ProjectFour-bedroom detached
LocationLekki Phase 1, Lagos
Prepared toElemental structure
Priced25 August 2026

What a finished BillMate bill looks like

This is the shape of the exported document: a title block, measured items with references and units, a collection at the end of each bill, a summary that carries forward, and a note that says where every rate came from.

Show the bill for

The same product, three markets. These are not one bill with the currency swapped — each is measured, specified and priced the way its own market does it. Without JavaScript you see the international one, which is a correct page.

[Your firm name] Chartered Quantity Surveyors · the letterhead is your firm's, set once in preferences
ProjectProposed light industrial unit
LocationInternational specimen
BillNo. 1 — Substructure
CurrencyUSD ($)
Prepared toRICS POMI
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
Basis of estimate

Rates marked from the rate library were priced within the last six months. One rate in this extract is an AI estimate and has not been verified against a current market price; it is identified above and counted here. Provisional sums are to be expended as directed. Quantities are cast from dimension sheets retained with the project file.

Items6
From your library3
Keyed by hand2
Unverified AI rates1
Page 3 of 14 Bill No. 1 — Substructure Carried to collection

Illustrative projects and illustrative rates — not a quotation for any real building. The structure, the pagination, the collection and the basis-of-estimate note are what BillMate actually produces. Compare the three: the Nigerian bill measures sandcrete blockwork and carries a provisional sum for a water connection; the UK bill measures facing brickwork and keeps preliminaries out of the rates because NRM2 prices them separately. A tool that only changed the currency symbol could not do that.

Why it reads this way

Four things a spreadsheet print will not do.

It breaks between items

Pagination is item-aware. A description never splits across a page break, and a rate is never orphaned from the item it prices.

It collects and carries forward

Each bill ends with its collection; the summary carries every bill forward to a total. Renumbering an item does not break the arithmetic.

It states its own basis

The count of unverified AI rates is printed on the client's copy. If you would not want that number seen, verify the rates before you export.

It carries your letterhead

Your firm name, set once, appears on every page. There is no BillMate branding on the document you issue.

None of that makes a spreadsheet the wrong tool for everything — it stays better for ad-hoc analysis, for reshaping a bill to a client's own columns and for checking bills you receive. BillMate compared with Excel sets out where each one earns its place, including where Excel wins. For the method behind a document like this one — the sequence from drawings to a priced bill — our companion site has How to prepare a bill of quantities from drawings.

Getting one of your own

From a blank project to this document.

  1. Set your firm name and localityThe firm name becomes the letterhead. The locality anchors both the currency and any AI assistance to a real market.
  2. Pick a section structureStart from a measurement-standard template, or from the general elemental template and build your own sections.
  3. Add items and measure themUse the dimension sheet rather than typing quantities. The working stays attached to the item.
  4. Price from your libraryApply the library across the whole bill in one action, then build up or key the rates it could not match.
  5. Check what is unverifiedBillMate counts the AI rates still on the bill. Verify them or replace them before you issue.
  6. ExportExport BOQ, save as PDF, and send it. Export is part of the Pro licence; everything before it is free.

Price a real job and export the result.

Free on 2 projects, with no sign-up. Export when you are convinced.