Exploring The Problems of Bills of Quantities

Abstract

A bill of Quantities (BQ) is a well-known document in terms of its function and importance in the construction industry. For example, the success of the construction projects will be impacted by the quality of the information supplied in the BQ, including the avoidance of conflicts, overestimation, cost escalation, and profit loss. However, recent research demonstrates that BQ has been criticised for its declining utilisation and effectiveness in building projects, yet only a few studies have addressed the problems. Therefore, using inductive content analysis from thorough literature of 20 papers, this work investigated the problems with BQ. There are five problems with the BQ that have been identified, namely, problems with the accuracy of information, problems with its applicability with procurement methods, problems with the cost of its preparation, problems with the time-consuming nature of its preparation, and its not being fully utilised by the construction team, its inability to relate to everyday projects with the development process, its being misunderstood, its only being utilised during the tendering process, it’s not encouraging input from builders and it’s not representing any information on the reasonable risk. Furthermore, the quantitative content analysis results reveal that problems with the accuracy of information presented in the BQ are the most prevalent fault noted by nearly all of the researchers, and they should be underlined. The purpose of investigating BQ problems is not to replace the use of BQ, but rather to develop and give solutions for BQ from a variety of aspects.