Why split labour and material?

When you supply the material, or compare supply-and-fix bids, you need to see what each bidder charges for the work itself. One blended rate hides it.

Is this for labour-only subcontracts?

Yes, and for supply-and-fix packages where you want the split visible. Leave the material column empty on fixing-only lines.

Can I price by the man-day?

Yes. The labour-supply lines are measured per man-day for skilled and general labour.

Can I import it into VEXORS?

Yes. Import the file and the rows become the lines your subcontractors price.

What is the difference between a labour rate and a material rate?

The material rate is what the bidder pays to buy the goods for that line: blocks, cement, tiles, cable. The labour rate is what it costs to install them: the trade's time and site overhead for that item. Adding the two gives the total rate, and the total rate times the quantity gives the amount.

Why does the same blockwork item appear twice in the sample?

Row D.1 is supply and fix: the bidder buys the blocks and lays them. Row D.2 is fixing only: you supply the blocks and the bidder prices just the labour to lay them. Carrying both lets you tender either scope from the same BoQ, depending on what you are buying that trade for.

How do I decide between labour-only and supply-and-fix?

Supply-and-fix is simpler to manage: one bidder, one rate, one point of responsibility if the material is wrong. Labour-only makes sense when you already hold a supply agreement for the material, or buying it centrally saves more than a second interface costs you. Mark the decision on the BoQ line, not in a side conversation.

What counts as a man-day?

One worker for one working day, priced by trade or skill level: general labour, mason, steel fixer, and so on. It suits work that is hard to measure by quantity, such as site clean-up, material handling or standby labour, where the buyer is really renting time rather than buying a finished item.

Can a bidder leave the material column blank?

Yes, on a fixing-only line, where the material is supplied by others. On a supply-and-fix line a blank material rate in the returned file usually means the bidder missed the column, not that the material is free, so check the file before you send it on as a tender.

Does splitting the rate change the total price?

No. Material rate plus labour rate still equals the total rate, and total rate times quantity still equals the amount. The split adds information; it does not add or remove cost. What changes is that you can see why two bidders reach the same total by two different routes, once you open their returned files side by side.

Do I need a paid plan to use this template?

No. The file is free for everyone, no account needed. Importing it into VEXORS and splitting a full BoQ into trade packages like this one runs on the Scale plan, from $49.5 per user a month in the first year, billed annually, renewing at $64.5 from the second year. Subcontractors always respond free.

Is there an Arabic version of this labour and material BoQ template?

Yes. The Arabic download is a genuine Arabic workbook, not a translated header row: sections, columns, units and the man-day lines are all in Arabic and laid out right to left. Both files carry the same formulas, so a BoQ built in either language imports into a request identically.

Free template

A BoQ template that splits every rate into material and labour

Material rate, labour rate, total rate and amount on every line, so you see what a bidder charges for the work and what for the goods. Built for labour-only packages and for supply-and-fix, in English and Arabic.

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Download the free labour and material BoQ template

Real .xlsx files in English and Arabic, with formulas in place.

What is a labour and material BoQ?

A labour and material BoQ prices each line in two parts instead of one: a material rate for the goods and a labour rate for the work to install them, with a total rate and an amount calculated from both. It suits labour-only subcontracts, where a bidder supplies only the work, and supply-and-fix packages, where the same rate has to cover materials as well. Splitting the rate is what lets a buyer see where a bidder's price actually sits, instead of reading one blended number that could hide either a thin labour charge or an inflated material cost.

What's inside

Four price columns on every line: material rate, labour rate, total rate and amount, with the formulas in place

Twenty items across blockwork, plaster, tiling, painting, rebar, formwork, concrete, electrical and plumbing points, ceilings, joinery and waterproofing

Supply-and-fix and fixing-only lines side by side, so the scope of each rate is written down

Labour-supply lines by the man-day, for skilled and general labour

A summary that totals material and labour separately

MaterialLabourTotal

Material plus labour equals the total rate, and the total rate multiplied by the quantity equals the amount, on every line, before a bidder types a single number.

See the split, not just the total

A blended rate hides whether a bidder is pricing thin labour and rich materials, or the other way round. Splitting the rate puts both numbers in front of you on every line, before you commit to a total you cannot take apart later.

Compare supply-and-fix and labour-only fairly

Two subcontractors quoting different scopes are not really competing. Carrying supply-and-fix and fixing-only as separate line types means every bidder prices the same defined scope, so the comparison means what it looks like it means.

Price labour the way the site actually buys it

General labour and skilled trades are often bought by the day, not by the item. Man-day lines give that labour a proper rate and a proper total, instead of folding it into a lump sum nobody can check.

A sample of real rows

Five rows out of twenty. These carry the labour-and-material split furthest, including the two blockwork rows priced two different ways.

Item	Description	Unit	Quantity
D.1	Supply and fix 200 mm solid concrete blockwork in cement mortar 1:4	m2	620
D.2	Fixing only, concrete blockwork, material supplied by others	m2	620
D.5	Fixing only, ceramic or porcelain floor tiles, material supplied by others	m2	410
D.8	Rebar fixing labour only: cut, bend and tie in position, steel supplied by others	tonne	38
D.19	General labour supply, per man-day, site clean-up and material handling	man-day	120

D.1m2 · 620
Supply and fix 200 mm solid concrete blockwork in cement mortar 1:4
D.2m2 · 620
Fixing only, concrete blockwork, material supplied by others
D.5m2 · 410
Fixing only, ceramic or porcelain floor tiles, material supplied by others
D.8tonne · 38
Rebar fixing labour only: cut, bend and tie in position, steel supplied by others
D.19man-day · 120
General labour supply, per man-day, site clean-up and material handling

Rows D.1 and D.2 price the same blockwork two ways: complete, or labour only when you already supply the blocks and the mortar. Compare them and the difference between the two lines is entirely the material rate.

Inside the sheet

What the material and labour columns actually tell you

Supply-and-fix vs fixing-only

Two ways to price the same wall, side by side

Row D.1 in the sample is supply and fix: the bidder buys the blocks, the cement and the mortar, and lays them. Row D.2 is the same 200 mm blockwork fixing only, with the material supplied by others. Carrying both as separate line types, rather than one item and a note in the margin, means a bidder cannot price the wrong scope by mistake, and a buyer can tender either version of the same trade from one file. Which one you send out is a real decision: supply-and-fix is simpler to manage, fixing-only makes sense when you already hold a material supply agreement and want to buy the labour on its own.

Every line marked supply-and-fix or fixing-only, never left to the description alone
Material rate left blank on a fixing-only line, so nothing is priced twice
The same trade tendered either way from one file
A bidder cannot quietly swap scope and still look like the low bid

Reading the files that come back

Three returned files, the same total, three different bets

Three subcontractors send back the same file, each landing on the identical total rate for a line: 50. Open the three returned workbooks side by side and the number stops being the whole story: one bidder carries most of it in labour, betting on a fast crew; another carries it in material, guarding against a price rise on steel or cement; a third splits it down the middle. The blended total shows none of this on its own. Read the material and labour columns of each file together, and the same figure starts to say who is exposed to a material swing, who is betting on productivity, and which line is worth a question before you sign.

Material rate and labour rate compared file by file, not just the total column
A thin material rate on a supply-and-fix line is worth a question before award
A high labour rate can mean a faster crew, or an inflated one
Rate patterns repeated across a bidder's own file point to how they price, not just one line

Labour by the man-day

Skilled and general labour, priced the way the site pays it

Not every line has a quantity you can measure in square metres or tonnes. Site clean-up, material handling and standby labour are bought by time, so the template carries them as man-day lines: one rate for one worker for one working day, split by skill level between general labour and a named trade. Pricing this properly stops a subcontractor folding an open-ended labour allowance into the rate of an unrelated item, where it cannot be checked or challenged later. It also lets you compare man-day rates across bidders directly, the same way you compare a rate for concrete or blockwork.

General and skilled labour priced separately, by the man-day
Site clean-up and material handling carried on their own line, not folded into another rate
A man-day rate compares directly across every bidder
Keeps open-ended labour allowances out of rates that should be fixed

On VEXORS

One rate a line, every bidder, ranked automatically

Import the file once and every row becomes a line each subcontractor prices with a single rate, in a browser or on a phone: the supply-and-fix and fixing-only lines stay separate lines, so the scope behind each rate is still written down and every bidder is compared like for like. A bidder can add a note to a line, the material and labour behind the number, but the rate itself stays one figure. Any line left unpriced is counted and priced back in at your estimate or the median of the other bids, and every rate with three or more prices is checked against the median and flagged with its ratio where it is far out of line.

Every imported row becomes one line every bidder prices; supply-and-fix and fixing-only stay apart
A bidder can note the material and labour behind a rate; the rate itself stays one figure
Unpriced lines are counted and priced back in before totals are ranked
A rate far from the median is flagged with its ratio, for you to question before award
AI evaluates every bid against your criteria and recommends; the award and its approvals stay yours

Emailed vs tendered

What happens after you press send

Same BoQ, two different processes once it leaves your outbox.
	Emailed as a spreadsheet	Sent as a tender on VEXORS
The rate on each line	Bidders type over the same cells in five different copies; formatting and formulas drift from file to file	Every bidder prices the same protected line once; the formula behind it cannot be broken
Supply-and-fix vs fixing-only	Easy to price the wrong scope if a bidder skims the description	The scope is fixed on the line; a bidder cannot price the wrong one by mistake
Man-day labour lines	Often arrive as one figure in the covering email, not a rate	Priced on their own line, man-days times the day rate, inside the total automatically
Comparing bidders	You copy five files into one sheet by hand and hope the columns still line up	Bids land already lined up on your BoQ; the comparison builds itself
Spotting an unusual rate	One number per item, and a guess about which bidder is exposed	Every rate with three or more prices checked against the median, flagged with its ratio if it is out of line
Version control	Whoever emails last, or loudest, gets read first	One current version; every bidder prices the same revision
The record	Scattered across email threads and desktop copies	Kept with the tender: every rate, every revision, every named approval

The rate on each line
Emailed as a spreadsheet
Bidders type over the same cells in five different copies; formatting and formulas drift from file to file
Sent as a tender on VEXORS
Every bidder prices the same protected line once; the formula behind it cannot be broken
Supply-and-fix vs fixing-only
Emailed as a spreadsheet
Easy to price the wrong scope if a bidder skims the description
Sent as a tender on VEXORS
The scope is fixed on the line; a bidder cannot price the wrong one by mistake
Man-day labour lines
Emailed as a spreadsheet
Often arrive as one figure in the covering email, not a rate
Sent as a tender on VEXORS
Priced on their own line, man-days times the day rate, inside the total automatically
Comparing bidders
Emailed as a spreadsheet
You copy five files into one sheet by hand and hope the columns still line up
Sent as a tender on VEXORS
Bids land already lined up on your BoQ; the comparison builds itself
Spotting an unusual rate
Emailed as a spreadsheet
One number per item, and a guess about which bidder is exposed
Sent as a tender on VEXORS
Every rate with three or more prices checked against the median, flagged with its ratio if it is out of line
Version control
Emailed as a spreadsheet
Whoever emails last, or loudest, gets read first
Sent as a tender on VEXORS
One current version; every bidder prices the same revision
The record
Emailed as a spreadsheet
Scattered across email threads and desktop copies
Sent as a tender on VEXORS
Kept with the tender: every rate, every revision, every named approval

Who this template is for

Main contractors tendering labour-only trades

Where the material is already on order or supplied centrally, and the package is really just buying a crew's time against a measured scope.

Developers running supply-and-fix packages

Comparing bidders who each buy their own material, and wanting the rates in the file itself to show whether a low total is coming from the goods or the work.

Subcontractors pricing their own labour and supply-and-fix work

A ready structure to quote either scope, and to show exactly what sits behind a total rate before it goes out to a main contractor.

Quantity surveyors levelling bids by rate, not just by total

A rate-by-rate view across five bidders makes an unusual number visible long before it becomes a variation claim.

Using the template

How to use it

Decide who supplies what.

Mark each line supply-and-fix or fixing-only before it goes out; that decides what the rate covers.

Read both rates.

A low total with a high labour rate and a thin material rate tells you where the bidder expects to make the money.

Send it as a tender.

Import the file into VEXORS and send it to your labour and trade subcontractors.

Let the bids come back levelled.

Every subcontractor prices the same imported lines with a single rate each. Any line left unpriced is counted and priced back in, and a rate far from the median is flagged with its ratio, so the ranked totals are ready the moment the deadline closes.

Labour and material BoQ template FAQ

Tender your next package on VEXORS

Import this BoQ, invite your subcontractors, and compare every bid on the same lines.