Software · BOQ & Estimation

BOQ software — bill of quantities online with IS-code items

This is free BOQ software that runs inside your browser: pick an item of work, give it the dimensions, and CivilOS returns the quantity, the material breakdown and a priced line you can put in front of a client. It is written for Indian practice — site engineers, contractors, PMC staff and departmental estimators who need a bill a checker can verify line by line, not a spreadsheet nobody can trace. Nothing to install, nothing to licence.

What you can do

Feature	What it does	Export
IS-code item catalogue	Brickwork, plaster, paint, tiling, PCC and RCC concrete, excavation, reinforcement, shuttering, doors and windows, POP/putty and a custom item — each asking only for the dimensions it needs.	Excel · CSV · PDF
Material breakdown	Bricks, cement bags at 0.0347 m³ per 50 kg, sand, aggregate and steel at 7850 kg/m³, with wet-to-dry factors of 1.33 mortar, 1.30 plaster, 1.54 nominal-mix concrete.	Excel · CSV
Rate resolution	Price a line from a schedule of rates, from your market rates, or by typing the rate. The source is shown, so nobody guesses where a number came from.	Excel · PDF
CPWD DSR 2023	3,047 published items shipped as data, plus State PWD schedules and your own rate sets.	Excel
Cost factors	Area, escalation and lead applied at pricing time, never written back into the stored rate.	Excel · PDF
Abstract of cost	The section-wise summary a client reads first: totals per section, contingency, grand total.	Excel · CSV · PDF
Revisions	Freeze the bill as a snapshot; compare later bills with each change split into quantity effect and rate effect.	Excel · PDF
Estimate pack	General abstract, technical report, abstract of cost, BOQ and consolidation — the bound set an authority signs.	PDF · Excel
RA bill	The running account bill for interim payment, from the same measurements.	Excel · PDF
Professional Excel	Section → sub-head → item, with every roll-up written as a live formula and remarks carrying the basis of each quantity.	.xlsx

How it fits an Indian workflow

An Indian bill has to survive a specific journey: a consultant prepares it, a department checks it, a tender prices it, and a bill clerk pays against it. Each step wants the same figure expressed differently, so CivilOS keeps one set of numbers and renders four documents from it.

Quantities follow ordinary IS-code practice — brick counts from the nominal brick volume with a 10 mm joint (IS 2212), nominal mixes from IS 456 for M7.5 to M25 with design mixes above that, and reinforcement weights from d²/162 rather than from anybody's estimate. Rates come from CPWD DSR 2023 shipped as data, a State PWD SOR you load, or a market rate you have negotiated. A unit mismatch between the item and the schedule line refuses the match instead of quietly pricing metres against cubic metres — the commonest way a bill goes wrong by a factor of ten.

Contingency is applied as a percentage on the sub-total the way a departmental estimate expects, and the estimate pack produces the general abstract, technical report and consolidation a sanctioning authority asks for — because an authority is not handed "a BOQ", it is handed a bound set.

Line amount = quantity × rate × (area factor × escalation factor × lead factor)
Estimate total = Σ section totals + contingency% × sub-total

How to prepare a BOQ in CivilOS

Open the BOQ tab and choose a project. Everything is saved in the browser, so a refresh does not lose the bill.
Add items. Pick an item of work, enter dimensions, grade, mortar ratio and wastage; the quantity and material breakdown appear immediately.
Or pull in a take-off. Rows measured in the Quantity Survey module push straight into the bill instead of being retyped.
Set the rate source — DSR 2023, a State PWD SOR, your own set, or market rates — and set the area, escalation and lead factors once in the Cost Estimator.
Set contingency and read the abstract view first, to see whether the shape of the estimate looks right before you look at any single line.
Freeze a revision at a milestone such as tender issue, so later bills are compared against a fixed document rather than a moving target.
Build the estimate pack if the bill is going for sanction: name the sub-works, fill the technical report details, assign each line to a sub-work.
Export the Excel workbook, copy CSV, or print to PDF — and share the file straight from a phone if you are at site.

What CivilOS does not do

No structural analysis or design. There is no solver of the ETABS or STAAD type. CivilOS bills what your designer has decided; it does not decide member sizes, grades or reinforcement.
No MEP calculation. No load, duct or pipe sizing engine. MEP work can be drafted with symbols and discipline layers and billed as items, but the sizing comes from an MEP engineer.
No 4D or 5D simulation. The bill does not animate against the programme; the Project Scheduler runs CPM separately and the two are not cost-loaded together.
Rates are only as current as the schedule you load. DSR 2023 is a 2023 document — verify the applicable schedule and its correction slips yourself.
No official standing. CivilOS produces documents in the government format; it is not a departmental system and carries no sanction. A licensed engineer must check and sign.
AI-read drawings are drafts. When CivilOS reads quantities from an uploaded drawing it will not invent heights it cannot see, and every row is meant to be checked before it is billed.

Where a browser BOQ tool fits

Desktop estimating packages in this category are typically bought by organisations that need multi-user rate libraries, audited approval chains, ERP integration and a support contract behind the number. That is a real requirement on a large contract, and a browser tool does not replace the governance those systems provide.

What a free browser tool is good at is the rest of the work: the site engineer who needs a priced bill for a meeting tomorrow, the small consultancy without a licence budget, the student learning what an abstract of cost contains, the contractor checking a variation statement on a phone at site. CivilOS is built for that end of the market, and is honest about being a preparation and checking tool rather than a system of record.

Open the BOQ & Estimation module free → IS-code items, DSR rates, Excel export

Frequently asked questions

Is this BOQ software really free?
Yes. CivilOS runs in your browser with no installation and no licence. AI-assisted features, such as reading quantities out of an uploaded drawing, are subject to fair-use limits; the BOQ arithmetic, rate lookups and exports are not.

Can I export the BOQ to Excel?
Yes — a formatted .xlsx divided into section, sub-head and item, in which every roll-up and the contingency line is a live Excel formula rather than a pasted number. You can also copy the bill as CSV or print it to PDF.

Does it use CPWD DSR rates?
Yes. The Cost Estimator ships CPWD DSR 2023 as data — 3,047 items — alongside State PWD schedules, market rates and typed rates. Area, escalation and lead factors are applied at pricing time, so the stored rate stays the published rate.

What is the difference between a BOQ and an abstract of cost?
The BOQ is the itemised list — description, unit, quantity, rate, amount. The abstract of cost is the section-wise summary a client or sanctioning authority reads first, with contingency and the grand total. CivilOS renders both from the same data.

Can I track revisions and variations to the bill?
Yes. Freeze the bill as a snapshot — the tender bill, say — and compare any later bill against it. Each changed line splits into a quantity effect priced at the old rate and a rate effect on the new quantity, which is the decomposition a variation statement has to defend.

Does CivilOS design or analyse the structure behind the quantities?
No. It does quantities, rates, billing and detailing. There is no structural analysis or design solver of the ETABS or STAAD type, and no MEP sizing engine. Member sizes, grades and reinforcement must come from your designer's drawings.

Do I need to install anything or create an account?
No installation — CivilOS opens in an ordinary browser on a laptop or phone and can be installed as a PWA. An account is only needed for the Team Workspace, where projects are shared with colleagues and clients.

Draft for checking. A bill produced here is a preparation document. Quantities, rates and the applicable schedule must be verified, and the estimate signed off, by a licensed engineer before it is issued, tendered or paid against.