Module 05
Construction bid comparison and leveling
Upload subcontractor proposals as PDF, Excel or CSV, normalize them into comparable line items, and see coverage gaps, exclusion risk and price spread side by side.
The low bid is usually the one missing something
Bid leveling is the least automated task in preconstruction and the one with the largest downside. Proposals arrive in every format imaginable — a scanned one-page PDF, a spreadsheet with its own line structure, an email with a lump sum. Somebody retypes them into a comparison sheet, and the exclusions in the fine print never make it into the columns.
The exclusions are where the money is. "Excludes permits." "Excludes rock excavation." "Price good 15 days." Those lines decide the real cost of a bid.
How leveling works here
Import anything
PDF, Excel and CSV proposals are read and normalized into structured line items with descriptions, quantities and prices.
Coverage check
Each proposal is compared against the trade scope sheet to show what is covered, what is missing and what nobody bid.
Exclusion analysis
Exclusions, qualifications and assumptions are pulled out of the proposal text and surfaced as risk items instead of footnotes.
Price leveling
Comparable line items are placed side by side so the spread reflects scope-adjusted price rather than formatting differences.
The output is a buyout decision, not a spreadsheet
The comparison shows where each bidder sits, what each one left out, and what the gap costs to cover. That turns a leveling exercise into a defensible recommendation you can hand to an owner: this bidder is lowest, here is what they excluded, here is the adjusted number.
Frequently asked
- What if the proposal is a scanned PDF?
- Scanned proposals are read as text and normalized; the extracted line items are shown for your review before they enter the comparison.
- Do I need a scope sheet first?
- It is not required, but coverage checking is far stronger when there is a defined scope to compare against — that is what the scope module produces.
See it on your own drawing set
Create an account, upload a set, and run review, takeoff and scope on a project you are pricing now.