on your device.
There is no cloud copy. If the device is lost, the projects are lost with it. BillMate reminds you to back up after 14 days; take the reminder seriously.
No synchronisation between devices.
Devices on one licence do not share projects automatically. You move work with a backup file. Rate libraries merge on restore rather than overwrite.
Not an enterprise system.
There is no multi-user editing, no procurement workflow, no valuations module and no ERP integration. It is a tool for one surveyor at a time.

Measure something real and see how it reads.

2 projects, no sign-up, nothing to install if you would rather use a browser.