Free templates / Construction

Construction Estimate Template (Excel)

A free Excel estimate for contractors: one line per item of work, grouped by CSI MasterFormat division, priced with your own material, labor and equipment costs, with your markups added to reach the bid total.

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Free, no sign-up. Opens in Excel, Google Sheets and LibreOffice.

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Who uses it, and when

Estimators at general contractors and specialty subcontractors use a sheet like this when the job is too small or too unusual for the company's estimating system, when a bid has to go out from a laptop on site, or when an owner asks for an itemized breakdown in a format they can open.

Owners, developers and quantity surveyors use it the other way round: to check a contractor's estimate line by line against their own quantities, or to build a budget estimate before design is complete. In both cases the value is the same: every number has a quantity, a unit cost and a source next to it.

What is in the file

Estimate: The project block, then one line per item: division, cost code, description, quantity and unit, material cost per unit, labor hours per unit and labor rate, equipment cost per unit or a subcontract lump sum. Material, labor, equipment and line totals compute themselves, and a last column records the sheet or specification section each quantity comes from.
Summary: Direct cost by division, then your rates for general conditions, overhead, profit, contingency, bond and sales tax on materials, and the bid total.
Divisions: The CSI MasterFormat division numbers and titles the Estimate sheet's drop-down uses.
Instructions: How to fill it, step by step.

Column by column

Division: The CSI MasterFormat division the line belongs to, picked from the drop-down. It is what the Summary sheet groups by, so a line without a division shows up in its own row there instead of disappearing.
Cost code: Your company's own code for the item, the one your job costing uses. It lets the estimate become the budget once the job is won.
Description: What is being priced, specific enough that another estimator would measure the same thing: '8 in. CMU wall, grouted 32 in. o.c.', not 'block'.
Quantity and unit: From your takeoff, in the unit the cost is quoted in. Mixing SF and SY or LF and EA on the same item is the classic source of a factor-of-nine error.
Material $/unit: Your supplier's price per unit, delivered, with waste included or noted. Leave sales tax out: the Summary sheet adds it on the materials total.
Labor hours/unit and labor rate: Production rate as hours per unit, and the loaded hourly cost of the crew. Splitting them lets you change a wage without touching productivity.
Equipment $/unit: Owned or rented equipment cost per unit of work. For a lump-sum rental, divide by the quantity or use the subcontract column.
Subcontract $: A lump sum when a trade is priced by a subcontractor rather than by your own crews. Put the bid you are carrying here and the bidder's name in the source column.
Totals: Material, labor, equipment and line totals compute; they are formulas, not inputs.
Source sheet / spec section: Where the quantity was measured and which section governs it: 'A-201, 04 22 00'. This is the column a reviewer uses.

How to use it

Fill the project block: project, client, location, estimator, dates and revision.
List the work one item per line, pick its division and add your cost code.
Enter the quantity from your takeoff and note the sheet or specification section it comes from.
Price each line with your own unit costs, or enter a subcontract lump sum.
On the Summary sheet, enter your markup rates to get the bid total.

Limits

Every cost and rate is empty: they depend on your market, your crews and your suppliers.
Each markup is a rate on the total direct cost (sales tax on the materials total), not compounded. Change the formulas if your company compounds them.
The template prices quantities; it does not measure them. The takeoff is still yours.
MasterFormat is a product of the Construction Specifications Institute; this template uses its division numbers and titles to group lines and is not affiliated with CSI.

A worked example

A 2,400 SF tenant fit-out. Line 1: division 09 Finishes, cost code 09-2900, 'Gypsum board partitions, 3-5/8 in. studs, 5/8 in. type X both sides, to deck', 1,850 SF, material 2.10 per SF, 0.045 labor hours per SF at 68.00 per hour, no equipment. Material total 3,885.00, labor total 5,661.00, line total 9,546.00. Source: A-101 and A-501, 09 21 16.

On the Summary sheet, with direct cost totaling 184,000 for the job, general conditions 8%, overhead 6%, profit 5%, contingency 3%, bond 1.2% and sales tax 7.25% on 61,000 of materials, the markups add 42,688 and the bid total is 226,688.

Mistakes to avoid

Adding markups to each line and again on the Summary: decide where they live and do it once.
Compounding percentages by accident: this template applies each markup to the direct cost. If your company compounds them, change the formulas and say so in the estimate.
Leaving the source column empty. An estimate nobody can trace back to a sheet cannot be checked, and a change order later has nothing to refer to.
Copying unit costs from an old job without checking the date, the location and what the old price included.
Forgetting the lines with no division: the Summary shows them separately so they are not lost, but they should be classified before the bid goes out.

Questions

What should a construction estimate include?

The direct costs of the work (materials, labor, equipment and subcontracts, each from a measured quantity), the project's indirect costs or general conditions, the company's overhead and profit, and where they apply a contingency, bond costs and taxes. This template has a place for each.

Why organize an estimate by CSI MasterFormat division?

MasterFormat is the standard way specifications are organized in North America. Grouping the estimate by the same divisions lets each line be checked against its specification section and matched to the subcontract package that will price it.

What is the difference between general conditions and overhead?

General conditions are indirect costs of one project, such as site supervision, temporary facilities and cleanup. Overhead is the cost of running the company that no single project carries alone, such as the office and administration. The template keeps them as two separate rates.

Where do the quantities come from?

From a takeoff of the drawings: counts, lengths, areas and volumes measured sheet by sheet. The template's last column records where each quantity was measured, so anyone reviewing the estimate can check it.

Does it work in Google Sheets?

It uses standard spreadsheet functions only (SUMIF and N among them), so it opens in Excel, Google Sheets and LibreOffice. Upload the file to Google Drive and open it with Google Sheets.

Should contingency be a percentage or line items?

Both are used. A percentage on the direct cost covers unknowns you cannot itemize; named allowances (rock excavation, an owner-selected finish) are better as their own lines with their own quantities, so they can be tracked and released.

Quantities measured for you

This template prices the quantities you enter. Mirage deploys AI agents that measure them from the plan set, each line traced to the sheet it came from, for your estimators to review before they price it.

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