
Performing Construction Quantity Survey
A construction QS is about measuring items
on drawings to identify how many resources (material, labor, and equipment) are
needed to complete a job.
Why
QSs Are Necessary for Construction Projects?
Generating extremely accurate construction
estimates for construction work is crucial for success. A rough estimate leaves
with extra material to pay for them, which could result in cash flow.
Who
Is Responsible for Completing a Construction QS?
In large construction contraction
companies, often a billing and tendering department shares responsibility for
QS and progress invoicing compilations.
In smaller companies, until it’s feasible
to hire more staff, the owner or a single estimator will handle all QSs, but
this practice is unsustainable for the long term if the business aims for
substantial growth.
Material Take-off
When there are material QSs, which involve performing measurements and applying formulas to determine how much material is needed. Most trades also perform material QSs. Some examples include measuring:
- Running meter for installing tile skirting, window sills, electrical cables, etc.
- Surface area (square meter) for
installing flooring, application of plaster, paints, or pouring concrete grade
slabs.
- Volume (cubic meter) for civil
and site work such as excavation or pouring concrete slabs or walls.
Quantity survey results
in the exact amount of materials needed for construction.
Material QSs require assigning items and
assemblies to measurements so that it can calculate quantities based on how
materials are packaged, e.g. for 1 cum of concrete, you would need 7 bags of
concrete, 1200 Kgs of coarse aggregates, 800 kg of fine aggregates, 125 lts of
water.
The Real Purpose of a QS in Construction
The most common mistakes that happen in the
QS process come down to missing deadlines and inaccurate measurements which
leads to improper invoicing.
The QS is just one part of the
preconstruction process, leading up to creating an estimate and proposal. The
objective of performing QSs is to create a clear picture of the cost of
materials needed for a construction job. It aims to determine non-material
costs, like labor hours, overhead, equipment requirements, and other indirect
costs. The construction estimate is where all of these costs together are
applied to get a total project cost.
How
to Speed up QS process and Progress Invoice (Running Bills) cycle
QSs is done usually in excel. This is
time-consuming and has more chances of human error. The time crunch of using
excel means that invoices are compiled late.
Using a cloud-based QS method eliminates
these drawbacks. Such tools for QSs offer substantial benefits such as:
- One single database of
quantities
- Up to 10 times faster
compilation of measurements
- Digital storage of information
for easy access
- Simplified collaboration of
data among team members
- Ability to work from more than
one device or location
- Reduced rework and manual data
entry
- Higher levels of accuracy in
measurements
With the right software tools, digital QSs
set up for more success during estimating by allowing to seamlessly create a
bill of materials for suppliers, incorporate labor and materials using
pre-built and customizable libraries. Apart from this digital QS tool that
offers a bid calendar that allows understanding which bids each team member is
working on at a given time, what’s their workload, also it allows export data
from your digital QS platform to determine the types of jobs that bring in the
most profit so can help make decisions about projects to seek out or bid on.
What Happens after the Construction QS?
When all measurements are finalized, it’s
time to create an invoice. This is where an invoice can be generated by the
QS’s measurement sheet linked with Bill of Quantity (BoQ) items. We generate an
invoice and provide it to the client in the format they prefer E.g., excel,
PDF, or online access to invoice for reviewing details.
Using Cloud QS and Progress Billing Software
Cloud QS software will make the QS process faster, smoother, and more accurate. It also provides better security with Access from any device, any time, and helps to Reduced rework
This will transform the way company does preconstruction and can be the catalyst for better growth and increased profits.
For this, you can try the most flexible
running bill and estimating platform
https://sq-feet.com/
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