Excel comparison sheet vs VEXORS
Most construction tenders are still levelled in a spreadsheet, and for a small package that works. Here is where the sheet stops, what VEXORS does instead, and a free sheet if Excel is still the right tool.
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What is a bid comparison sheet?
A bid comparison sheet is the spreadsheet used to level tenders: one row for each BoQ item, one column for each bidder, and a total at the foot of every column. It is still how most construction bids are compared, and it works when every bidder prices the same file and someone checks what each blank cell means. Bid evaluation software does the same job inside the tender itself: bids arrive on your BoQ, gaps are priced back in, rates and terms are checked, and every bid is scored with the reasons written down.
What each one does
An Excel comparison sheet
Compares the numbers you type into it. Every bid is re-keyed into your layout, and the gaps, exclusions, terms and clarifications are handled by hand, outside the sheet.
VEXORS
Receives every bid in the structure of your BoQ, prices the gaps back in, flags rates and exceptions to your terms, and has AI score each bid against your criteria with the reasons written out. The award stays with you.
No re-keying
Bidders price your BoQ in a browser, so every rate lands on the right item, in your structure. Nothing is typed twice, and no row slips.
Levelled, not just lined up
Unpriced items are priced back in, declared lump sums are told apart from silent gaps, and the total you compare is the levelled one.
Defensible months later
Scores, reasons, revisions, answers and named approvals stay with the tender, so the award can be explained without anyone's inbox.
Five places a comparison sheet goes wrong
- 1Re-keying. Bids arrive as PDFs and in each bidder's own layout. Every rate typed into the sheet is a chance to misread an item or shift a row, and the mistake is invisible in the total.
- 2Blank, zero or included. An empty cell can mean not priced, priced at nothing, or covered somewhere else. The sheet cannot tell them apart, so the lowest total is often the bid that left the most out.
- 3Terms outside the sheet. Exclusions, qualifications, advance payment and retention sit in cover letters. Until each one is priced back in, you are comparing bids for different work on different terms.
- 4Revisions and questions in the inbox. An addendum that reached three bidders out of five, or an answer given to one bidder only, leaves the bids priced on different information. The sheet shows none of it.
- 5No memory. Months later, when the client, an auditor or your own management asks why a bid won, the reasoning is in one person's file, if it was written down at all.
What VEXORS does instead
Every bid arrives on your BoQ.
Import the BoQ once, with its sections, items, units and quantities, and attach the drawings and the specification. Each bidder prices those items in a browser or on a phone, and the rates land on your lines, in your order. Nobody copies a rate from a PDF into your sheet, so the comparison starts from the numbers the bidders actually sent.
- Your sections, items, units and quantities, imported once
- Bidders price in a browser or on a phone, free
- Every rate on the right item, in your order
- The comparison exports to Excel whenever you want it
Gaps priced back in, lump sums told apart.
A blank cell stops being a guess. VEXORS counts the items each bidder left unpriced and prices them back in at your estimate or at the median of the other bids, so every total covers the same scope. A section priced as a declared lump sum counts as priced; only silent gaps are added. In the worked example, the lowest bid as submitted is 41% under the estimate and ends last once its 38 unpriced items are priced back in.
- Unpriced items counted for every bidder
- Priced back in at your estimate or the median of the other bids
- A declared lump sum counts as priced; a silent gap does not
- Bids ranked on the levelled total, not the total as submitted
Rates, terms and answers checked on every bid.
A spreadsheet shows a number; it cannot say whether the number makes sense. VEXORS flags any rate far outside the other bids on items with at least three prices, lists each bidder's exceptions to your terms and costs the ones that carry money, such as a larger advance payment, and checks each bidder's technical answers against each other and against its prices. AI then scores every bid against your criteria, out of 100, with the reason beside each score.
- Rates far from the median of the other bids flagged, with the ratio
- Exceptions to your terms listed per bidder, costed where they carry money
- Answers checked against each other and against the prices
- Every bid scored out of 100 against your criteria, with the reasons
Revisions, answers and the award, on the record.
An addendum reaches every bidder at once, and a bid priced on an old revision is flagged. A question is answered once and the answer reaches every bidder. When you award, the scores, the reasons and the named approvals stay with the tender, so the decision can be explained to a client, an auditor or your own management long after the tender closed.
- Addenda reach every bidder at once
- A bid priced on an old revision is flagged
- Questions answered once, for every bidder
- Scores, reasons and named approvals kept with the tender
The same tender, two ways
Getting the bids onto one BoQ
- Excel comparison sheet
- Re-keyed from each bidder's own format
- VEXORS
- Every bid arrives in the structure of your BoQ
Unpriced items
- Excel comparison sheet
- Found by eye, priced back in only if you build the formulas
- VEXORS
- Counted and priced back in at your estimate or the median of the other bids
Lump sums
- Excel comparison sheet
- Hard to tell apart from a gap
- VEXORS
- A declared lump sum counts as priced. Only silent gaps are added
Rates out of line
- Excel comparison sheet
- Highlighted if someone sets up the formatting
- VEXORS
- Flagged against the other bids on every item with at least three prices
Exceptions to your terms
- Excel comparison sheet
- Read out of each cover letter
- VEXORS
- Listed per bidder: accepted, accepted with exceptions, and what the exceptions are
Technical answers
- Excel comparison sheet
- Scored by hand on a separate sheet
- VEXORS
- Scored out of 100 against your criteria, with the reason beside each score
Contradictions
- Excel comparison sheet
- Caught if someone notices
- VEXORS
- A bidder's answers checked against each other and against its prices
Revisions
- Excel comparison sheet
- Sent by email and tracked by whoever sent them
- VEXORS
- Reach every bidder. A bid priced on the old revision is flagged
Clarifications
- Excel comparison sheet
- Answered bidder by bidder, by email
- VEXORS
- Answered once, to every bidder
Why the award was made
- Excel comparison sheet
- In the file and the inbox of whoever ran the tender
- VEXORS
- Scores, reasons and named approvals kept with the tender
Cost
- Excel comparison sheet
- Free, plus the hours
- VEXORS
- Bidders respond free. The construction workflow runs on the Scale plan
Keep the spreadsheet, or move
Keep the spreadsheet when
- The package has a few dozen items and three or four bidders.
- Every bidder prices your own file, so nothing is re-keyed.
- There is no technical questionnaire to score and no approval to record.
Move to VEXORS when
- Packages run to hundreds of items, or you tender several at once.
- Bids have to be scored on technical answers as well as price.
- Revisions and answers have to reach every bidder, on the record.
- The award needs named approvals and a written reason.
Who moves off the spreadsheet
The quantity surveyor
You level the bids for every package and answer for the numbers. You want every bid on your BoQ, gaps priced back in the same way every time, and no evening lost to re-keying.
The commercial or procurement manager
You sign the award. You want the levelled totals, the exceptions and the scores in one place, and a written reason you can stand behind when the client asks.
The estimator pricing a main tender
You need subcontract prices for each trade before your own deadline. You want them on your BoQ items, levelled, so the price you submit is built on numbers you can defend.
From your spreadsheet to a levelled tender in four steps
Import your BoQ
Bring the BoQ you already have in Excel: sections, items, units and quantities. Attach the drawings and the specification.
Invite your bidders
Send the package to the bidders you already work with. They register free and price your items in a browser.
Read the levelled comparison
Bids arrive on your BoQ with the gaps priced back in, rates and terms checked, and every bid scored with its reasons.
Award, with the reasons kept
Choose the bid, record the approvals, and keep the tender in one place, from revisions to answers. Export to Excel whenever you need it.
Questions about Excel and VEXORS
Get the bid comparison sheet
The Excel file in English and Arabic, with the formulas in place and a sheet on how to use it.
Read next
- Free bid comparison sheet (Excel)Five bidders on one BoQ, gaps priced back in, rates flagged, levelled totals ranked.
- How to level construction bidsThe method step by step, with a worked example of five bids.
- The Bid Levelling Checklist25 exclusions that move a package price, and how to price each one back in.
- Bid evaluation softwareHow VEXORS levels, scores and recommends, with the decision left to you.