The Engineering Desk / Module 02
The estimating ladder
Order of cost, elemental plan to NRM, measured BOQ — one lineage rather than three files, with every movement between stages explained.
- Cost manager
- Estimator
On this desk. The question that ends careers is "why is the tender sum 14% above the approved budget?" It has a good answer or a bad one depending entirely on whether each stage was reconciled to the one before it while the work was fresh.
The stages
Preliminary estimate / order of cost
Functional-unit and area-rate estimating with stated accuracy and exclusions, benchmarked to delivered projects rather than to memory.
NRM elemental cost plan
Elemental development to NRM with allowances, risk and preliminaries carried explicitly — the stage where value engineering can be targeted rather than negotiated.
Measured BOQ
Bill authored on the libraries with measurement sheets behind every quantity, ready to be issued as a tender document with its rate analyses.
Reconciliation between stages
Every difference itemised as design change, quantity refinement, rate movement, scope addition or allowance release — so movement is explained, not defended.
What it produces
- Issued cost plan per stage, dated and sourced
- Movement statement between any two stages
- Tender BOQ with measurement and analysis annexures
What it will not allow
- A stage that does not reconcile to its predecessor
- Editing an issued cost plan
- A quantity with no measurement behind it