Bids are lost on the lines nobody remembered
A bid that is too high loses the job. A bid that is too low wins it and then costs you money for six months, and it is almost never the unit rates that did the damage — it is a line that was never on the sheet. Mobilization. Disposal. The trip charge on a site forty minutes out. Inspection re-tests. Site protection. Every one of them gets paid for whether or not it was bid.
That is what the preloaded sheets on this site are for. Across the 26 worked examples here there are 188 line items, of which 184 are distinct descriptions — a de-duplicated checklist of the things trades actually bill for, assembled from our own trade sheets rather than from anybody’s cost database. Read the neighbouring trade sheets before you submit and you are checking your scope against 184 named lines instead of against memory. The quantities and rates attached to them are editable sample values, deliberately not price guidance: what is transferable is which lines exist, not what they cost in your market.
Split materials and labor before you total anything
Bids get compared line against line, and a single blended lump invites the reviewer to assume the worst about what is inside it. Splitting the sheet into materials and labor does three things: it lets a reviewer see that your number is built rather than guessed, it lets you re-price one side when a supplier moves without touching the other, and it makes your own post-job review possible — you cannot learn whether you underbid labor if labor never had its own subtotal. The builder above keeps both section subtotals live as you type.
Markup then goes on top as a percentage of the subtotal, not smuggled into rates. If you are unsure what percentage to carry — or you have been quoting a markup and calling it a margin — read markup vs margin before you submit. The two are not the same number and the gap is your profit.
Write the exclusions before you write the price
Exclusions are the cheapest insurance in construction and they take four minutes. Name what is outside the scope in plain words — engineering and design, unsuitable soils, rock, abatement, utility charges, landscaping, anything an inspector might add — and put them on the document, not in the covering email. The sample notes field above is already filled with a working exclusions list you can edit down to your job.
Then hold the line after award. Scope added later is not a favour and it is not a revision to the bid: it is a change order, priced and signed before the work happens. If you want the method behind the number rather than the document, how to estimate construction jobs covers takeoff, unit rates and contingency, and the construction estimate template is the non-competitive version of this sheet.
Construction bid template FAQ
What is the difference between a bid and an estimate?
A bid is a priced offer submitted in competition, usually against documents someone else drew and on a deadline someone else set. An estimate is your own working number for a client who came to you. The arithmetic is identical; the exposure is not, because a bid is normally held open for a stated period and awarded as-is. Set the document type to Bid in the builder above and the PDF is headed BID rather than ESTIMATE.
What has to be in a construction bid?
A line-item breakdown of the work, materials and labor separated so the reviewer can see your cost basis, your markup, the validity period, and — the part most bids skip — a written exclusions list. The exclusions are what protect you when the award letter arrives assuming you covered engineering, soils remediation, or the utility company's charges.
Should I show markup as a separate line on a bid?
Show it as its own field rather than burying it in line rates. Burying markup destroys your own cost record: when a material jumps you can no longer re-price that one line without unpicking the profit hidden inside it. The bid above carries markup as a separate percentage applied to the subtotal for exactly that reason.
Is this bid template free?
Yes. Build the bid and download the PDF with no account, no trial, and no card. Free PDFs carry one small credit line at the foot; the optional Pro upgrade removes it.
Can I use it for a subcontractor bid as well as a general contractor bid?
Yes. A sub bid is usually the same sheet with a narrower scope and a longer exclusions note — the sections that belong to other trades are what you exclude. Turn the materials/labor split off if your scope is labor-only.
How long should a construction bid stay open?
Whatever the invitation demands, and no longer. The template prints a validity date at the top, defaulting to 30 days out, so the offer has a stated end rather than being open forever. On volatile material packages, shorten it and say so in the notes.